South Florida Hospital Defends Secretly Deporting Patient

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STUART, Fla. - All sides agree on one thing in the case of a South Florida hospital that secretly repatriated a seriously brain injured patient back to Guatemala.

During the early hours of a steamy July 2003 morning, Martin Memorial Medical Center chartered a private plane and sent Luis Jimenez back to the Central American country without telling his relatives in the U.S. or Guatemala - even as his cousin and legal guardian, Montejo Gaspar, frantically sought to stop the move.

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South Florida Hospital Defends Secretly Deporting Patient

There, things get murky. Gaspar is suing the hospital for essentially deporting Jimenez, who was an illegal immigrant. The hospital, which spent more than $1.5 million on his care over three years, says Jimenez wanted to go home.

Underlying the dispute is the broader question of what Americans expect a hospital to do with a patient who requ...

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