INVASION OF THE BODY PART SNATCHERS
Mary Starrett
February 25, 2003
NewsWithViews.comBy now you've heard that Jesica Santillan , the girl who received the heart-lung transplants at Duke University Medical Center has died.
I'd like you to consider what this high-profile story really means, in terms sure to get me labeled as an uncompassionate conservative.
Jesica's family knew if she stayed in Mexico she would have died without the advanced medical care we take so much for granted here in the United States. So they ran for the border, paying a coyote $5,000 to smuggle them into the land of the free… medical care. (Despite the fact that Jesica had a network of benefactors, don't think the cost of this medical odyssey won't wind up costing taxpayers something)
Free is exactly what countless illegal aliens (the un-P.C. term for those now called "undocumented migrants") can count on once they make it past the border. Once here , Jesica's family placed her name on a waiting list for a heart-lung transplant. Do you have any idea how many Americans are on that list and how many die before getting a crack at ONE set of heart/lungs much less TWO?
Adding insult to injury, transplant protocol denies organs to those who aren't likely to survive the procedure. The criteria is strictly enforced. Those not deemed healthy enough to undergo such surgery are given the thumbs down. Surely, after the first operation Jesica's body couldn't have handled a second go at it. Not only did illegal alien Jesica get the first set of organs, but after it was determined Duke goofed in literally wasting a good set of compatible organs the first time, they miraculously found another set just like that!
At this point I wondered what all those still on the waiting list for ONE heart or ONE set of lungs thought as a second surgery was performed on this patient.
So we have two sets of organs that Americans on that long waiting list were denied. Think that's bad ? Now comes word Jesica's family has refused to donate any of HER organs, including the new heart and lungs. No corneas for the blind or kidneys for someone in renal failure; no skin for burn victims, no liver for some waiting- list- hopeful who's lost hepatic function.
Everything Free In America.
While many are fuming over a situation whereby our nation regularly allows those here illegally to avail themselves of the finest high-tech medical goodies in the world we should note that Jesica's case is by no means unusual. Illegals routinely get free kidney dialysis, chemotherapy and high-risk pregnancy care. While fully 30% of Americans are without health insurance and dread getting sick for fear they wouldn't be able to pay their medical bills, those who've run for the border get the best of care free of charge. Why? because federal law says Americans must pay for illegal's health care costs even when they can't afford their own! I don't have to tell you how much health insurance costs today. Premiums have risen by as much as 50%.That coupled with fewer companies offering it as a benefit has many people reeling from the burden of trying to cover themselves and their families should they get sick. Something illegals don't have to sweat.
While president Bush is advocating amnesty for illegal Mexicans, hospital trauma centers in border states are shutting down because they can't absorb the costs of treating illegals who pay nothing for their care. It's not unusual to wait longer than six hours in an L.A. county emergency room. The hordes of illegals who use the ER as a personal doctor's office as well as to stanch the flow of blood from gunshot wounds and the like, has caused 9 trauma centers in that one county alone to shut down . That means it's a longer distance for you law-abiding (i.e. legal) citizens to get to a trauma center. When you get there there's a good chance your ambulance will be waved off because there's no room inside. Not to get melodramatic here, but we're talking about life and death. Yours. It's not just happening in California. Other border states like Texas and Arizona are feeling the effects as well.
Congressman Jeff Flake (R. Az.), a member of the House Immigration and Border Security Subcommittee recently wrote a letter to President Bush calling his attention to a report that found that border state hospitals spent over $200 million dollars treating illegals in one year.
Flake wrote: " It's bad enough that the federal government is not doing its job at the border, but now we're asking the states to foot the...bill?"
Flake , in asking the feds to reimburse the states for illegal's medical care, didn't go far enough. Instead of asking taxpayers all over the country to chip in, he should have said "Here in Arizona, we won't play doctor anymore. If you're here illegally, GET that not only will you NOT receive free medical care but should you show up at a hospital in this state we'll call the INS and you will be summarily tagged and put on a bus back to Mexico."
Wanna bet that'd solve the problem once word got out? Too bad it won't happen. We just can't bandage the whole world's boo-boos , kiss them and make them better and then and pay for it all. The end result will be an infrastructure that implodes.
Just in case you're not sufficiently engaged, here's a little-known, fun fact to know and tell: Not only are we picking up the tab for illegals once they've made it north' but we're going south of the border and literally picking THEM up as well! Ambulances are regularly dispatched ACROSS the border FROM the United States TO Mexico to BRING "at risk" patients to hospitals here.
Yes, gentle reader, we're going into Mexico to bring people to our already overburdened hospitals.
It's a high stakes jeopardy game and the "category" is "Humanitarian Aid" for BILLIONS, Alex.
Don't think for a minute you're removed from this problem because you don't live in a border state. Every state is at- risk. The last state I'd have figured would be sharing this out-of-control third world invasion is Mississippi. Doesn't fit the picture does it? Well, according to US Census Bureau figures it's the state with the fastest growing immigrant population- up 500% in the last 12 years .
The tab for the illegal goodybag winds up being many billions of dollars when you factor in education, food stamps, transportation vouchers, emergency cash assistance, housing, foster care assistance, and crime. One immigration-reform advocate called this a veritable "sinkhole de Mayo".
You'd have to live in a cave not to see what's happening to our country and our communities because of the astounding lunacy that passes for national policy.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn wrote:
"Only a small crack, but cracks make caves collapse".
© 2003 - Mary Starrett All Rights Reserved
Related Articles:
Mexican Medics Take Sick To US Wash. Times
Trnsplants For Illegals Igniting US Anger WND
Mary Starrett was on televsion for 21 years as a news anchor, morning talk show host and medical reporter. For the last 5 years she hosted a radio program. Telling the truth cost her her broadcasting career so she writes instead of talking these days. E-Mail M123STAR@aol.com
