A Controversy over Jesica...

[Alex]

I don't know all the details, please fill in the ones I have missed.

So far, we have a family that illegally entered the country with a vivacious daughter that needed a heart and lung transplant.

Somehow, she was able to get both a heart and lung transplant while American citizens continued to wait for their turn. The doctors did not match blood type properly, so a second set of heart and lungs was found and transplanted.

Jesica died yesterday. The parents are naturally angry, and a lawsuit is pending.

But recently the insurance industry has stopped covering American citizens who don't own reciprocal type of insurance. If you
get hit by another driver while driving your own car, but you don't have car insurance, you cannot file a claim against the other insurance company because that would mean you are collecting money from an insurance pool that you do not contribute to.

Well, what about Jesica and her family, if they weren't paying into the health care system, should they be allowed to sue, and sue for millions, when they "probably" weren't paying into the system. Should they sue after the use of two lung and hearts that could have gone to American Citizens?

This may sound cold and analytical, so for the record, if you see pictures of Jesica, she looks like a sweet young girl with her whole life ahead of her, and must have gone through so much trauma over the last couple of weeks of her life. (She was 17)

[Beta-Decay]

She died already? That ***** . Last I heard she had major brain damage, but the needed body parts had been found.

I think, if the family sues, the full cost of both sets of parts, and the entire hospital bill should be paid first. Then sue. Yes, the doctors made a mistake, but, since the family had no insurance, they either had no intention to pay, or, they have enough money that they should have been able to pay in cash. Since they were there illegally, I seriously doubt the second option. They had no intention of paying, ever. They were probably going to leave the country the moment Jessica got out of the hospital.

[SHATOUSHKA]

i could care less about this story.

i read it a few days ago on yahoo.

it did nothing for me.

i could go on from here...
about how transplants are blah blah blah...

but i'm getting the distinct feeling this forum
no longer holds significance for shatzy....

[Alex]

no comment.

[SHATOUSHKA]

enough of a comment to post one, it seems

[Beta-Decay]

The family is not going to share ANY of her parts. So, two sets of hearts and lungs have been consumed, and destroyed, and nothing is returned.
So, at least two people have been ****** out of a normal life because of this family. I hope they die a horrible death.

[Alex]

ouch! Her organs failed as she died, so I don't think her organs could have been donated so others could live, although what an amazing turn of events that would have been.

If you see pictures of the girl, then you would feel sad. The family can rationalize suing because it will force the medical industry to review their procedures and in the process may save lives in the future.

The question is, how much money should they get? Should they get millions??? Should a campaign be started to encourage illegals to share their organs should they die, so that if illegals receive from the organ donation system, they also donate into it?

Perhaps illegals already donate and we don't know.

[soulfilms]

the fact that people get millions in compensation is what is ruining health systems. this means that medical indemnity is more and more outrageously expensive and doctors are more concerned about not getting sued than about treating a patient as best they think fit.

getting a driver's licence, there's a part which asks you if you'd donate your organs. before, i had planned to donate but then on the form, it had stuff like donate: (tick box) heart, lung, kidney, cateracts, etc. this made me squirmish and i ended up ticking the not donating anything at all box. although this is horribly selfish and vain (me thinking about how distastful i would look dead without eyes, lungs, heart, etc.) i just couldn't sign away my organs like that.

seventeen is a very young age to die, but some people have terminal illnesses. i sound a little evangelical and preachy but you can't take transplants for granted. there is no 'right' that a transplant will prolong your life. that is only the desired outcome. of course this is a little different with a medical botch up, but surely death is preferable to being a vegetable?


and alex. i'm a little appalled by you placing american lives to be hierarchially superior to jesica's life (where ever she was from).

[Alex]

Why be appalled? I'm simply stating that most American Citizens have paid into the Capitalistic system their whole life via taxes.

There are American Citizens who needed heart and lungs and may have been bypassed to give an illegal resident two sets of hearts and lungs.

I also stated that if you saw video of the girl, you would feel saddened that she died. I also proposed that if illegals donated their organs, then that would equalize the situation.

I think you have an anti-American bias, and you let it overrule you having more of an analytical answer than you provided.

[soulfilms]

i'm still appalled.

just because you are an american citizen, it doesn't necessarily mean you pay taxes. there are plenty of people (wealthy too) who sit around all day trying to work out loopholes to avoid taxes. sometimes, they're called accountants.

so this girl's family are not american citizens.
how are you certain they didn't pay taxes? but let's assume they didn't (as you already have alex). because they're not citizens, they get no benefits either. they get no welfare, etc. because they're not citizens, they have to work in order to survive. these are the people working the most menial jobs with most exploitation.

although i do not know all the particulars, i'm sure doctors gave jesica the organs because they deemed it necessarry to give them to her in order to survive.

ours is a selfish world, alex. if a girl's dying, she and her family aren't going to sit around and wait for it to happen. there's none of this 'after you,' 'no, insist, after you..' gallantry.

i do not have anti-american bias. whatever else, i do not let my sentiments make me biased.