PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla., Feb. 18, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — Rosen Law LLC is representing a patient on a respirator pro-bono, who entered the United States legally, and is unable to obtain medical benefits, but if he entered the United States illegally, and needed emergency Medicaid benefits, he would have received medical benefits.
On June 7, 2022, the patient presently in the Gulf Coast Medical Center, Ft. Myers (the “Hospital”) suffered two strokes and spinal cord injuries. The patient, his wife and two children were visiting their family in Florida on a visitor’s visa, had been admitted to the Hospital where he has been treated and is an in-patient. Because the patient was in the United States legally, he was not eligible for Medicaid benefits.
On January 18, 2023, the Hospital filed a lawsuit in the Circuit Court of the Twentieth Judicial Circuit in and for Lee County, Florida under Case No. 23-CA-000253 to have the patient physically removed from the Hospital.
The Hospital stated in its complaint that the patient is “on a ventilator and is mostly non-communicative”…, “is no longer in need of care at an acute care hospital…, “has no private or governmental benefits to pay for his case”, and “due to his medical, financial and legal condition”… “can only be discharged to his home in Fort Myers, a facility in his country of citizenship, Ecuador, or hospice”.
On February 20, 2023 at 3:00 p.m., a hearing will be held for an order that the Hospital seeks for a “temporary and permanent mandatory injunction compelling” the patient to “accept discharge to his home, to a facility in Ecuador willing to accept him as a patient, or to a hospice…”.
The complaint states “Lee Health is suffering immediate and irreparable harm by the loss of a hospital bed which is needed for someone in need of acute medical care…”. However, during the patient’s occupancy at the Hospital, the occupancy rates for patients at the Gulf Coast Medical Center averaged between 64.4% and 97.4%, and never was at full capacity based on public records.
Gary Rosen, Esq. of Rosen Law LLC, Palm Beach Gardens, Florida is representing the patient and his family.
The Law Office of Elinor Baxter, P.L.L.C., Sarasota, Florida is representing Lee Memorial Health System.
The complaint is available at:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/a5lqgr3zw5l3myd/DROPBOX%20COMPLAINT.pdf?dl=0
CONTACT: Gary Rosen, 516-729-3300
SOURCE Rosen Law LLC
