Med Mal News

A Florida jury has found a South Florida hospital not guilty of false imprisonment after it repatriated one of its longtime patients, an illegal immigrant to the United States, to his native Guatemala. The patient, Luis Jimenez, had been involved in an auto accident that left him with severe brain damage. The drunk driver who hit the vehicle Jimenez was riding in had little insurance, so the victims of the accident were left with almost nothing in compensation. Jimenez's condition was eventually stabilized, and he could have been discharged to an appropriate care facility but because he was uninsured, nursing homes were unwilling to accept him. With no appropriate discharge plan available, Jimenez remained at Martin Memorial Medical Center for several years, toting up more than $1 million in unpaid bills.

The hospital then pursued an unusual solution to its ongoing problem: It obtained an order in 2003 from a Florida probate judge allowing it to privately repatriate its patient. Once the order was issued, the hospital chartered a plane and flew Jimenez to Guatemala. The order was later revoked on the ground that the probate judge did not have proper jurisdiction to decide the immigration matter, nor to give Martin Memorial the authority to privately deport Jimenez ' actions such as these were the sole province of the federal government and its immigration control system.