WTF department:Foreigner Saved from Being Starved and Dehydrated to Death in American Hospital

[Judi Lynn]

Foreigner Saved from Being Starved and Dehydrated to Death in American Hospital
Victim to be Flown to Safety in Peru, where Doctors are Willing to Care for Him

By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman

FORT WORTH, TEXAS, May 22, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A Peruvian man whose American doctors reportedly sought to starve and dehydrate him to death was spared Wednesday after the family alerted the Peruvian media and a pro-life Texas attorney intervened in the case.

According to Peruvian media reports, Jesus Sanchez, 56, had been in a coma for over five months in John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth, Texas, after suffering a heart attack after a soccer game.

After the hospital's board of ethics reviewed his case, his condition was pronounced "irreversible". The hospital announced that it would deprive Sanchez of food and fluids until he died, reported the Peruvian publication El Comercio. His starvation and dehydration would begin within ten days if a transfer could not be arranged to another hospital.

However, according to Lucio Portilla of the Peruvian National Institute of Neurological Sciences, Sanchez was regaining consciousness, and was blinking and swallowing. He told Radio Programs of Peru (RPP) that his hospital was "100%" certain of its willingness to receive Sanchez and care for him.

Although Sanchez and his two children were living in the United States legally, Sanchez had no access to Medicare, and his children had no way to pay for a medical evacuation to Peru, which could cost anywhere from $50,000 to $80,000.

"Since my father became ill I have had to work at night and abandon my pre-university studies. My sister also works in a clothing factory. Despite the effort we don't have the ability to save the $50,000 to rent an air ambulance to return my father to Peru," Jesus Sanchez told El Comercio.

More:
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/may/08052213.html