After his wife, Soledad, suffered a cerebral aneurysm, Junior was faced with devastating choices as she remained in a medically induced coma. After weeks, hospital administrators provided him with limited options: rent expensive medical equipment, find another facility, or send Soledad back to the Dominican Republic. Junior, with no medical skills and financial burdens, feared for her health if she were to be transferred. This situation exposed the harsh realities of the healthcare system intertwined with immigration challenges.
Before migrating to the United States in 2022, Soledad had worked as a psychologist and led a Bible study group. Junior described her as positive, easygoing, and determined.
Junior is active and strong-willed, but he didn't have the money or the medical skills to care for Soledad himself. He feared what would happen if she were transferred out of the United States.
Eight weeks later, administrators at Lehigh Valley presented Junior with three options, none of them good: He could pay $500 a day to rent medical equipment for Soledad, find her another facility, or agree to have her flown to a hospital in the Dominican Republic.
As Soledad hovered near death, she entered a hidden medical netherworld, one where the failures of our healthcare system meet the cruelties of our immigration system.
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