Jessica Santillan Family

I have been biting my tongue for days now, I can't stand it anymore!!!!!!!!
Here is the family illegally in North Carolina, taking advantage of the US medical system and then slapping the US citizens in the face by refusing to even discuss organ donations. They had wanted Jessica's eyes mainly, a young girl was there needing brown corneas.
Now in this morning's paper they are trying to get Elizabeth Dole to help them go to Mexico, bury Jessica, and return to the states to sue Duke University.
They have had two sets of organs, but WOULDN'T donate anything of Jessica's?
How can someone who has admitted to being an illegal alien sue ANYTHING in the US? What rights do illegals have?
The paper stated that INS will probably not deport the family. Why not, we sent Elian Gonzalez home?
I am sorry the girl died, the family needs to get real, they had no guarantee that the transplant would work even if the organs had been a match. Human error will happen. If the organs had been the proper organs and the op failed, could they still sue?
Even better ( their attorney that no one still knows how they are paying him) is going to be heard in Washington tomorow as to why there should be no cap on malpractice awards. If there are no caps, we will soon have no doctors. Of course then the illegal immigrants will stay home, because they won't be able to have medical care here either!
How many Mexicans are deported every day for crossing the borders?

Sorry, I was going through my son's medical bills and I just couldn't take it any more. Thanks for letting me rant.
Candy

You get my vote. I thimk they she be deported post haste, and that they should be required to pay back the medical bills and everything else before they are allowed to enter our country again. Can you tell I am sick of the illegals reaping the benefits and then returning to their countries to collect the retirements.

i hear ya's. i am an american and proud to be. but what i dont get is this the rag top wearin peices of trash that done the sept 11 tragedy,i guess that was ok for them to be here in the us. i live in alaska, ok there are the russian imigrant's from cosovo that were to go home after the us. went in and busted a few head's . now the problem is fixed oveer theere. why are they still here.why were they given home's land car's. free.
and now there is this 17 yr old girl. that i dont give a sh*t that she was illegal, she was a human being.it was not her fault that the moron's put the wrong blood type organ's in her. duh.
ands then ya's say that after 2 organ donation's that they the family wont donate any organ's. dont you wat6ch the new's. the doctor's have went on record sayin that the organ's were deterioriated. beyond use.
there are many tragedy's in the world.some we created for ourselfe's other's we had nothing to do with. but we have to go on the best that we can. candy, i am sorry to hear about the hard ship's with dealing with youre son's medical bill's. but bashing some one else this is not right. let's say that the role's were cdhanged and you the illegal needed help for youre son. and the us helped you out and somnething went awefully wrong.are you going to say now that that is different.i dont think so.
life is to short and getting shorter, to be acting like this american's the humanitarian's, that is what our goverment has billed us to be.so let the girl rest in peace and let her family grieve there loss. and if she come's back over then i guess that her becomming a tax paying citizen is better than another leach on welfare, SO LET'S GET ON WITH OUR LIVE'S......

Thanks for your opinion Charlie. That's the best part of America; we can disagree. If you had read my post you would have seen the main thing Duke was interested in was her corneas, not the transplanted organs.
I felt like it was a slap in the face to refuse to donate any organs after Jessica had been given two chances for life. I am sorry the girl died, but she had no guarantee that the transplant would save her in the first place.
Her family is here illegally, on welfare, and pay no taxes whatsoever. North Carolina estimates that it spends over $32 million dollars each year in medical expenses alone for illegals. I AM fighting to pay my son's medical bills, nothing gets handed to me for free, I pay taxes and I am a citizen. I am grateful for every procedure Duke performs on my son. I have come close to losing him a few times now. I think I have a vague idea what it might be like to lose a child.
I think the family should have applied for the proper help and legal entrance as the Guatamalan girl's family did and many other have too.
I'm not really worried about the money they spent on her, I just don't see why illegals should have the right to sue, the doctor donated the time, hospital donated most everything else.
I am not jealous of the money spent on the girl, I am angry over the principle of she was given the gift of life twice and her family refused to return any gift at all. I feel like they have slapped all the US citizens in the face.
My son and I are both organ donors. I would like to think if I needed organs and something went wrong that they would take whatever they could to help someone else.
Would I do something illegal to help my son? No. I have had the option of some illegal drugs that would supposedly help him. He and I both agree that we have to have our principles and have faith in the lord.
I hope Jessica rests in peace, she has had a hard journey. As for the family, the nightmare may just have begun.
Candy

candy
i can see where you are comming from.i have lost a daughter. so i feel where you are comming from believe me.she had to have a transplant and it went wrong i still pay the bill's and go and see her and still the us. goverment goes and bring illegal's into the us to have the medical need's met.frustration. as well as medical expenses to face, yes there is more than enough to go around from every red blooded american in the us. and abroad due to the war.
i dont see it as a slap in the face, let me ask you this . what would you have done........................
how would you have dealt with people wanting you to donate corneas.
you see candy, the way people deal with thing's olny they know why they choose that method of solace.it is not for us to pass judgement.
sure she may have got all done for free, so what. look at how many illegal's are in the us right now. and the goverment know's who and where they are.yet nothing is done. why..............
like i said, unless you have lost a child you can never know what it is like, they revived my girl 3 different time's and then she stopped responding. so believe me when i say you dont know until the time come's.and i hope and pray that you grow old with youre son there to laugh and joke with. god bless. and i would like to say i like the quote that you have on the bottom of youre article.

Although I disagree with much of what our country does with illegal aliens in general and what this family has done in specific, there is one point I would like to make.

Because a possible suit for malpractice is pending (and it IS malpractice to transplant non-suitable organs!), the girl's body needed to be autopsied. That being the case, the parents were advised by their attorney (who is undoubtedly working on this for future remuneration from 30% of the proceeds, or so), that any donation of organs would likely cause problems for the findings of the autopsy. That being the case, I have a hard time blaming the parents for not donating the girl's organs (corneas, or whatever).

Also, I think it is important to separate the two main issues here. Yes, they are illegal aliens. Yes, their daughter died due to malpractice. The two events have nothing to do with each other.

Duke did not take this girl because she was an illegal alien; they took her because they were paid in full for their services by a charity here in the States that wanted her to have the operation after they (the family) were here. However, what if they had been legal immigrants? Would that then have made it all right for the family to act as they have been? I don't think you could stop me from taking whatever revenge I could on a group of doctors/institutions that caused the death of my child by a stupid clerical error, nor would you want to do so! These people lost a daughter, and the fact that they are illegal aliens in no way diminishes their rights under our constitution to sue. The fact is that when you come here to the U.S., you have the same rights guaranteed under the constitution as anyone else . . .that's just the way it is. I don't think we should chastise these people for doing what they have the right to do.

On the other hand, I don't think the fact that they have lost a daughter should give them special consideration for their alien status. They are illegals, and they should be deported as soon as it is expedient to do so. Is that before or after the lawsuit? I don't know. That's up to a judge, but sooner or later, these folks need to be ushered back to Mexico.

I feel horrible for everyone involved. Nothing is going to bring that girl back, and THAT fact is going to be a nearly unbearable burden for the family AND the doctors/nurses to carry for the rest of their lives.

Incorrect, US citizens have rights under the constitution. If they had been legal immigrants, then they would be citizens. they are not, however, legal, they are aliens, and as such, are not protected by our constitution.

No, I'm sorry, but you are mistaken about that. Anyone who makes it to these shores is entitled to all of the rights granted to them by the U.S. Constitution. True, those rights are more limited to aliens (illegal aliens cannot stay here, legal aliens cannot vote, and naturalized citizens cannot be president), but they DO have rights granted to them in the Constitution simply by placing foot on U.S. soil.

For example, just because a person is an alien, he/she is still protected under ALL of the Bill of Rights, and the government CANNOT cause them to testify against themselves as per the 5th Amendment. Now, the Constitution does not allow the illegal alien to remain in the country, but while they are here, they cannot be treated in any way that is contrary to what any citizen in their situation would be entitled to expect. This includes medical care, safety from cruel and unusual punishment, Miranda warnings, and many other basic human rights guaranteed by the Constitution. I am not advocating illegal immigration in any way, mind you, but it is true that they do have rights under our Constitution.

Also, just because a person is a legal alien or immigrant does not mean that he/she is a citizen. One must be a citizen "of the soil," "of the blood," or "of the law" before citizenship is granted. This means that you must be born in the U.S., born to (a) U.S. citizen parent(s), or naturalized through the legal process in order to claim citizenship.

I stand corrected.

In any event, I am a bit isolationist as far as what I think this country should be like. I am and always will be opposed to someone from another country coming here to use up resources given or generated by the American people, especially when those who come here to use them up are not willing to give anything in return, only take.

Richard,

Just wondering if you make a distinction between legal and illegal immigrants in your dislike of the use of resources.