Adding insult to a quake injury Injured laborer dumped like a wounded animal

Rodriguez tried reaching Ukia, the mother of his kids and the woman he calls his common-law wife, but the phone lines were dead after the earthquake. When he finally got through, she left her job as a telemarketer and raced over. She's big and strong and was able to lift Rodriguez into her van and drive him to West Anaheim Medical Center, where the news was not good.

X-rays showed two broken heels. Rodriguez was splinted, given a referral to an orthopedic specialist and sent home. But Ukia had one stop to make first.

"We went back to Home Depot to see if he could recognize any of the guys he worked with, or if anyone knew the contractor," she said. "It's not right that they just dumped him there like that."

But they struck out and went home.

When Ukia later called to make the orthopedic appointment, she was told that Rodriguez would need $260 in cash to get in the door, and $300 per cast.

They didn't have the money.

Ukia worked the phones trying to get him qualified for Orange County's Medical Services Initiative, which covers indigent adults. But the next morning, Rodriguez was hurting so badly she drove him to UCI Medical Center.

"There's absolutely no reason for him to be back in ER that day. He just came back because he was unable to do the follow-up," said Menchine, who complained of the chronic stress on emergency rooms because so many patients have nowhere else to go. "It's not his fault. People clearly need help, but they don't need to see us."

Menchine and his cohorts did another round of X-rays, redid the splints, got an orthopedic consult and referred Rodriguez for a follow-up appointment that was scheduled for last Tuesday. But Ukia, who had finally lined up temporary insurance after a maddening run-around, was told there was no record of the appointment.

On Friday -- 10 days after his injury -- Rodriguez finally saw a specialist and found out that his best option is surgery. The recovery could take three months or more.

The fact that he'll finally get treated doesn't mean the system works, Menchine said. The payments for his kind of insurance are rock-bottom, so many physicians don't accept it. And too many patients with limited insurance, or none at all, opt for ERs or wait too long for needed care.

The answer?

Menchine said he thought that among the original crop of presidential candidates, Sen. Hillary Clinton's universal health insurance plan was the best. Not that it would ever have materialized without a miracle, given all the special interests that profit from the maddening status quo.