San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Alexis Joel Hernández, a Puerto Rican medical student who suffered severe burns while studying in Mexico, asks for help to pay a $ 1.7 million medical bill for treatments received at the Brooke Army Medical Center military hospital in San Antonio, Texas, for which your insurer does not pay.
The Calvary of Hernández It started on January 19, 2019, when, before starting his medical studies at the Autonomous University of Guadalajara, he turned on a heater in the patio of the apartment he rented when it exploded due to a gas leak, as he recalls. Friday to Eph.
“It was the first time I used the stove, because it was my first day in the apartment. I tried to turn on the stove and it exploded,” said Hernández.
The explosion caused Hernández’s head to collide with the stove and suffer second and third degree burns in 70% of your body.
Never lost consciousness
Despite this, he never lost consciousness, according to Hernández.I was always aware and I remember almost everything that happened“, He said.
“If the stove had been in the apartment, he wouldn’t survive,” he said.
After the outbreak, several of Hernández’s neighbors, including other Puerto Ricans who also started their university studies in medicine, helped him out.
“I did my best to get out of the apartment until I could jump over a wall. A neighbor who heard my steps and strokes was the first to help meBefore other colleagues managed to save me, ”he explained.
“I really didn’t understand it was on fire and I don’t know how it went out,” he added.
After these people helped Hernández, contacted health personnel to take him to the nearest hospital, where they caused a coma.
The Mexican hospital was unwilling to treat him
“The hospital in Mexico was unwilling to treat a case like mine. It didn’t have the resources to treat me and the doctors advised me to transfer,” he added.
Hernández was transferred to hospital militar Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas, USA to continue his treatment.
He recalled that his parents wanted him to be transferred to Puerto Rico, but the closest hospital that could treat his case was the hospital in San Antonio, so the island’s Department of Health was in charge of everything through the local government. what he could do. procedures.
Twenty days in a coma
“I was in a coma for almost 20 days when i left i didn’t respond and didn’t wake upIt was a very worrying situation. Then I gave signs of life, ”he said.
“My first memory was that a nurse looked at me and my parents with me. I knew what happened to me, but I was confused. and that you had to call a company to bring one dryer, ”he said.
The pain I felt just endured is a miraclesaid Hernández, who was locked up in the military hospital for seven months until he returned Puerto Rico
During his seven months in the military hospital, Hernández was operated on 19 timesThe first operation cost $ 100,000 and the second $ 120,000.
However, upon his return to his homeland, a new ordeal began when he took the first bill for your treatments of $ 1.3 million
According to Hernández, he had until April of that year “to reach an agreement with the hospital to payBut the deal was to pay $ 35,000 a month for three years and pay off the debt and contact his health insurance company at that point. First medical, who refused to face the amount.
“I tried my best to contact the health insurance and because it is a military hospital, the debt was turned over to the US Treasury Department, ”he complained.
At the time the State Insurance Fund Corporation agreed with Hernández to reimburse physiotherapy, although later the board of directors of the public company did not approve the deal.
“They never explained to me why they refused,” he said.
The invoice has been reached $ 1.7 million per chargeHernández said.
“What I think is unfair is that the health insurance policy tells me that after receiving the bill, I had no coverage,” he said.
“I feel like they were unfair, because they should have been more honest with meThere were hundreds of times I tried to contact them and the times I wanted to talk to them and they told me they would cover for me but it wasn’t. They were not transparent, ” he added.
Hernández then chose to have it Puerto Rico Government Vital Health Plan, but as he assured, “many doctors don’t accept the plan because the government doesn’t pay for it.”
The congressman of Puerto Rican descent Nydia Velázquez took note of the case and asked US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Thursday to consider “completely and honestly‘Hernández’ call to cancel the millionaire debt in the American public hospital.