Jesus Navarro could die without a kidney transplant. His wife is a match, she wants to donate her kidney to save her husband’s life, and he even has health insurance to cover the transplant, but because he is undocumented, the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) Medical Center is refusing to perform surgery, essentially leaving Jesus to die.
Donald Kagan understands what Jesus is going through better than most. He immigrated from Nicaragua, and needed and received a lifesaving kidney transplant. He is now a partner at a technology firm in Berkeley, CA — and he has offered to pay Jesus’s post-surgery medical bills, but UCSF Medical Center still says no.
It’s unconscionable that UCSF Medical Center and its doctors would ignore the Hippocratic Oath they took and deny Jesus medical treatment, even though he has a willing kidney donor, insurance to pay for his surgery, and a benefactor to pay for his follow-up care. They basically want him to die.
So Donald started a petition on Change.org asking UCSF Medical Center administrators to allow Jesus to get the lifesaving kidney transplant.
When doctors take the Hippocratic Oath, one of the things they swear is that, “I will remember that I remain a member of society with special obligations to all my fellow human beings, those sound of mind and body as well as the infirm.” The administrators at UCSF Medical Center are forgoing their obligations as caregivers only because Jesus is undocumented.
After waiting for years for this surgery, Jesus was devastated to learn that it still might not happen. “He’s afraid he might die,” Jesus’s sister told NBC News. “He might not see his daughter grow up.”
The UCSF Medical Center administrators don’t want a public relations disaster on their hands — but that’s exactly what they’ll have if thousands of people sign Donald’s petition and they still refuse to provide Jesus with the surgery that could save his life. This is about life or death not about documented or undocumented. It’s unbelievable that this is occurring at all.
Please sign Donald’s petition demanding that UCSF Medical Center allow Jesus Navarro to receive his wife’s kidney and save his life — a surgery that Donald himself will pay for.
Thanks for being a change-maker,
The Change.org team
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