FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: CONTACT: K.B. Forbes 202-320-1212
Thursday, May 19, 2005 Audrey Mullen 703-548-1160
MEDIA
ADVISORY
HISPANIC ADVOCACY GROUP TO PROTEST
FLORIDA HOSPITAL’S “BOLD FACE LIES”
ABOUT VEGA FAMILY CONTACT
Outcry as Florida Hospital
Scandal Escalates;
Congressional Committees and
HHS to Be Notified of
Fully-Paid Cruise Offer, FL
Hospital Comments
WINTER PARK, FL –Consejo de
Latinos Unidos, a non-profit organization that aids and educates uninsured
Hispanics and others, plans to demonstrate in front of Adventist Health System’s
national headquarters,
111 North Orlando Avenue, Winter Park, Florida tomorrow, Friday, May 20, 2005 at
12:30 p.m. EDT to
highlight the “bold face lies” executives from Florida Hospital, an Adventist
Health hospital, used in recent media accounts.
Under fire for having
contacted the uninsured Vega family last Friday with offers of a fully-paid
ocean cruise after the family had met four days before with staff of the U.S.
House Ways and Means Oversight Subcommittee and U.S. House Energy and Commerce
Committee in Washington, DC, Florida Hospital executives attempted to call the
contact a “clinical” follow-up for young Rodney Vega. The problem is Rodney Vega
was last seen by Florida Hospital three years ago.
“We will not tolerate their
bold face lies,” said K.B. Forbes, Executive Director of the Consejo. “Florida
Hospital will say anything to cover their tracks. Instead of helping young
Rodney, it appears Florida Hospital threw him over the side of the bridge.
Follow-up, my eye.”
Rodney Vega and his mother
Judith Montilla met with Congressional staffers to outline their plight on
Monday, May 9. Young Rodney had an aggressive brain tumor last year and Florida
Hospital appears to have refused to help the family even though the child had
only two weeks to live. The shocking fact is the so-called “Adventist” hospital
did not help the Vegas who are practicing Adventists while Rodney’s father is an
Adventist pastor.
Last Friday, hospital
officials contacted the Vegas with alleged offers of free care and a cruise.
Consejo plans to dispatch a series of letters to key Congressional members and
the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services about the escalating situation.