Collateral Damage: Drug-war patients' treatment costs $4.7M

Here is a new twist on "collateral damage."

Drug-war patients' treatment costs $4.7M - Las Cruces Sun-News: "Since the start of the Juárez drug war three years ago, 200 people wounded in Mexico have been treated at El Paso's county-run hospital at a cost of $4.7 million, according to the latest figures from the University Medical Center of El Paso (UMC). Three-quarters were U.S. citizens. ...

As the bloodshed continues to rage, survivors have continued to seek care in El Paso. Because of federal law, hospitals cannot refuse emergency help to people on U.S. soil regardless of citizenship. UMC is the only Level 1 trauma center within 280 miles. ...

'This particular challenge that UMC has been facing is a direct result of federal drug policy,' El Paso County Judge-elect Veronica Escobar said. 'It is a drug war in Mexico, but that drug war is linked to drug consumption in the United States.' Escobar wants the federal government to offset the cost of helping victims of the Juárez drug war in what she expects to be a financially difficult year ahead for UMC.

Escobar said it is important to remember that the human toll is even costlier. She said, 'What is happening in Mexico is a tragedy all the way around whether you are mexicano or not, whether you have family there or not.'" Dec. 30, 2010, El Paso Times