The Tragic Consequences of Language and Medical Barriers: Marco Gabriel's Story
September 2023 marks a year since the death of eight-year-old boy Marco Gabriel La Torre Riquero. Y los eventos that led to Marco Gabriel’s death have displayed the dire consequences of language barriers faced by Latino patients en los Estados Unidos. Marco's case sheds light en la conversación acerca de inadequate communication and care, prompting important questions about the responsibilities of healthcare providers and systems.
Marco Gabriel's case pasó cuando el niño hispanohablante de Indiana lost his life due to an alledged misdiagnosis and mistreatment by the hospital Ascension-St. Vincent. La demanda legal de la familia dice that Marco Gabriel's parents took him to Ascension-St. Vincent’s Urgent Care with severe symptoms of headache, vomiting, abdominal pain, and fever, and were advised to go to the Emergency Department for further evaluation.
Sin embargo, la demanda dice que the two facilities did not communicate with each other, and when the family arrived at the ER, no hicieron las pruebas adecuadas y tampoco provieron la interpretación necesaría en Español, and discharged Marco without addressing his severe encephalitis symptoms.
¿Qué es eso?
La encefalitis es la inflamación del cerebro y existen varias causas de esta, como una infección vírica, an autoimmune inflamation, a bacterial infection and bug bites, among others.
At Ascension-St. Vincent hospital, the practitioner. alledgely, instructed the parents to see a pediatrician and discharged Marco, without addressing his condition adequately. La demanda tambien dice que una interprete no fue proveído, despite the parents' primarily Spanish-speaking background, and that the hospital incorrectly marked the boy as uninsured.
Este caso refleja la necesidad for improved communication and training within the healthcare profession to prevent similar incidents. Especialmente por que de acuerdo con el Census, more than eight percent of the U.S. population does not speak English “very well”. And close to 66 million report speaking a language other than English at home, apesar de esos numeros, los recursos necesarios no esta disponibles para Latinos y otros immigrantes.
Y es interesante por que, the federal government’s National Standards for Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services in Health and Health Care — or CLAS, for short — directs hospitals to offer free language services and resources to people who have limited English proficiency. Pero este estandar no es reforzado, no hay penalidades for failure to comply entonces los hospitales no se sienten obligados.
Según CLAS, the Principal Standard is to provide effective, equitable, understandable, and respectful quality care and services that are responsive to diverse cultural health beliefs and practices, lenguas preferidas, educación médica, y otras necesidades de comunicación.
During the COVID pandemic some states took steps como Massachusetts, entre otros estados, by using a Spanish text alert system to keep everyone informed acerca de los cambios médicos y recursos disponibles.
Pero esto no debe estar solo disponible para pandemias but also for everyday patients who need to understand medical directions and resources to geet better.
The untimely death of Marco Gabriel serves as a tragic reminder of the systemic and individual failures that can result when language and medical barriers go unaddressed. Este incidente desafia a la sociedad a confrontar prejuicios y disparidades within institutions, urging a collective effort toward establishing a more equitable and effective system of care for all.
In our page puedes encontrar recursos en linea para interpretes medicos en demanda. These resources can also be used by medical institutions.
We’ll continue to cover this story as it develops.
Gracias por escuchar soy Paola Marizan.
Medical interpretation resources:
Related material:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4276659/