Medical emergency: Pakistani patient slated for deportation

Hospital seeks return to Pakistan as visa expires.

The family of an exchange student from Pakistan, who has been comatose since a November crash is trying to prevent a Minnesota hospital from sending him back to his home country.

Muhammad Shahzaib Bajwa, 20, was spending a semester in an exchange programme at the University of Wisconsin-Superior. On November 13, 2013, he and his friends were driving back to the university from Minneapolis when their car struck a deer, his brother, Shahraiz Bajwa, told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

Shahzaib suffered severe facial fractures but was talking when he arrived at a hospital in Cloquet. He choked on blood there and went into cardiac arrest, but was resuscitated and transferred to Essentia Health-St. Mary’s Medical Center, his brother said.

He suffered brain damage from the heart attack and remains comatose. The doctors have told the family it’ll take a couple more years to find out how much more the 20-year-old will recover, Shahraiz said.

A hospital spokeswoman said Shahzaib won’t be able to stay in the country legally after his student visa expires on February 28. Essentia has pressured the Bajwa family to sign consent forms to return Shahzaib to Pakistan.  “If we take him back to Pakistan this is certainly pushing him toward death,” he said.

It is not unusual for US hospitals seeking to curb high costs to effectively deport foreign citizens back home, an Associated Press review found last year. Shahraiz said his brother’s hospital bill has reached about $350,000.

Essentia spokesperson said the hospital is making arrangements with the State Department to transport Shahzaib to Pakistan. “This is an unfortunate situation and his caregivers are working closely with Mr. Bajwa’s family to ensure the smoothest transition possible,” she said in an email.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 13^th, 2014.