Hospital closing hits especially hard for Madera’s sizable undocumented population

Maria Rios sat in the shadows inside her Madera home last week, a contrast to the sunny day outside and a metaphor for what’s happening to so many people in her community.

Rios is in the dark about what’s next now that Madera Community Hospital has closed. Her chronic medical conditions and lack of transportation options made her dependent on the local hospital.

“My doctor prescribed me painkillers in November when extreme abdominal pains sent me to the hospital,” Rios said in Spanish. “With two pills left, now God only knows where I’ll find more of them because not all doctors prescribe them.”

Rios, 59, moved from the Mexican state of Oaxaca to Madera in February 2000. She said she had to stop working in 2015 due to a fractured foot that didn’t heal well, diabetes (which has impaired vision out of an eye) and kidney problems. She needs dialysis — a procedure to clean waste products and excess fluids from her blood because her kidneys don’t work properly — three times a week.

Like many Madera County residents, Rios is Latina and undocumented. More than 60% of the county’s population identifies as Hispanic or Latino, the U.S. Census reports. Out of the 159,000 population, close to 10% are undocumented, according to the Migration Policy Institute.

Rios said she did try getting her immigration paperwork sorted, but was unsuccessful.

“We don’t have papers, we don’t have where to go, and we need a clinic, a hospital,” she said. “Fresno is too far, too far for someone to get there with excruciating pains.”

‘Madera has grown and will continue to… we need a hospital’

Madera Community Hospital closed because of financial distress and stopped serving patients the week between Christmas and New Year’s, definitely closing the first Tuesday of the year.

Now, there are no emergency rooms between Merced and Fresno.

Madera not only lost its only general hospital in the county, but its residents are a 30-minute drive away from the closest hospital with an emergency room, Fresnoland reported.

Fidelina Espinoza is a community organizer with the Centro Binacional para el Desarollo Indígena Oaxaqueño, or the Binational Center for the Development of Indigenous Oaxacans, in Madera.

Espinoza has been trying to help and guide people to medical resources as they approach her office.

“We don’t have resources to transport people nor provide transportation,” Espinoza said in Spanish.

Neither the community nor the organization were notified or given any information about Madera Community Hospital closing until it suddenly did, she said. Espinoza said she also witnessed how the hospital struggled to meet the demand of services needed by the community.

“It was a bit limited,” she said. “When there were things they couldn’t do, they would send people to other hospitals with more technology and specialists.”

Madera Community Hospital opened in 1971. Since then, “Madera has grown and will continue growing,” Espinoza said. “So we should have a big-enough hospital to meet the community’s needs.”

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Concerns for lack of care, local government scrambles

Rios did not imagine the hospital’s closing would have ever happened. She continued to ask why it did, thinking about the harvest seasons that are soon to happen across the Central Valley.

“Why did they take away the hospital? Why did they close it if they know people need it a lot?” She asked, “if something happens to farmworkers on the fields around here, how are they going to make it all the way to Fresno?”

Emelia Guzmán worked in the fields near Madera when she collapsed in 2019.

“I suddenly lost the strength in my legs and fell,” Guzmán said in Spanish. ”I tried to stand up again, but couldn’t.”

She was taken to Madera Community Hospital. Guzmán had previously noticed bumps on a breast and was initially told during a clinic visit that they’d go away by themselves. The biopsy performed at the hospital showed it was cancer.

Guzmán, 52, underwent chemotherapy but said she is still on medication to keep her cancer at bay while on medical supervision for the next five years. She was recently getting ultrasounds and blood tests done at the hospital for undiagnosed abdominal pains.

“The doctor that treated me and prescribed my medications worked there (at the hospital),” she said. “Now I’m worried because my medications are running out and where will I go? Who will I go to to get my pills?”

Like Rios, Guzmán has diabetes, is undocumented from Oaxaca, has lived in Madera for decades and had to stop working because of her health.

Though both women have Medi-Cal coverage that helps them pay for some of their medical expenses, the loss of their primary care providers, specialists and prescription renewals has left them in healthcare purgatory.

Madera city and county leaders are scrambling to find both short- and long-term solutions to support Maderans through the turmoil, but a solution could be at soonest months away.

“I was very shocked,” Madera City Councilmember Elsa Mejia said during Wednesday evening’s City Council meeting. “I think I share the community sentiment and this was a very hard blow for us as a community, especially during the holidays.”

“It’s a very fluid situation,” Madera City Manager Arnoldo Rodriguez said during a presentation to the council. “There is no clear path and there’s no clear answer at this point.”

How to comment

Community members who want to comment publicly about this situation can do so at Madera City and County meetings.

For public comments at Madera City Council, community members can:

• Attend the next public comment session during the Wednesday, Feb. 1 meeting.

• Comment in person, over the phone (669-900-6833, meeting ID 827 0081 2027#), through email at citycouncilpubliccomment@madera.gov or mail sent to City Hall.

For the Madera County Board of Supervisors, chief clerk Karen Scrivner said:

• The next public comment session will be during the Tuesday, Jan. 24 meeting. Each person can speak for three minutes in person or online via Zoom.

• Comments can be submitted via email at cotb@maderacounty.com. The deadline is Monday before Tuesday meetings. They aren’t read aloud, but are put into the record and given to county supervisors.