Bellevue Hospital, a renowned public hospital in New York, has come under scrutiny for performing weight-loss surgeries on prisoners, resulting in claims of malnourishment, reports Business Insider.
According to a New York Times investigation, the hospital conducted 3,000 weight-loss surgeries this year, sometimes rushing inappropriate candidates through the process. Among the patients were at least 11 prisoners from the Rikers Island jail complex who underwent elective bariatric surgery. Bariatric surgery, a major operation that reduces the size of the stomach, requires patients to adhere to strict dietary changes, which can be nearly impossible in a prison setting.
Two prisoners, David Mustiga and Luis Perez, were elected for the surgery and complained of struggles with poor nutrition and complications following the surgery. Mustiga, weighing 300 pounds, felt pressured into the procedure without being informed about the challenges of recovering in jail. He lost over 100 pounds in less than six months and experienced hair loss.
Perez faced difficulty in consuming enough protein and suffered from vomiting. Christopher Miller, a spokesperson for Bellevue, claimed that prisoners were
“screened and assessed like all others”
and were kept at the hospital until they could eat the same food served in jail. The hospital’s bariatric surgeons have an incentive to perform more surgeries as they earn higher wages based on the number of operations they conduct.
“It’s all about the numbers,”
Dr. Carmen Kloer, who previously worked with Bellevue’s bariatric department as a medical resident, told The Times.
“They are just churning through cases.”
According to The Times, the hospital receives approximately $11,000, and sometimes even more, per procedure, which is usually funded by taxpayers since a majority of its patients are either on Medicaid or uninsured.
#Clique, what are your thoughts?
