8-year-old boy defeats healthcare provider before Colombia’s constitutional court

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Colombia Reports

8-year-old boy defeats healthcare provider before Colombia’s constitutional court
Posted by Claire Dennis on Oct 22, 2015

An eight-year-old boy defeated one of Colombia’s largest healthcare providers, achieving a court order that obligates his mother’s health intermediary to secure treatment for a tumor discovered earlier this year.

The Constitutional Court of Colombia received quite a shock when the boy marched into the court room earlier this year.

The boy was the plaintiff in a lawsuit in which he demanded that his family’s healthcare intermediary effectively secured medical treatment for his mother who became diagnosed with a malignant, possibly cancerous tumor in her thyroid gland on April 17, 2015, according to weekly Semana.

The woman applied for an appointment, referred by her physician, at a hospital in Bogota, but was rejected. Three more hospitals in Bogota rejected her request, claiming they were unable to undergo the specific procedure she needed to eradicate the tumor.

Read more: http://colombiareports.com/8-year-old-boy-defeats-healthcare-provider-before-colombias-constitutional-court/

[Angry Dragon]

1. kick

[jtuck004]

2. Not a lawyer, but the court showed some extra-judicial humanity here, I think.

"With little hope left in her healthcare intermediary, the woman, as millions of Colombians are forced to do each year, turned to the court to fight for her constitutional right to get her life-saving treatment.

In order to sue the healthcare system and gain the care she desperately needed, the woman solicited her son of just eight years to represent her in court and present her case. Given the unusual request, a Bogota judge refused the lawsuit, claiming it was not justified that the mother could not attend herself to claim her rights.

The polemic case was thereafter chosen for review by the Constitutional Court, where the findings were different."