Inequities Faced by Children in Immigrant Families in United States NICUs
Two-month-old medically complex twins are transported to your facility from out of state for escalation of their care. Both twins have a complicated medical history including limited feeding skills, complex congenital cardiac disease, genetic diagnoses, and chronic respiratory failure. Their parents are aware that both twins will likely spend most of their first year of life within hospital walls. Not only is their medical history quite complex and their future difficult to predict, but their parents are immigrants from Latin America currently on a tourist visa. Both twins were born in the United States and are thus, citizens. Faced with little family in the United States, loss of supplemental security income, and limited English proficiency, the parents disclose these concerns to the new medical team because their visas are soon to expire.