Mr. Simmons

            Otis Simmons is a 58-year-old homeless man living on the streets. One day he walks barefoot in the bitter cold through the streets of Manhattan in order to reach Roosevelt Hospital. “I froze,” he later said.  “I sat in one place 15 hours.” After he was hospitalized, he developed gangrene in his badly frostbitten feet.  The doctors wanted to amputate the infected portions, noting that otherwise the condition could become ‘life-threatening.’ Simmons refused the treatment: “My two legs got to say on.  I won’t have the operation.  I got to cure my own self.”

            Soon after, despite objections from hospital physicians, a State Supreme Court justice ruled that Simmons was legally competent and had the right tot refuse the amputation.  Antibiotic treatment helped to stall the infection.  However, Simmons finally lost two toes on his left foot and part of his right foot.  The bill for his three-month hospitalization amounted to $29,000 and has been submitted to Medicaid.  A hospital spokesman has said, “We don’t know how much they will pay or when they will pay it.”

            Mr. Simmons returns to the hospital 1 year later with frost-bitten hands.  Again he refused an amputation.  What should the hospital do?


*True Story