Hospital attempts to deport comatose woman

PHOENIX, May 14 (UPI) -- The family of a Honduran woman who has awoken from a coma at a Phoenix hospital, is fighting government attempts to have her deported, their attorney says.

The woman, Sonia del Cid Iscoa, woke up Tuesday after 25 days in a coma brought on by a complicated childbirth, family attorney John Curtin said. While she was unconscious, hospital officials attempted to have her deported because of a lack of adequate insurance coverage, The Arizona Republic reported.

The 34-year-old woman, the mother of seven, has been in the United States legally for 17 years under temporary protected status, a classification given to people without valid immigration in cases of disasters in their homeland. The newspaper said Iscoa's health plan doesn't cover long-term care, and moved to deport her.

But St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center encountered resistance from Iscoa's family, who went to court to obtain a restraining order. The hospital and the woman's family are now trying to come up ways to pay the hospital bill, according to the report.