Family fights to bring paralyzed woman closer to home

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A local family is working to bring a paralyzed grandmother closer to home.
 
Attorneys for Patricia Mincey are suing Honda and Takata over recalled airbags after Mincey was involved in a car crash that left her a quadriplegic.
 
Mincey's family said it's top priority to bring Mincey to a Jacksonville area hospital.
 
Mincey has been receiving care in Tampa, and her loved ones are travelling back and forth from Jacksonville.
 
The family told Action News so far, all transfer requests have been denied.
 
"I don't want anyone to have to go through this," Mincey's granddaughter Paige Hay said about her grandmother's injuries.
 
Hay said for years, they were used to living close to the doting mother and grandmother.
 
"Whenever she was home, I would go over there every single day just about," Hay said.
 
That all changed after Mincey's accident.
 
Mincey's diaphragm was broken, and she needed a device to help her breathe. She was sent to Tampa for the treatment.

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"That's where we're stranded for now," Mincey's daughter Kelly Sims said. "We're having trouble finding a hospital here that will do a lateral move."
 
Sims said the family tried to transfer her mom to local hospitals.
 
Sims said the family was either told there weren't enough beds or that Mincey was already receiving adequate care in Tampa.
 
"Our feeling is she's going to be living here," Sims said. "She really needs to develop that relationship with the doctors here for the long term."
 
UF Health told Action News they can't comment on specific patients but in a statement a spokesperson said: "UF Health is committed to ensuring the highest quality of care for every patient, based on his or her medical needs, in an appropriate setting. On average, UF Health in Gainesville and Jacksonville receives about 50 requests for transfers every day, and these are evaluated on a case-by-case basis by specialized medical teams to determine if a transfer would be medically beneficial to the patient. We work hard to ensure that our resources are dedicated to patients in need of the services we provide. These resources include appropriate facilities, patient beds, equipment, physicians and medical staff for different types of care."
 
The Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville also said the facility is unable to comment on specific patients.
  
"When we assess whether to accept the transfer of a patient from another hospital, we conduct a thorough evaluation to see if there is any form of care we could provide that would help improve the patient's condition," Nancy Dawson, M.D., vice chair, Hospital Operations at Mayo Clinic's campus in Jacksonville said. "If a critically ill patient is already receiving good care at another hospital, we often find moving the patient is not in their best interest."

Memorial Hospital told Action News the facility does not specialize in the type of care Mincey requires, and therefore, is unable to take her in as a patient.

The family has set up a GoFundMe page dedicated to Mincey's care.

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