In 2002, like generations of doctors and nurses down the decades, a foreigner – Mayra Cabrera, a Filipino national – was recruited by the NHS and asked to come and help out the people of the United Kingdom.  She was placed into a job as a theatre nurse at the Great Western Hospital in Swindon.

Mrs. Cabrera and her husband Arnel were granted visas through to 2009, at which point an application for permanent leave to remain should have been a formality.  Mr. Cabrera found work at the same hospital.

On 11 May 2004, Mrs. Cabrera gave birth at the hospital to a healthy, 8lb baby boy, the couple’s first child, Zachary.

A few minutes later, a midwife began to administer the drug Bupivacaine into an IV line into Mrs. Cabrera’s arm.  This drug should not have been administered in that manner and within half-an-hour Mrs. Cabrera began to suffer seizures.  Soon thereafter the drug’s toxicity induced a heart attack from which Mrs. Cabrera died.

Swindon & Marlborough NHS Trust admitted liability some time ago.  Yesterday, an inquest jury decided that the Trust’s gross negligence led to Mrs. Cabrera’s death, declaring she was “killed unlawfully [by] gross negligent manslaughter”.

Following Mrs. Cabrera’s death, the state decreed that Mr. Cabrera could no longer work or remain in the UK because his visa was dependent on his wife’s continued employment at the Great Western Hospital.  Mr. Cabrera lost his wife and his job in short order and now faces deportation to the Phillipines.

Mr. Cabrera’s solicitor, Seamus Edney, said:

Mayra’s death automatically changed Arnel and Zac’s circumstances.  We had to go back to the Home Office and ask for permission for Arnel to stay until 2009, or at least until after his wife’s inquest.  We never got a formal reply.  We just got his visa back, extended until February 2008.

The Coroner to the inquest, David Masters, commented:

I find it quite extraordinary that [Mr. Cabrera] has not had the comfort of knowing that he can stay in this country for the foreseeable future.  It seems to me that the red tape should be cut and thrown away, quickly, sooner rather than later.

Suddenly (ie once the media had become involved) the scales fell away from our government’s eyes and up popped immigration minister Liam Byrne to say he would reconsider the government’s decision to deport Mr. Cabrera and Zac.

A nameless, faceless Home Office spokesman told Auntie Beeb:

An individual who does not meet the requirements under the immigration rules can in exceptional circumstances – for instance compassionate reasons – apply for discretionary leave to remain in the UK.  When we receive an application such as this, we would obviously consider all circumstances surrounding the application.

How can anybody with half-an-inch of brain not grasp within 30 seconds that these are exceptional circumstances in need of absolute compassion?

I just don’t get it.  I don’t understand how the people who make such decisions can sleep at night or bear to look at themselves in a mirror.

Yet it fits the trend of Britain’s increasing meanness of spirit and unkindness towards people in need recently highlighted by the case of the deportation of Ama Sumani – an act of “atrocious barbarism” in the words of that liberal-leaning publication The Lancet.

I have fuck all time for organised religion yet, on this point, I find myself shoulder-to-uncomfortable-shoulder with a man who I consider epitomises the phrase “waste of space”, the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, who has spoken of his “shock” and “sorrow” at the way in which Ms. Sumani was treated and criticised the way in which cases like hers are handled:

He said “humiliating” the vulnerable, and “particularly people who are very likely near the end of their life, is a very very bad sign to give”.  Dr Williams said there were “ways of administering the law”.

I remind you that, in Ms. Sumani’s case, Lin Homer, the chief executive of the Border and Immigration Agency said:

I think it is difficult to see the circumstances in which this case stands out from the many very difficult cases we consider.

No mention there of “exceptional circumstances” or “compassionate reasons”.  Because, after all, what’s exceptional about the life of one more little brown person now we’ve spent half a decade snuffing them out in Afghanistan and Iraq?  Particularly to someone not accountable to the public by means of election.

I’ve held off publicising a recent, supportive Daily Telegraph article relating to Ms. Sumani because the “user generated content” – ie the comments posted on the site by Telegraph website readers – turned my stomach.

No, we cannot provide dialysis for everyone in Ghana, but if we continue to make exceptions, we end up doing that. Harsh as it seems, sending this illegal immigrant back to die in her own country with her own family around may send a message that GB cannot always be reckoned a soft touch.
Posted by Sheona Hutcheson on January 28, 2008 9:26 AM

She is a hard case but they create bad precedents. Set up a charity, Max, if you feel that strongly, to fund these cases – don’t burden the taxpayer with them – they will only multiply.
Posted by Rosemary Martin on January 28, 2008 12:40 PM

The NHS isn’t short of funds, it is being bled dry by people who should not be here to claim free treatment.
Posted by Beryl on January 28, 2008 1:50 PM

When she was unable to get on the course she had been issued a visa for she should have gone home.
Posted by Terny Bond on January 28, 2008 4:49 PM

To treat Ms Sumani must mean that someone totally deserving of treatment would have to wait for funding, possibly too long.
Posted by Simon James on January 28, 2008 5:24 PM

She cheated the immigration system three times. Why should an illegal immigrant receive treatment when we struggle to treat legal residents?
Posted by Dennis Jackson on January 28, 2008 6:32 PM

Perhaps Ghana Government ministers could reduce the number of first class flights they take to the UK to cover the cost of caring for one of their own citizens at home, instead of expecting us to bear the burden.
Posted by Alfie Noakes on January 29, 2008 7:31 AM

The good Samaritan PAID for it, remember? – he did not bill the taxpayer
Posted by Rosemary Martin on January 29, 2008 9:31 AM

However sickening the sentiments I know it’s just half-a-dozen Torygraph-reading misanthropes, unrepresentative of the nation as a whole (and I have excised above the converse comments posted on the newspaper’s site) but I genuinely believe it to be symptomatic of a damaging, Thatcherite, “fuck you” mentality that threatens to overwhelm this country’s reputation for common decency, fair play and simple courtesy.

Worst of all, no politician of substance is arguing the opposite case.  Social democracy and socialism died when the powers-that-be decreed Tony Benn a National Treasure.

For the record, Ms. Sumani is gravely ill.

Ms Sumani’s health is deteriorating rapidly because… essential drugs are not available in Ghana.

Janet Simmons, a Cardiff-based supporter, said: “The Home Office didn’t take her medical records with her. All they had was a chart, and the doctors in Ghana are having to start again.”

She said Mrs Sumani also needed drugs which were not available to her.

“She’s really having a tough time,” said Mrs Simmons.

“She is in such agony, she is swollen, she can’t breathe, she has infection. She is in a really bad way.

“I don’t understand why they couldn’t keep her here.”

She said a fundraising campaign was underway to help pay for Mrs Sumani’s treatment and they hoped to appeal for her return to the UK.

“Ama is feeling terrible and all she can say is that her life is in the hands of God,” she added.

10½ years of New Labour.  Things Can Only Get Better.  A new day has dawned, has it not?  Whiter than white.  Pretty straight kind of guys.

In the immortal words of Stefan Dennis: don’t it make you feel good?