PHOENIX — After a woman in a vegetative state gave birth late December, some families with patients at Hacienda Healthcare are looking for new facilities to care for their loved ones.
Karina Cesena is one such mother, who wants to move her 22-year-old daughter out of the facility.
"We need to feel secure. We don’t feel secure here at all," Cesena said.
Cesena has rarely left her daughter in the weeks since a woman gave birth. Her daughter Jazzymne suffers multiple seizures a day— a result from an Asthma attack which caused her to "be passed away" for 20 minutes.
Cesena said the search for a new facility for her daughter has been difficult.
"It was very nil. There were not a lot of places I could find unless it was senior care," Cesena said.
The problem, Cesena and other families are facing, is that the type of care Hacienda Healthcare provides is unique.
In a questionnaire, Hacienda Healthcare said it is "Arizona's only ICF-IID (intermediate care facilities for individuals with intellectual disabilities) that serves medically fragile and medically complex individuals."
"It’s not very easy to find another place," Cesena said.
Efforts to figure out how many places offer the type of care were unsuccessful. The Arizona Department of Disabilities referred us to the Department of Economic Security, who did not respond to our inquiry.
There are private options available, but many too expensive for those patients at Hacienda Healthcare. Almost 92 percent of Hacienda Healthcare's revenue comes from government sources. Those, like Cesena, rely on the government to pick up some of the medical tab.
There are potential private options, but they are too expensive for Cesena, a single mother. She did find a place for her daughter in Las Vegas and was able to get her daughter a spot there thanks to family living in the area.
Cesena set up a GoFundMe page to help with the costs in moving her daughter to Las Vegas.