Rambam Medical Center
Photo: Doron Golan
Palestinian woman impersonates Israeli to undergo surgery
Haifa police investigating fraud by Jenin woman who used fake ID in order to be admitted at Rambam Medical Center. Hospital staff knew of swindle, chose to treat patient, report incident only after she was better
A 44-year-old Palestinian woman was detained Wednesday for alleged fraud, after doctors at the Rambam Medical Center in Haifa suspected she impersonated an Israeli resident of the northern town in order to undergo an operation.
Rambam staffers reportedly found out about the scam before the surgery, but decided to treat the woman, reporting the incident to the authorities only after she was on her way to recovery.
The woman came to the hospital's emergency room about a fortnight ago, where she was diagnosed with a serious heart condition. Presenting herself under a pseudonym – believed to be a relative's - she was hospitalized and prepped for surgery.
At this point, the Rambam blood bank manager alerted the administrations clerk to an inconsistency between the patient's blood type - as kept on file at the hospital - and the blood type reported prior to surgery.
The woman under whose name the suspect was admitted had given birth at Rambam in the past.
'I hope the family will be able to bail her out'
Further examination of the details soon revealed that the patient was impersonating someone else. Rambam's Chief of Staff, Prof. Rafi Biar determined at that point the woman must be treated.
"The woman underwent surgery and all subsequent treatments for 10 days," a hospital official told Ynet. "Only now, once we have finished treating her, we reported the case to the police."
An initial investigation revealed that the women used an ID card belonging to a relative living in Haifa.
"We're familiar with this phenomenon, especially with women who want to give birth in Israeli hospitals," Haifa Police Commander Major-General Dudu Ben-Atiya told Ynet.
"They either use relatives' IDs or fake ones," he added. "The hospitals admit them and treat them. What are they suppose to do – send them out to give birth on the street?"
The police, he said, are faced with a difficult ethical dilemma in such cases: "On the one hand – the woman is here illegally and she committed fraud in order to get medical care; on the other hand – this is an ailing woman who we can't really care for while it custody.
"I hope the family will be able to bail her out, under the proper restrictions," he added.
Haifa Police are expected to question the woman's family as well, for aiding a fraudulent act.
