2024-07-19 02:54:18
Former Miss World Paraguay, Dahiana Benítez Gatzke, recalled today through two videos published on her Instagram story what happened to her during her cultural/work exchange stay in the United States.
She was in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, from late 2021 to early 2022, fulfilling the exchange program. She worked in a hotel for 4 months, changing sheets and cleaning.
Today she shared her dramatic experience when she fell ill and was turned away from a hospital despite having health insurance. According to her, it was because she had the surname Benítez.
“I’m going to tell you about a case of discrimination in the United States. You shouldn’t let them, I let them because I didn’t know how to act,” she began by saying in her video.
“In December 2021, I got Covid. At the end of January, I couldn’t rest or do anything because I had a cough that wouldn’t stop. My lungs weren’t recovering. So, one night when I didn’t sleep, the next morning they took me to the clinic,” she said.
He said that there, curiously, they did not want to recognize his medical insurance and that they made him wait outside. Since they did not attend to him, he had to return. “I had insurance through an exchange. It is a place where many exchange students go and they already have to know how to proceed. It was all no and they made me wait outside in minus 20 degrees,” he said.
He said that because he was still sick, his employers helped him check with the exchange organization and his insurance company that everything was in order for him to be treated. He left again and was again turned away, he said. “They left me out again when I told them my last name was Benitez,” he said.
“Then a Mexican doctor came and told me, ‘My colleagues are being mean to you because you are Latina,’” she said. She recounted her experience so that other people who experience a similar situation can report it as discrimination.
2024-07-19 02:54:18