Northern Marianas taxpayers have been paying for the medical care of a Chinese national who has been in a comatose state in the cash-strapped public hospital for almost three years, amassing a debt of well over one million US dollars.
The Commonwealth Healthcare Corporation's chief executive, Juan Babauta, says 49 year old Jing Zhi Qiang has been confined in the Commonwealth Health Center since February the 23rd in 2010.
Hospital records show the corporation has spent approximately one and a half million dollars on the patient's medical needs.
Mr Babauta says they have sought help from the Chinese Association in the CNMI, the Chinese consular office, the patient's kin, and his former employers on Saipan but no one has expressed a willingness to help.
