The Nation - News from July 17, 1986

The Texas Supreme Court ruled that the parents of a boy who died after being refused treatment because his family did not have money or insurance were entitled to $850,000 in damages. The money is to be paid by two Brownsville, Tex., hospitals, including the one that had the boy transferred to another facility because the family had no money, and a Brownsville doctor. Fermin Gracia Jr., 9, died in 1979, of complications that apparently developed after he was kicked in the stomach, according to court records.