Dana Ferguson

dferguson@argusleader.com

For years Robert Becker fought with the Indian Health Service (IHS) to improve the health services it provided at its Rosebud hospital.

The former tribal councilman has worked with members of Congress, his tribe and others to overhaul the inadequate care at the facility. Conditions there haven't changed in decades, though, Becker said.

After the birth of his daughter in 1991, Becker said he hasn't returned to the facility. A series of negative experiences at the hospital shaped his discontent with the federal agency that operates it.

Becker said he and others can afford to avoid the hospital all together.

“They call it the death hospital," Becker, 61, said. "Anybody outside the reservation doesn’t go there."

And while going to another hospital may be an option for those with private insurance or certain federal health insurance, not everyone can afford to go to another facility.

Becker said doctors at Rosebud amputated his mother's leg and it became infected. He said she went to another hospital for follow-up care, but she had to pay out of pocket. The debt plagued her until she died, Becker said.

While he continues to fight with IHS to fix longstanding problems at the facility, he said he encourages most tribal members to steer clear of the hospital.

"If they’re running that place the way they are now, it’s not worth that," Becker said. "It's not worth going there to die. And that's what happens."

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