“I noticed my belly lopsided and hard, really hard,” she said.

 

On Aug. 12, she decided to go to the emergency room at Baptist Hospital.

 

“Because I had sutures coming out of my belly and I had pain, Linares said , who is from south Miami-Dade.

 

She has the pictures to prove her protruding stomach. In one of the photos, it is clear black sutures or internal stitches are coming out through the middle of her belly button.

 

Linares’ medical records show she had a CT scan at Baptist Hospital and was referred to a surgeon.

 

“He’s the one that actually discovered and said the mesh was (because I had a tummy tuck) that the mesh had broken and that’s what the problem was,” she said.

 

Sometimes an internal mesh is used to provide support for the tissues.

 

Now Linares needs surgery again to repair the problem, but she has Medicaid, which she said, refused to pay for the surgery. She is unemployed and cannot afford to pay the bill herself.

 

“Like many of us the economy hit me too and two years ago I lost everything. I don’t have $4,000 to spend on a tummy tuck and Medicaid won’t pay for it. So what do I do?” she said.

 

Her general practitioner is looking into why Medicaid denied covering the cost of surgery with the hope of getting her coverage.