It’s been over 100 days since the horrible death of Sary Mao, a beloved Cambodian community member whose body was found days after her death at Montefiore’s Family Health Center at 1 Fordham Plaza in the Bronx this past summer. Both Montefiore and Catholic Charities Community Services, which oversees Beacon of Hope where Ms. Mao resided at the time of her death and did not report her as missing, have failed to take any responsibility for Ms. Mao’s death.

Ms. Mao’s death has devastated the Southeast Asian and broader Bronx community. She was a survivor who fled the Cambodian genocide and resettled in the Bronx in the 1980s, living in the Bronx for the past forty years. Ms. Mao was an active member of Mekong NYC, participating in the organization’s Women Circle and several campaigns. Ironically, Ms. Mao’s death occurred at Montefiore’s Family Health Center, whose reduction in staffing and resources she had protested the year before.

Following Ms. Mao’s death, the Bronx community has repeatedly called on Montefiore and Catholic Charities to ensure another tragedy like this will not happen again. On September 8th, community-based organization Mekong NYC submitted a letter calling for Montefiore and Catholic Charities to conduct an investigation and provide answers on Ms. Mao’s death. On September 21, the Montefiore Bronx Accountability Coalition (MBAC) consisting of healthcare providers, submitted a joint letter from nine of its organizations, unions, and associations to request a meeting. Following these letters on September 27th, Mekong NYC, MBAC, and community members from across the Bronx and New York City rallied in front of Montefiore’s Family Health Center location to demand justice for Ms. Mao. To this day, the community has only received one response from Montefiore, sent to Mekong NYC, which consists of a brief two-paragraph letter that declined to provide any answers or take any responsibility.  

Ms. Mao’s death is part of a long pattern of systemic neglect, disinvestment, and profit-seeking, particularly on the part of Montefiore. For decades, Montefiore has served as a primary healthcare provider for many residents in the Bronx, which is home to predominantly low-income communities of color including the Southeast Asian refugee community. Yet, Montefiore has consistently made decisions to diminish the amount and quality of healthcare provided to its Bronx patients. This pattern includes Montefiore’s decision to consolidate the Family Health Center and two other local clinics last year, which has greatly impeded the community’s access to adequate healthcare. At the same time that Montefiore has downsized facilities and access to healthcare for its patients in the Bronx, it has built and invested more resources in premium healthcare facilities in areas with more wealthy and white patients such as Manhattan and Westchester – proving that its priority is not health equity, but rather financial profit.

Had Montefiore not consolidated its clinics and downsized the Family Health Center’s staffing and resources, Ms. Mao may still be alive today. We will not stand by as Ms. Mao’s death and the continued neglect of our community in the Bronx continues to be sacrificed for the benefit of profit. We demand justice for Ms. Mao’s death and health equity for our broader community in the Bronx.

Keep up to date with the petition and any future actions here: https://bit.ly/JusticeForSaryMao.