My thoughts exactly. Under HIPPA, as a medical provider we are obligated by law to provide a translator at our own expense, if the patient demands one.
In my 18 years as a physician, there has only been ONE language we couldn't find a translator for.
The closest we came was some obscure sub-Saharan tribal dialect that the translator herself couldn't understand.
The translator said "I am picking up a few words, but the rest, I have no idea".
We’re also talking about Washington, D.C... There happened to be scores of embassies. This isn’t some little backwater town in the hills, it is the center of the nation. I refuse to believe the could not find a translator in that city.