Juliana Mateo, second from left, sits by her sister, Dolores Mateo, left, her mother, Maria Miguel, right, and her daughter, Fabiola Mateo, 3, in their Palmetto home Tuesday. Local residents are setting up a fundraiser to help Juliana pay for kidney dialysis and surgery.
Mateo, 28, is not eligible for health insurance or government funding because she is an undocumented immigrant. She is a former farmworker, so she has no income. She moved from Guatemala to Florida 14 years ago with her family.
Health care options for illegal immigrants are limited and have become even more so in the wake of the national immigration debate. Proponents of an immigration system overhaul say illegals are a burden on hospitals and drive up health-care costs.
But her dire situation transcends the immigration debate. She is worried about dying and leaving her three children, all born in the United States, without a mother. She has two boys, ages 5 and 10, and a girl, age 3. Their father is not around.
A few local Good Samaritans, including some leaders in the local Latino community, have set up a trust fund to raise money. Thousands are needed for dialysis, a series of tests to find a possible kidney donor in her family, and possibly transplant surgery.
"A human is a human whether a person has documents or doesn't have documents, no matter what color a person is or where a person is from," said Cerrillo. "We can't treat her like an animal and just let her die."
Mateo said returning to Guatemala would be a death sentence. Government hospitals there are full, and she cannot afford private care, said her sister, Dolores Mateo.
Money is tight for the family. Fourteen people, including Mateo's 65-year-old mother, her sister, her sister's husband and a total of 10 children, are crammed into a deteriorating, small three-bedroom house in Palmetto.
Frequent headaches and pain in her lower back sent Mateo to the hospital about two years ago. After seven days in a hospital in West Palm Beach, they told her she was fine and could leave. But they never explained what was wrong with her.
All of Mateo's family is in the United States, said Martha Ramirez, of the Healthy Start Coalition of Manatee County, a non-profit which helps pregnant women.
"Once I met her, I said to myself, 'How can I not help her?'" Ramirez said. "I am human. I see her suffering and I cannot be indifferent. I can't go to sleep and say it's not my business."
"Someone has to help her. I cannot do it alone," Ramirez said. "She told me, 'If I pass away, fine. That is part of life. I believe in God. But I have my kids.'"
This is cache, read story here
