Guatemalan mother whom many helped dies as cancer returns
Sunday, February 22, 2009
By CHALLEN STEPHENS
Times Staff Writer challen.stephens@htimes.com

Now doctors seek to assist husband,4 young children

A year ago, Katarina, a Guatemalan mother of four young children, lay dying at Huntsville Hospital for want of a Social Security number.

The hospital provided indigent care, but could not hand out infection-fighting medicine for treatment at home. Drug companies had programs for free medicine, said her doctors, but those programs required a Social Security number.

Katarina, an undocumented kitchen worker who had walked across the border in 2001, lacked the papers that could extend her battle with leukemia. Her doctors say Huntsville responded with direct gifts of more than $6,000 after a public appeal for help in The Times. And the drug company made an exception to provide the in-home drugs.

"In light of her circumstances, they made an exception to that (Social Security requirement) and they qualified her," said Lisa Mathis, a patient advocate at Huntsville Hospital. "This particular patient a lot of people went above and beyond to help."

Tuesday, Katarina died of infection at Huntsville Hospital. After a year spent mostly in remission, said Dr. Richard Gualtieri, the cancer returned. A new round of chemotherapy sapped her immune system and left her vulnerable to infection. She was 33.

Katarina was not her real name. It was her mother's. Her doctor's chose it last year when appealing for public support, fearing possible deportation. Her real name was Micaela.

Now the same doctors are reaching out to Alabama's congressional delegation and the U.S. Embassy in Guatemala on behalf of Micaela's husband, said Dr. Alex Vasquez, a Huntsville heart surgeon raised in Guatemala.

Vasquez handled much of the translation for Micaela's family. He said doctors are seeking some sort of citizenship on humanitarian grounds. The four young children, only one of whom is school age, were born in the United States and are U.S. citizens.

"For them to go back would undo everything they had done," said Vasquez. "The future for these kids gets negated."

While Micaela received drugs through a corporate program, community donations helped pay for groceries, rent, gas and day-to-day supplies for the family, said Vasquez.

"There was a tremendous outpouring from the community," said Mathis, who works on behalf of many patients. "They saw the article in the paper and they approached us. They said how can we help Micaela."

In addition to the community donations, she said, two churches, Epworth United Methodist and Latham United Methodist, made frequent and direct gifts, such as Wal-Mart and gas cards.

"This has been an ongoing, very unique case, but a very rewarding case," said Mathis. "It just warms your heart to know so many people are willing to help."

The family, said Vasquez, spent the last of the community donations on a $1,183 airplane ticket. After a funeral in Marshall County this weekend, Micaela's body will be flown to Guatemala and taken back to the Mayan village of San Juan Ixcoy.

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