Thread: Stuck in the middle

in the middle
Teen's future hangs on two hot-button issues

December 26, 2006
BY JUSTINA WANG Staff Writer
In the political world outside the Alvarez family apartment, 2006 was a year of immigration protests and health-care debates, when thousands of local residents marched for reform and Gov. Rod Blagojevich launched a program to cover all of Illinois' uninsured children.

In a sense, they were the faces behind the issues: The Alvarezes officially joined the ranks of undocumented immigrants this May when they remained in Aurora after their tourist visa expired.

» Click to enlarge image

Diego Alvarez, 14, came to Aurora from Mexico City with his family in hope of receiving better treatment for his worsening cystic fibrosis, a genetic disease that causes the body to produce abnormally thick mucus that clogs the lungs and leads to life-threatening lung infections.
(Marianne Mather / Staff Photographer)

» Click to enlarge image

Diego Alvarez laughs with his sister Brenda, 18, at their Aurora home. Diego is homebound due to the risk of infection. He needs a double-lung transplant but can't get a hospital to take his case because he's not a legal immigrant.
(Marianne Mather / Staff Photographer)
Sylvia Alvarez has since signed her 14-year-old son up for Blagojevich's All Kids health insurance -- a sweeping state program that, for the first time, covers immigrants of any legal status, but does not pay for the $1,766 bottle of prescription medication Diego needs each month.

Inside their Aurora home, however, there is no buzz of politics.

There are only the sounds of telenovelas on the TV set, the hum of Diego's oxygen machine, and the constant coughing and hacking as his body tries to expel the mucus that clogs and infects his lungs.

To Sylvia, securing legal residency status is not a topic on domestic affairs. It's the quickest route she sees to getting Diego the double-lung transplant that may keep him alive.

* * * * *

As Congress toyed with border security and workers' permits this year, the immigration debate spurred impassioned grass-roots demonstrations on both sides and mobilized unprecedented numbers of Aurorans to join nationwide rallies.

In April, 1,000 East and West Aurora high school students skipped school and marched for reform, and local priests staged a hunger strike in front of former House Speaker Dennis Hastert's Batavia office to support a controversial immigration bill.

In May, during the largest march in recent Aurora history, more than 11,000 local residents took to the streets as part of the nationwide "A Day Without Immigrants" demonstrations.

In summer, hundreds protested in dueling immigration rallies in front of Hastert's office, and thousands participated in a four-day trek from Chicago to Batavia in the Immigrant Workers Justice Walk.

* * * * *

To the Alvarez family, America represents a wealth of knowledge on cystic fibrosis, the incurable and progressive genetic disease Diego was diagnosed with when he was 4 months old.

Speaking through a translator, Sylvia said the differences in health care are tremendous. In Mexico, doctors knew little about the disease and told her family that the boy would likely die before he was 5. At Stroger Hospital of Cook County last year, he gained nearly 9 pounds -- an unheard of amount that put him, for the first time, at an almost healthy weight.

Diego and his family came from Mexico City last fall to visit relatives and research better treatment. Weeks after he arrived in Aurora, he caught a virus that infected his lungs and left him too sick to travel.

A Rush University Medical Center specialist, Dr. Girish Sharma, took on his case under the hospital's Charity Care Program and told the family that the best chance to add years to Diego's life was a double-lung transplant.

So while the country debated immigration policies, Sylvia sought out local advocates from Aurora's League of United Latin American Citizens council and Centro Cristo Rey, organizations known for their involvement with Hispanic and immigration issues.

With their help, she raised $73,000 -- enough money to get University Medical Center in Tucson, Ariz., to take Diego on as a patient. They had wanted to send him to St. Louis Children's Hospital, a center that could perform the transplant and also provide five years of follow-up care. But with no health insurance, that option comes with a practically unattainable $2 million price tag.

So they turned to University Medical Center, which agreed to accept the $73,000 and waive the rest of their fees.

But there's still another catch. That hospital requires documented proof of the Alvarez family's legal resident status before operating.

The Alvarez family has already received one six-month extension on their visa for medical treatment but haven't received a response since they filed for a second extension.

"I think everybody is worried about the perception this is going to make, like here is another guy coming in and getting free services from us," said Art Velasquez, president of Aurora's LULAC branch. "It seems like the public is all up in arms about illegal aliens, so we really don't know how (the Alvarez family's) application will be processed."

* * * * *

When state officials launched All Kids this year, they promoted it as the plan to bring affordable and accessible health insurance to Illinois' middle class.

Five months after its start, the program's popularity has exceeded expectations -- but the ones to really jump at the opportunity have been lower-income immigrants, here both legally and illegally.

All Kids replaced the state's Kid Care program and removed the restrictions that kept undocumented immigrants from joining many other state programs.

Nearly 60 percent of the new All Kids enrollees are immigrants who could not receive Medicaid because of their citizenship status.

* * * * *

Doctors told the Alvarez family the transplant would be a difficult and expensive procedure with a high risk of complications and no guarantees. And even if Diego undergoes the procedure, it will be a struggle to come up with the estimated $1,974 each month to pay for the drug cocktail he'll need as part of his aftercare.

But like any mother, Sylvia declares that she's willing to sacrifice everything, even if she's only gambling for a chance at adding a few more years to her son's life.

She knows she has little control over her immigration paperwork and the insurance policies. So she does what she can.

She appeals to the advocates from LULAC and any other organization she can find. She talks to anyone who may know about transplant centers and treatment options. She took notes on a TV program she saw about a young man who got his immigration application rushed through the system because he needed a kidney transplant.

And in between playing politics, Sylvia plays nurse. Every morning, Diego has four inhalation treatments that last 15 to 20 minutes each. Then he puts on a vibrating vest for 20 minutes every four hours that massages his chest and helps clear up any phlegm. They rotate through the treatments during the day, and at night hook him up to a feeding tube until the routine starts again at 6 a.m.

Every six weeks, they pay a visit to Rush Medical Center for a check-up.

Diego misses his friends and wants to go home to Mexico. He feels desperate in the hospital sometimes, and has stopped drawing so much now that he's run out of ideas for the cartoons he once loved.

But he wants to stay in Aurora, he said, because he knows that this is his chance to get well.


http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/beac ... S1.article

While I am not against helping sick children we (America) cannot heal the whole world while we become a third world country ourselves due to illegals thinking they can force us to. This is Mexico's responsibility not American taxpayers!

"I think everybody is worried about the perception this is going to make, like here is another guy coming in and getting free services from us," said Art Velasquez, president of Aurora's LULAC branch. "It seems like the public is all up in arms about illegal aliens, so we really don't know how (the Alvarez family's) application will be processed."

Yet another example of an illegal family coming here and trying to jump ahead in line, when there are other child citizens who desperately need lung transplants. And what happens to them?

The government of Mexico is totally irresponsible. I would not trust them to care for a pet turtle much less a human population. They aid, abet, and encourage the invasion, because remittances are a major source of cash flow for their economy. Provide health care, jobs, education for their own citizens? They are willfully incompetent to do that. They would rather export their burden to our communities where we have to clean up their mess.

Why should we pay for the treatment of her child. This was preplanned as no one in their right mind would go to any foreign country with an ill child that is extremely suseptible to infection. I was not born yesterday and neither were the rest of us. Who pays for the poor American with a sick child who can't afford healthcare? Many times they turn to the media to get donations from kind people who feel bad for the ill child but that is only a bandaid solution for American children. Let the Hispanic pay full price and learn what it like to be a real American.
I know that some hospitals have programs here that help poor children in other countries that are ill with surgery. The hospitals have extensive fundraisers for that progarm and select a candidate for treatment. People from that community also assist in fundraising and helping the child's parent(s) who come here with the child. Often the sugeon's do the operation for free but the rest of it gets paid for. This does not cost the taxpayers much if anything. Recently they had a girl from Hiati here and she had some kind to tumor that was growing rapidly on her face. She had multiple surgeries but the Hiatian community gathered and greatly helped with the costs.

Why doesn't LULAC and LaRacista and all the hundreds of other Hispanic organizations, that spend so much money lobbying for illegals, give them some of their money? Why doesn't the Hispanic community, that we hear so much about and their family values, raise some money for this kid? NO! They want the American taxpayer to fund it! There are hundreds of sick kids in this country. I see those jars at convenience stores, with a picture of a child on it, asking for donations for some illness. This is how Americans have to do it. It disgusts me that they come here and then expect treatment to be handed to them.

I wonder if any of these Hispanic organizations have set-up an appeal for funds or asked for help from the community. Isn't that part of what they supposed to do, when they are not too busy lobbying for illegal aliens??!

Originally Posted by gofer

Why doesn't LULAC and LaRacista and all the hundreds of other Hispanic organizations, that spend so much money lobbying for illegals, give them some of their money? Why doesn't the Hispanic community, that we hear so much about and their family values, raise some money for this kid? NO! They want the American taxpayer to fund it! There are hundreds of sick kids in this country. I see those jars at convenience stores, with a picture of a child on it, asking for donations for some illness. This is how Americans have to do it. It disgusts me that they come here and then expect treatment to be handed to them.

I wonder if any of these Hispanic organizations have set-up an appeal for funds or asked for help from the community. Isn't that part of what they supposed to do, when they are not too busy lobbying for illegal aliens??!

Very good question gofer.

I agree that it is a good question. LaRaza gets lots of corporate dollars so why don't they help. There are also other Hispanic groups such as Hispanic Unity. My only attempt at answering the question is that the organizations are there to allow the higher ups to live the good life. They get cars and expense accounts that they may be racking up. By law a charity only has a certain percentage that must be used for the actual charity. I am not sure exactly what it is but it I am guessing around 25% of what money comes in.

Originally Posted by Crusader01

While I am not against helping sick children we (America) cannot heal the whole world while we become a third world country ourselves due to illegals thinking they can force us to. This is Mexico's responsibility not American taxpayers!

only problem is parts of this country already are third world and with more people coming in than we can handle, the line in the sand its quietly moving north inch by inch

Originally Posted by jamesw62

Originally Posted by Crusader01

While I am not against helping sick children we (America) cannot heal the whole world while we become a third world country ourselves due to illegals thinking they can force us to. This is Mexico's responsibility not American taxpayers!

only problem is parts of this country already are third world and with more people coming in than we can handle, the line in the sand its quietly moving north inch by inch

Yes exactly as a direct result of these illegals.