Kidney transplant gives Alton girl new hope

Top 2009 stories

MRMC opens SAFE examining unit for sexual assault victims

County to get mobile health clinic

Thieves burglarize church

County still offering H1N1 vaccines

TxDOT Advisory

Kidney transplant gives Alton girl new hope

By Mary Nichols

McALLEN — Hospital waiting rooms are a second home to Leticia Gonzalez. Sitting on a blue sofa under a fleece blanket, the groggy-eyed 11-year-old said she hopes after Christmas she will no longer visit them.

Driscoll’s Children Hospital gave Leticia a second chance at life in October with a kidney transplant just in time for Christmas. Leticia has suffered through seven years of painful kidney dialysis and one failed transplant. This year, with a new kidney, her family said they anticipate she will now be able to live a healthy life.

Norma Diaz, Leticia’s mother, said there was a time when she wasn’t sure if doctors would ever find a matching donor for her daughter.

“We waited for a whole year,” Diaz said. “Doctors always said it was going to be hard to find a matching donor because of her tissues.”

Leticia is one of eight siblings. The family has already experienced an illness in the family, when they lost Leticia’s 4-year-old brother to cancer in 1997.

Living in Florida, when Leticia was 4 years old, she wasn’t urinating regularly. Diaz became afraid she might have to endure another struggle of loosing a child.

“They gave her medication for her kidneys, but I guess her kidneys were already in a failed advance stage,” Diaz said. “By December of the same year she lost her two kidneys.”

To add more stress to Diaz and her family, Leticia’s younger sister Alexia, who is now 5 years old, was also not urinating regularly. Alexia was diagnosed with nephrotic syndrome, or kidney failure like Leticia, and given medication. However, Alexia over came the diagnosis and is now doing better.

Once Leticia’s kidneys had failed she was put on hemodialysis for over two years. In this dialysis, a catheter is attached to her chest and connected to a machine. The machine in turn draws out Leticia’s blood and filters it from waste products.

Leticia would endure the procedure, three times a week for four hours, which had her screaming in agony.

Diaz says that seeing her daughter in pain and feeling helpless to comfort Leticia tore through her heart.

“There were times she would ask for help,” said Diaz in tears. “She couldn’t stand the pain and she would tell us, to tell the doctors to leave her alone.”

In 2006, Leticia’s dad, Ramiro Gonzalez, was a matching donor and donated a kidney. Two years after the transplant, the kidney begin failing and Leticia had to be put back on dialysis.

Diaz and her family moved to the Rio Grande Valley where doctors offered a less painful dialysis. Leticia would take part in peritoneal dialysis everyday for about 10 hours, which left Leticia at home.

Leticia was living in a bubble and was hardly allowed to move about or play.

“The hardest for her has been the diet because of the dialysis, she had been restricted to only fluids,” said Diaz. “Now that she has her kidney transplant she can eat whatever she wants.”

On Oct. 16, they found a matching kidney for Leticia. Two days later she got the transplant.

Dr. Famhar Al-Akash managed Leticia’s case before and after her transplant. He was in charge of regulating her nutrition, medication and blood pressure. He says Leticia waited longer than normal pediatric transplant patients.

“She had an allergic reaction to a lot of human tissue and became highly sensitized because she lost her first transplant,” said Al-Akash. “It was hard to find a suitable donor for her. She was basically lucky to find a donor who matched her perfectly, which happens very rarely.”

Leticia ended up in the operating room for more than eight hours. Time that Diaz said had her nerves in a knotted ball.
“The following day she had to go back into surgery because she was bleeding,” said Diaz. “They didn’t know if it was the kidney or something else. It turned out to be blood clots, which they removed. It was a scary feeling because we thought maybe her body was rejecting the kidney.”

Diaz said her daughter has been strong during this whole experience. However, Leticia is now traumatized by needles and dressing tape.

“She has been through a lot,” said Diaz caressing Leticia’s hair. “She just had some blood work done and four people had to hold her down.”

Diaz holds Leticia in her arms and it is apparent that Leticia is scarred by her whole experience. She cringes when her mom discusses blood work and needles. Leticia, who is shy and quiet, looks up and agrees in the relief of no longer having to be poked by needles as often.

Leticia is now on 13 different medications. She takes 10 at night and eight pills in the morning. She will continue to be on medication for a while. To stay on top of taking her medications, she has a cell phone that alarms her when to take them.

“It also gets very boring at home for her,” said Diaz. “When I come home from work she wants something exciting to do, but I have to come home and continue with the cleaning and cooking for everybody. It is very hard.”

Leticia said she is very excited for the holidays and can’t wait to go back to school at Kika De La Garza Elementary in January.

“My favorite subject in school is math and I missed running around and playing soccer,” said Leticia muffling her mouth behind her blanket.

Diaz said she has learned to accept what life may put in her path and overcome it by having great hope and faith. More importantly, she has learned the importance of being an organ donor.

“On my driver’s license I use to have no about donating my organs, because to me they were my organs and I didn’t want to give them away,” said Diaz. “Being a donor is giving someone a new life. My daughter has a new life…They say a single person can save 50 lives.”

Al-Akash said that the average adult in Texas waits five years for a transplant and children wait almost two years. In the U.S. he said there are roughly 100,000 patients waiting for an organ transplant and 70 percent of those are for a kidney. Only 20,000 transplants are done per year and is a number that will continue to grow.

Al-Akash said it is important for people to be donors because it could save a life.

“Donors pass through rigorous process of testing, to make sure they will be OK after donation,” said Al-Akash. “Once they donate and those who do donate, tend to fair better in health, than the general public. Donors might have a less chance of cancer, diabetes, hypertension and kidney failure.”

For more information on organ donation or general information visit UNOS.org or driscollschildrens.org.

Top 2009 stories: Bridge, Levees, Fire

Public officials were involved in the top stories for 2009 from the indictment of Rep. Ismael “Kino” Flores to the arrest of Alton’s Police Chief Baldemar Flores and the joined efforts of elected officials to get the Anzalduas International Bridge here opened.

H1N1

Much of the news across the border and across the county dealt with the confusion and concern over the H1N1 or swine flu pandemic that started in Mexico in late April. The Rio Grande Valley saw a number of cases and a few deaths, but state health officials said underlying health issues with the patients could have contributed to their deaths.

Health officials said the biggest population at risk of contracting the novel influenza was young children, pregnant women and the elderly who had health complications. By the fall, Hidalgo County Health and Human Services began issuing public service announcements to educate the public on the influenza virus and the proper precautions to prevent the illness.

Slowly in the fall, the county also started to receive small amounts of the H1N1 vaccine, which was first given to the at-risk population and has since been offered to the general public.

Border Crossing

As people feared crossing the border into Mexico where most of the H1N1 cases had been documented, Rio Grande Valley residents also struggled with getting their government-approved identification to cross into the border. On June 1, United States citizens were required to have a passport, passport card or other travel documents approved by the federal government to re-enter the country, even if traveling by vehicle or foot.

Leading up to the deadline, the Hidalgo County District Clerk’s Office held a number of passport fairs around the county. Even recently, over the past month, these fairs are still being held to assist residents in getting their proper documentation.

Deaths

The year also saw the deaths of a number of locals including Mission City Councilmember Celestino Ramirez who died May 18 and former Progress Times publisher and editor June Brann who died Aug. 14.

With a vacancy on the City Council, Mission held a special election at the end of August with two women campaigning for the seat. An overwhelming number of voters selected Ramirez’s wife, Maria Elena Ramirez to complete the term.

Brann, who was a distinguished journalist with a career spanning over 50 years, worked for The Associated Press, the Mission Times, the Houston Chronicle, Weslaco News, KRIO and KURV radio and KRGV TV. She later became owner, publisher and editor of the Progress Times, Winter Texan Times and the Texas Agri-News before her retirement in 2002.

The community also mourned the loss of a soldier who died participating in Operation Iraqi Freedom in late October. Staff Sgt. Bradley Espinoza, 26, who was listed as a resident of Mission, died on Oct. 19 after enemy forces attacked his vehicle with an improvised explosive device, commonly known as an IED, in Qwest, Iraq, officials said.

County

Over the summer, as the county, cities and school districts began to work on their budgets for 2010, Hidalgo County budget officials warned of a possible shortfall of $11.2 million, and ultimately took millions of dollars from the general fund to create a balanced budget. The county had to promise to minimize spending and even cease hiring of new employees until the economy and the county’s finances improve.

The county also established its SAFEguard Initiative in July. The program acronym “SAFE” stands for Systems & Procedures, Audits, Fiscal Controls and Efficiency, county leaders said. Along with accountability, other objectives include identifying ways to manage county operations and funds, identify and eliminate redundancy in county operations and improve the transparency within county operations.

Hidalgo County Judge J.D. Salinas said the creation of the 14-point list will help county officials “challenge” themselves to create a better working county system.

After working for Hidalgo County for nearly 20 years, Hidalgo County Judge J.D. Salinas III submitted his resignation from his post of which he’s served for a term to accept an appointment from the Obama Administration to become the regional administrator for the U.S. General Services Administration in late October.

Salinas nominated Rene A. Ramirez to fulfill his term as county judge. Ramirez is a former chief of staff for Rep. Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa and a former Edinburg City Councilmember.

Kino’s Indictments

Rep. Ismael “Kino” Flores, accused of failing to disclose his sources of income, real estate holdings and gifts received as required by a state elected official, has characterized the accusations against him as disappointing and an “unfortunate event” after six separate indictments were handed down by the Travis County’s grand jury in late July. Flores was accused of withholding financial information from the Texas Ethics Commission starting in 2004 through 2009 to the tune of $847,000.

The indictments included 16 counts of tampering with a governmental record and three counts of perjury.

Weeks later, Flores announced he had no intentions of running for re-election.

Alton police chief arrested

Police arrested Chief Baldemar Flores in September after learning from Auto Zone store employees that Flores was seen having sex with a woman in a vehicle behind the store. The store’s manager told Mission Assistant Police Chief Martin Garza about the incident in July, court documents state.

But employees said the trysts between Flores and the woman later identified as Cynthia Garcia, 22, had been going on since 2008 behind the store at 2204 N. Conway Ave. The pair would meet about once or twice a week.

City officials placed Flores on paid administrative leave.

Fire destroys historic landmark

The Saint Joseph and Saint Peter Seminary along Farm-to-Market Road 494, which was built in 1912, was burnt so badly in September that the first and second floors collapsed into the basement, fire investigators said.

The building was vacant and not in use, diocese officials said. For 65 years, the building was a training center for priests. In 1974, the building was leased to the Tropical Texas Center for Mental Health and Mental Retardation. The Diocese of Brownsville, which acquired the property in 1999, planned to renovate the historical site. Several projects were in the works, including plans for a diocesan museum.

Levee Projects

In continuing efforts to maintain and reconstruct the area’s levee problems, The United States Section of the International Boundary and Water Commission (USIBWC) held a groundbreaking ceremony in October to mark the start of construction on Lower Rio Grande Flood Control Project levee improvements.

The USIBWC is raising levee height to comply with standards established by the Federal Emergency Management Agency for the 100-year flood.

The Banker Floodway construction, covering three miles of levee between Granjeno and 23rd Street, is being performed by Inuit Services, Inc. of Anchorage, Alaska, which was awarded a $950,997 contract in accordance with a federal program targeting qualified small businesses in distressed areas. Construction is scheduled to be completed in February 2010.

Construction has also begun on a 43-mile reach of the Main Floodway in Hidalgo County to provide enhanced flood protection for the communities of McAllen, Hidalgo, Pharr, San Juan, Alamo, Donna, and Weslaco. Longhorn Excavators, Inc. of Richmond was awarded the $19,169,159 contract, with construction scheduled to be completed by September 2010.

Anzalduas International Bridge

The Anzalduas International Bridge, which is accessible through South Bryan Road, opened a few weeks ago, allowing holiday travelers a different option when trying to cross the border.

In its first day, bridge officials said almost 2,000 vehicles passed through the southbound lanes of the bridge.

As the bridge is expected to cut traveling time to Monterrey for tourists, and the manufacturing plants in Mexico for thousands of employees, CBP Port Director of Pharr/Hidalgo Hector Mancha said he expects to see about 4,000 vehicles travel through Anzalduas on a daily basis as the bridge becomes more well known.

City officials boasted that the bridge would also help the surrounding areas benefit economically with visitors passing through Mission.