Health authorities in Puebla, Mexico, announced measures to help Daniela Cruz, the young woman who became a paraplegic after an accident in the United States and had to return to her country because she did not have health insurance.
The assistance they offered her included medical and psychological care, support with medical equipment, and food aid for her and her family in San Antonio Matlahuacales, a small town located 110 kilometers north of the state capital.
The announcement comes weeks after Noticias Telemundo revealed Cruz's story, which exemplifies the drama faced by millions of Latinos without health insurance in the United States,
a problem that especially affects immigrants
.
By 2020, among the young adult population, 26% of authorized immigrants and 42% of undocumented immigrants did not have health coverage, a figure that barely reaches 8% among US citizens.
[An accident changed his life. Undocumented and without health insurance, her only option was to return to Mexico]
Since she returned to Mexico in June 2022, Cruz had only managed to get care for one hour a week in a rehabilitation center of the National System for the Integral Development of the Family (SNDIF), a federal social assistance entity.
In the United States, doctors told her that if she received intense and constant physical therapy, in about five years she might be able to get out of her chair.
Days after her story came out, officials from the local DIF office in Chignahuapan, Puebla, visited her home and offered her three physiotherapy sessions a week, as well as a weekly psychological therapy session, the spokeswoman confirmed to Telemundo News. from the DIF, Miriam Aldaco.
Daniela Cruz, 25, became a paraplegic after suffering a traffic accident in Idaho in December 2021. Juan Arredondo
The entity also promised to repair the electric wheelchair that Cruz brought to Mexico from the United States and that he has not been able to use due to a malfunction.
In addition, it included the young woman, 25 years old and with a two-year-old son, in a disability food program.
Initially, they will deliver basic food on a monthly basis, the spokeswoman said.
For its part, the state office of the DIF managed help so that Cruz can be assessed by a specialist in neurology at the Puebla Traumatology and Orthopedics Hospital, in search of an updated diagnosis to adapt her medical treatment, the entity reported.
Cruz will have her first date this Friday, April 14.
painful process
Daniela Cruz has said that in recent months she has recovered some sensitivity in her legs: now she can feel hot and cold, and the rubbing on her skin.
She does not lose hope of improving if she maintains a constant physiotherapy treatment.
“Therapists have told me that there is a change, they have seen it since I arrived,” she said.
But his general health has also worsened, according to what he told Noticias Telemundo.
She has constant urinary infections, a lot of pain and fears that her vital organs will be affected by the amount of medicines she is taking: "I feel stiffer, I have terrible pain, I don't know why it comes, that's why I need to see a doctor" .
Daniela Cruz (lying down) began to make handmade bracelets.
With the help of a group of women from her town, she sells them to generate an economic income. Courtesy of Daniela Cruz.
Cruz was injured on December 16, 2021 while going to work at a potato processing plant in Hammer, Idaho.
His vehicle skidded in the snow and ended up at the bottom of a dry canal next to the road.
The blow caused her serious injuries, including a fracture of her T4 vertebra, which left her paralyzed from the chest down.
The doctors informed her that she will not walk again.
The young woman lived in the United States without papers and without medical coverage.
The company she worked for did not offer her insurance, and because of her immigration status, neither she nor her husband could enroll in Medicaid or qualify for a government-subsidized plan.
Her private health insurance was too expensive for him.
[“People are dying for preventive reasons”: the lack of health insurance hits Latino adults in the US]
After the accident, he knocked on doors at various physical therapy clinics in Idaho, but was unable to access the services he needed due to lack of health insurance.
She is the mother of a 2-year-old boy, whom she cannot care for due to her paralysis
.
In Idaho, she spent most of her time at home alone, while her husband worked and her aunt, Silvia Cruz, took care of the child.
While she was there, she told Telemundo News that her days were "very heavy and sad" and that on several occasions she fell out of her wheelchair and had to wait on the ground until her husband returned to pick her up.
On June 30, 2022, Cruz returned to Mexico with her son, Mateo.
She now lives with her parents in San Antonio Matlahuacales, 15 minutes from Chignahuapan, Puebla.
Daniela Cruz with her husband, José, and their son Mateo, while hospitalized in Idaho Falls in March 2022.Juan Arredondo
His case demonstrates the high risk in which millions of people who do not have health insurance live in the United States.
Currently, almost 29 million people in the country remain without an insurance plan, the majority because they do not know that they qualify for subsidized plans or have problems paying deductibles and other costs.
Others don't insure because of the stigma attached to public coverage and barriers to enrolling.
[Millions of people will lose Medicaid coverage as pandemic protections expire]
Undocumented immigrants, like Daniela, cannot apply for public health plans such as Medicaid or the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), which require citizenship or residency for more than five years.
They also can't buy cheaper insurance through the Obamacare marketplace, because they don't qualify for federal subsidies.
The lack of timely medical care ends up affecting people's health
.
In the United States, for example, Hispanics have a lower survival rate for several types of cancer.
The American Cancer Society attributes this disparity to late diagnosis and lack of access to “timely and quality” treatment, among other factors.