Jose Cruz’s Fight for Justice

Elizabeth Pridgeon

Jose Cruz has been at the forefront of media attention over recent months as he made public his struggle with failing kidneys.  While the media has eagerly followed his life-dependent fundraising campaign, little attention has been given to his cause since his fundraising target was met.  Last week, the Belize Times met up with Mr Cruz to report on his unravelling fight for justice and campaign for universal healthcare to be available to all Belizeans, whatever their illness.

Jose Cruz is not new to the intricacies of the (often confusing) health care service here in Belize.  Ten years ago, he was diagnosed as a diabetic and was put on long-term treatment to control his condition.  However, nearly four years ago, Mr Cruz’s health took a turn for the worse, and suffering serious bouts of nausea, itchiness and unsightly swelling of his limbs, he was immediately hospitalised for several days while doctors conducted tests to determine the cause of his symptoms.  It was following this intense period of investigation that doctors revealed two pieces of unexpected news to Mr Cruz: firstly, that several years prior he had been wrongly diagnosed, and was in fact not a diabetic, and secondly that his condition was caused by polycystic kidneys, which is an often fatal genetic disease rarely escaped by offspring.  The blessing in all this bad news was that Mr Cruz has never biologically fathered children (although he cares for many step-children) and therefore his genetic condition has not been handed down to future generations of Cruzes.

With 14 cysts spread across his two kidneys, Mr Cruz’s rapid deterioration was because his kidneys were increasingly hindered from fulfilling their function of filtering waste products from the blood stream.  Thus his blood was effectively poisoning his own body, little by little.  An intensive course of dialysis began immediately, whereby Mr Cruz was attached to a machine twice a week so that his bodily fluids could be balanced and managed mechanically.  For a year this solution was seemingly successful, but during a visit to Guatemalan specialists in early 2008, Mr Cruz learnt that his multiple cysts were bursting, hindering the dialysis process by causing repeated re-infection of the kidneys.  He was recommended to consider the process of nephrectomy (the removal of one or both kidneys) and soon afterwards he had both kidneys removed in one costly operation.  Now more than ever being entirely dependent on dialysis to conduct the natural processes of the kidneys, and being faced with a twice weekly cost of almost $500 per session for dialysis, Mr Cruz began his tireless campaign for dialysis to be made available to all those who need it, regardless of personal financial impediments.

Little did he know that his advocacy complemented the work of the Kidney Association of Belize, which has been fighting for dialysis rights for Belizeans since its inception in 2006.  The then PUP government committed to sponsoring 21 patients for dialysis, and they delegated the decision making process to the Kidney Association.  This situation has changed under the current administration, and the Ministry of Health is now responsible for choosing the recipients of this support, although Mr Cruz is uncertain as to how the ‘waiting list’ works.

Mr Cruz has been lucky enough to have some generous friends who try to club together to raise enough money to pay for his weekly sessions, but he explains that the stress and struggle is still overwhelming at times.  In December, his health took another turn for the worst: following weeks of unexplainable symptoms in late November (including seriously low blood pressure and severe aches and pains) doctors revealed that rapid bruising of his leg in early December was a sign of grave circulatory problems.  Two weeks before Christmas, Mr Cruz was forced to amputate his toes (which were ‘dead’ due to just 5% blood circulation to his feet); a week later doctors realised that they hadn’t prevented the problem spreading further up the limb, and Mr Cruz’s left leg was amputated on 19^th December 2009.

In January of this year, he lost two fingers to a similar fate, and was forced to hurriedly fundraise $15,000 in order to pay for the necessary procedures.  Remarkably, Mr Cruz actually exceeded his fundraising targets, and willingly donated the excess to a young Belizean suffering a rare and acute skin disease (despite the fact that costs arise for Mr Cruz on a weekly basis merely to receive comprehensive health care, and he could easily have pumped the excess cash into his own expenses).

Mr Cruz’s health condition is by no means unusual, but what is unique is his enthusiasm for advocating for better tertiary health care here in Belize, despite his own debilitating situation.  Mr Cruz, confined permanently to a wheel chair, completely blind, and fighting for survival through regular 3-hour dialysis sessions in Belize City, is in no way a ‘victim’ of his circumstances.  Contrary to how many may react to such devastating circumstances, Mr Cruz uses his situation to promote the situation of similar kidney sufferers, and to advocate for changes in legislation to ensure that all Belizeans who need it have access to dialysis.  Of the Belizean health care system in general, Mr Cruz believes there is much room for improvement, and Belizeans need to join forces in order to campaign for better service and care.  Whilst public services in general are in desperate need of a make-over, Mr Cruz’s passion lies with advocacy of the health care system, inspired by his own personal experiences.

Mr Cruz leaves us with one thought: if every Belizean would just donate a dollar, or as much as they could afford, they would help their brethren in need.  He assures readers that, if donating to an individual cause isn’t tempting, the Kidney Association will willing receive donations of any size, and will invest all its funds towards creating a brighter outlook for kidney and renal sufferers in the future.  It can only be hoped that future generations of sufferers will never have to suffer as Mr Cruz has, regardless of how brave and commendable he appears on the surface.

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