Greilin Carcamo pulled at the entire nation's heart-strings when she appeared on this newscast two weeks ago with end stage renal failure. We feature a fair number of sick people in need on this newscast but her case seemed especially touching because the frail 23 year old mother was literally knocking at death's door. Carcamo could not get dialysis because her veins had collapsed and she needed three thousand us dollars to get a special procedure performed in Guatemala which would insert a tube into her stomach.
Well, with the support of viewers who responded to her plea, she got that done and she came to our studio today looking much better but not feeling that different. That's because for all intents and purposes the procedure failed; they tried to insert the tube in three different places on her stomach and even tried her back - and they couldn't find an open vein. She did manage to get a partial dialysis yesterday but going forward there are no promises and no easy solutions. She told us more
Greilin Carcamo
"My condition is bad right now because I can't do my dialysis. I do one in one week; I have to do it three times a week. I did one yesterday, I don't know if I can do one tomorrow."
Jules Vasquez
"However you had the procedure performed in Guatemala."
Greilin Carcamo
"Yes, they did it but it is not working. "
Jules Vasquez
"Why didn't it work?"
Greilin Carcamo
"Because the doctor says that all of my veins got dried, they collapse and they are not producing more blood. "
Jules Vasquez
"So you had tubes put in your veins?"
Greilin Carcamo
"Yes I have one on my ribs and both sides of my stomach. "
Jules Vasquez
"None of them are responding?"
Greilin Carcamo
"None of them work. So the doctor says the only option that I have is a transplant. For that I need a lot of money, US$18,000."
Jules Vasquez
"How do you feel about your future Greilin?"
Greilin Carcamo
"Feel sad because the way the doctor told me that I don't have long to go. He only gave me about 2 months to live because with that tube I will not live long."
Jules Vasquez
"What you are telling me is that you cannot survive without a transplant."
Greilin Carcamo
"Yes because I don't have anywhere else on my body to put tubes. Before this trip I made to Guatemala, I had already made one, they cut my two legs on the side to see if they can put tubes, but they couldn't."
Jules Vasquez
"It's like your body is just giving up."
Greilin Carcamo
"But I don't want to give up; I want to continue to live for my daughter."
If she does manage to raise the funds for a transplant, her brother has volunteered to give a kidney.
If you would like to help, you can call Greilin or her husband at 621-3411 or 669-5743. The account number is 2-111-481-31 at the Atlantic bank.
She will try the dialysis again tomorrow and we'll let you know if it is successful...
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