Letters: Kidney transplant not a reasonable request
Both of Ruth Bernal de Villalta's kidneys have stopped functioning. Her husband is willing to donate one of his kidneys to her if he's a match, but since both are undocumented immigrants, doctors at the clinic where she gets her dialysis treatments have told her a transplant is impossible. Bernal de Villalta is shown in her Brentwood apartment on Monday, June 15, 2015. Credit: Steve Pfost
I'm an avid Newsday reader, and your editorial about a kidney patient who needs a transplant amazed me ["Generosity can fund transplant," June 18].
I've been on dialysis for more than 15 months. I hate it and get the same side effects as the woman in the story ["A dire medical crisis," News, June 17]. To offer her a $300,000 transplant is not about having heart. Many of our taxpaying citizens who have insurance cannot afford the many medicines required for a lifetime.
She is lucky to receive free dialysis, which can run in excess of $1,400 a week. Shall society also step up to pay for liver, pancreas and heart transplants to immigrants here illegally? Can our health care system afford it?
Harvey Zaken, Woodbury
I couldn't believe what I was reading. How could an immigrant here illegally feel she is entitled to any benefits in our country?
This person is covered by Medicaid and has been on dialysis for two years. She's trying to get surgery that costs taxpayers $300,000. I feel sorry for her and the many, many similar immigrants who have come to our country looking for help. We cannot help the world, the same way we cannot police the world.
Maybe our politicians should think more seriously about closing our borders so we won't have this kind of thing happen again.
Marie Pomilla, Hauppauge
