New Life Society Yuma chapter aids those who need organs

Paul Martinez is alive today because he was given a new liver two years ago.

Maribel Cross said she can "actually breathe" because she is the recipient of two lungs.

The two Yumans have shared their life experiences with the recently organized New Life Society of Yuma, a nonprofit organization dealing with organ donations.

Martinez, 52, born and raised in Yuma, said, "I got very sick more than four years ago. I turned a weird color - a gray-green, something like a Halloween costume color.

"I caught colds easily and was very weak. I couldn't work at plumbing - my job. My legs ballooned out, and my ankles were swollen.

"I was on the donor list for about two years, then was called when a young man was killed in an accident, and I was given his liver at the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale," Martinez recalled.

"It was wonderful! I felt like I had a new lease on life." Martinez spent about 18 months in Scottsdale after the transplant.

"I'm checking into learning a new career. I can't work at plumbing because of possibly getting an infection. I can't be around too many people and have to be careful about catching a cold. My immune system is weak."

Martinez said now his sister, Peggy Martinez, is very ill. "She's on the list for a liver."

Cross agreed with Martinez on how she felt after the transplant two years ago.

"It was a shocking miracle to breathe again. I had been on oxygen for nine months before the surgery at the University Medical Center in Tucson. I stayed at the hospital for six months more. I did have to learn to walk, because I had been bedridden for such a long time."

Cross said, "I smoked, but had quit five years before I became ill. My jobs had been working in a clothing store for two years and prior to that, for a toy store. Where I worked there were always fumes from dyes and dust particles from boxes.

"I started having a runny nose, and was told I might have allergies, asthma, COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) - which was ruled out. My cough became uncontrollable and I was put in the hospital and on the donor list for lungs.

"I have learned that my donor was a 48-year-old woman from Wyoming, whose lost life gave life to me with lungs (and) her heart, liver and kidneys to others," Cross said.

"My husband, Daniel, stayed with me while I was in the hospital and did lose his job. We have four children, one grandchild and another on the way that I can enjoy."

While an organ may be freely donated, the hospital and surgeons and after care for a transplant are expensive.

Both Martinez and Cross cannot be around too many people, to prevent infection or colds. They cannot be exposed to sunlight.

The recipients are on Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCCS). Martinez's medications cost at least $2,500 a month for eight pills in the morning and seven at night.

Cross has to take 18 pills in the morning and seven at night, costing $5,400 monthly.

All medications are for building up the immune system.

---
Pam M. Smith can be reached at psmith@yumasun.com or 539-6856.