Photo: Supplied / Courtesy
To your years old, Unis Ramírez felt a stabbing pain in one of her breasts and then she felt two small balls. He tried to make a medical appointment in the city of San Diego where he lives, but because he only has emergency Medi-Cal the wait was prolonged by four months.
“They told me they were going to do a biopsy and a mammogram, but another four months went by because I didn’t qualify,” said Ramírez, who now has 39 years.
Once the tests were carried out, they confirmed the news that he did not want to hear; she had tested positive for breast cancer.
Now the only cure was to remove the breast.
Ramírez doubted a lot if he should take it off or not. Firstly because she did not know the seriousness of the cancer and secondly because she did not want to lose her breast.
“I was crying, but I went to remove it”, said Ramírez.
A new problem appeared after undergoing the removal surgery. She did not have enough money to pay for breast reconstruction and her health insurance did not cover it.
What was offered to her was group therapy to share experiences with other people who had gone through similar situations.
Ramírez said that hearing other anecdotes of people who went through much worse situations revived her , but they did not give him back the security he needed.
Additionally, Martínez, who is a single mother, did not want her three children to suffer emotional damage due to her situation. However, this was impossible since her older daughters, a pair of twins, have always been very attached to her.
“The youngest , which now has years, at that time I wondered if I was going to die and that he would get very sad, “said Martínez. “Once I also found the notebook of one of my daughters where it said that she was very sad because of what was happening to me.”
In that 2016 himself learned about Mission Plastics, a non-profit organization dedicated to improving lives through reconstructive plastic surgery.
Doubtful but Hoping to return to normal, Martínez contacted them and stressed that this was the path to her recovery.
She underwent her first surgery that same 2016 and last year he followed up to change the implant that was more compatible with his body.
9974 Bittersweet Feelings
Adriana Murillo, director of the Mission Plásticos program, said that Martínez was one of the first patients who they attended in the United States when they began their work at 2016.
The organization, which works worldwide, received a donation last year from the company Sientra with which they launched the Reshaping Lives: Full Circle (RLFC) program to offer free reconstructive surgery to post-mastectomy women living in poverty and in need of breast reconstruction.
By performing free surgeries on economically disadvantaged people, volunteer medical teams relieve suffering, both physical and emotional. All plastic surgeons who donate their work are certified by Board Certified Plastic Surgeons.
“In the United States we saw that there was a great need for women who have had breast cancer and could not obtain reconstruction,” said Murillo.
This is considered the first large-scale national program to provide reconstructive care at no cost to low-income women, all in the belief that every woman deserves a complete treatment of care, regardless of their economic situation.
Murillo said that they noticed, mainly in states like California, that immigrant women did not undergo breast reconstruction because their health insurance doesn’t cover it and they couldn’t afford it out of pocket.
She added that women can be affected in many ways after this surgery that despite saving their lives, leaves them in a emotional and mental limbo.
“Sometimes families live paycheck to paycheck and if someone gets sick, for example, with cancer and they take away their breasts, sometimes they can’t work and they can’t afford the surgeries,” she explained. “This affects them a lot because they lose their femininity.”
Murillo said that there are patients who arrive very depressed because they are deprived of such simple things like putting on a shirt or a dress.
“They tell me, ‘I can’t because I’ve been disfigured.’ Many times their husbands leave them and they suffer a lot”, explained the director.
Mission Plasticos indicated that the 60% of American women with breast cancer who live below the poverty line do not have adequate insurance, which prevents them from having access to reconstructive breast surgery even though reconstruction is considered the standard of care in your recovery.
If you or someone you know If you are a patient living below the poverty line and are uninsured or underinsured and not eligible for continuing care through public programs, you may apply to be part of the RLFC program.
More information
To find out if you are eligible for the program call (300) 769-9974 option 3 or visit MissionPlasticos.org/Reshaping-Liv es-America.