Al Rivera (lovingly known by family members as Poncho) has been painstakingly taking care of his wife who was diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer three years ago.  Al has been her rock……not only taking care of her through multiple surgeries and chemo treatments, but also full time to pay for all of the treatments and medicine.  Their financial and emotional battle hasn’t ended with her care. Earlier this year, Al was diagnosed with heart failure after several heart attacks. After two heart surgeries and countless days and weeks in and out of the hospital, he was told in order to survive he would need another surgery to implant a lifesaving ventricular assist device.

Sadly though, the medical bills from his wife’s cancer treatment have eaten up their life savings and the doctor will not perform the surgery until they can pay for it in full. Even though the doctor was gracious enough to reduce the cost by $10k, it will still cost nearly $17k to do it. In addition to that, they must travel to San Antonio for the surgery and spend many weeks there for his rehabilitation. The cost of lost income, travel, food, and hotel is also a large expense they are unsure how to cover.

This hard working and loving family is humbled to have to ask for help, but when it comes to a life or death situation and you have exhausted all your resources, you pray there are more fortunate people out there that can spare a few dollars to help save your life. If we all can pull together, we can help not only Al but take the extreme stress off of his wife Irma so she can continue to concentrate on healing herself. Please consider a donation – no amount is too small – but every dollar is extremely appreciated. In addition, we ask for your prayers for both Irma and Al. May God help provide for them in these difficult and dark days.