Gone Too Soon: Please Help With the Funeral of Josh Mendoza

Update as of today, we met with the liver team, his case is going to the table for discussion among the surgical team. He is currently one of the sickest patients in Methodist Specialty and Transplant Center currently with a MELD Score of right in between 39-40. This means that he might not have much longer to live. I believe it just by seeing his eyeballs daily. I asked him why he is having trouble with sleeping. He's actually terrified of going to sleep and not waking up after he's done. I can't blame him for it as sick as he is. The discussion among the surgical team and Transplant team that is about to happen is going to be about whether or not to put him on the list for as a receiver of a transplant. I'm a huge believer in organ donation. When we die, what truly happens to us? We no longer need our organs to live once we die, just donate them. Somebody out there is in complete desperate need and it very well could save somebody's life. If you have at least one good deed you want to do even in death, donating your unused organs is definitely going to be it. I am a registered donor myself. I have been since my truck driving days. My son was 14 months old when his cousin died while waiting for a double lung and heart transplant. She died waiting on the list due to a rare condition that involved both. I wasn't even a donor on my license until then. To register, you only have to go into your state's driver's license office. In Texas it's dps. In Michigan, it's secretary of state. Most other states it's either DMV or your county courthouse. I'm not only raising funds for my husband. But I'm also spreading the word on how important saving a life truly is.

My name is Jamie Mendoza and I'm raising funds to save my husband's life. My husband, Joshua Mendoza, is facing a double kidney and liver transplant due to decompensated cirrhosis, and this snuck up on us like you wouldn't believe.

My story on what happened is, this started to happen on August 10th, 2024, out of nowhere. He started to turn yellow; that's how this started. I said to him, "Honey, you really need to get to the hospital and get checked out." He refused and said he might get better. But as time went on, he took a turn for the worse. I said to him a few days later, "Please don't put me through this and get to the hospital and get checked out. If you don't, you can die. Please, I love you and only have your best interests at heart." He refused me again.

Then, on my birthday no less, things started to get hairy, and he started to get quieter in his voice, and I knew something was really wrong. As he got more yellow in his skin and eyes, I said, "Let's go get you checked out while you are still able to move." Unfortunately, no, he rejected me again, keeping his pride. As the next week went on, he got more yellow everywhere, and his bilirubin kept going up. I said, "You really need to get to the hospital at this point." He could barely even walk through the store at this point.

Then, in the 2 days before, he started to not quite make it to the bathroom, and he was having accidents in his shorts. I said, "Honey, I know something is wrong, let's go check out what it is." He refused again. That Saturday, I woke up about 8:30 in the morning, drenched in what I thought was my sweat. It turned out he wasn't even able to open the water bottle on his own anymore. He had dropped it all over me on the bed. He passed out for a couple of hours, then woke up and went to drink out of a coffee cup that was upside down from the cabinet. There was nothing in the cup. An hour later, he went to drink from a bottle of water and drank from the bottle cap instead. Then he got up to go get something to drink and use the bathroom not long after that. He got from the headboard to the foot of the bed and fell to the floor.

After about 20 minutes of him and me trying to get him up off the floor, I was forced to call the medics and fire department to not only get him up off the floor but get him out to the hospital. He was ultimately admitted and has been ever since, and transferred to San Antonio, Texas, after I had to get into a fight with Corpus Christi Medical Center to even get the transfer done. Now that he is in San Antonio, Texas, in the hospital over there, they want their money too. His insurance has just run out, and I'm having to raise the funds to save his life.

My husband is my entire world and has been my rock. We have such a symbiotic relationship; it's uncanny, and we literally need each other to survive. If he never met me, and he has said this, he would have been dead a long time ago. Same for me. I really care about this man, and I love him so much. If I didn't love him, I would not cave and do this. Please help me with raising funds for him in any way you can. I'm really missing my husband and would love to help him get on the transplant list and back home to our dog and me. Even if it means transferring him to another state to get this done. I love him very much, and please, I don't want to be a widow already. He's only 44 and too young for this to happen to him.