There’s a Mysterious Kidney Illness Killing Undocumented Workers
No one knows what’s causing the “silenced massacre”
Each Monday morning, Jesus Gonzales, 47, heaves his body out of bed, loops a belt through his slacks, and drives half an hour to the outskirts of downtown Houston, Texas. After a weekend spent socializing and praying, he is tired and feels ill. His calcified hip is stiff and his left hand cannot curl beyond a fragile fist. A Spanish radio station hums in the background, and with every mile behind the wheel, he feels a little closer to relief.
For the past three years, Gonzales has been a patient at Houston’s Riverside Dialysis Center. (Elemental is not using Gonzales’ full name for privacy reasons). Three times a week, he sits in a blue padded chair and waits for up to four hours as his blood is circulated through a filter, cleaned, and returned to his veins. Gonzales says he’s lucky to receive regular treatment, though the procedure takes a physical toll. He’s seen fellow dialysis patients whose teeth fall out and whose faces become sunken and drawn. Others cry out when a needle — one of six per week — is poorly inserted.
“Dialysis is like a cancer that consumes you each day,” Gonzales says in Spanish. “It’s a way to live, but it causes you to deteriorate.”
