Greetings, dear Zcash community.
I know I've been absent and we haven't posted any new updates about my mom. And there is a reason for this: after our last update, my mom was doing quite well, and everything was going very well: the doctor indicated that she would not require further surgery, and that only a few radiotherapy sessions would have to be done.
Those radiotherapy sessions were going to be quite expensive, but my mom managed to get the payment for them waived.
The radiotherapy sessions began in November, but as soon as they started, my mother began to feel severe pain in her back and chest. The doctors decided to do some new tests, and we got a bleak picture: metastasis. The cancer had spread to my mother's bones.
From then on, and in less than 1 month, my mother began to deteriorate considerably, she could no longer walk and had difficulty speaking (we were only able to give her 3 sessions of radiotherapy). One of the things she told me and my siblings is that she did not want to be pitied, and that we should not spread this campaign anymore. That is the reason why we did not publish anything else.
My mother's pains and respiratory problems increased alarmingly in the last week of November, so much so that her doctor recommended that she be admitted to a hospital, as she could suffer an attack, and we could not give her the attention required in such cases of urgency.
And here we were hit by the reality of Venezuela: after visiting 9 hospitals in Caracas, none of them wanted to admit her, and in all of them they told us that they only attend strict emergency cases. This is how destroyed and dehumanized the Venezuelan health system is. In Venezuela getting sick is a death sentence.
We did everything we could, we called contacts and looked for all the organizations and foundations that could help us, but it was impossible for them.
While we were in that search, and with our mother at home, we alleviated the situation a little, with an oxygen pump that we managed to get (even getting something as basic as oxygen is an ordeal in Venezuela). But unfortunately the metastasis had advanced a lot, and my mother's health was very fragile.
On December 2, she suffered a respiratory attack at home, and in desperation and emergency, we contacted the firefighters for her transfer to a health center, who informed us that in order to transfer her we had to pay US$ 150 in advance. How was it? The firemen, who provide a free service to citizens all over the world, charge you in Venezuela if you want to count on their help. And so it was, we had to agree to pay.
And although we managed to take my mother to one of the hospitals that refused to treat her, and there they resuscitated her, the inevitable happened: on December 2, at 10 pm, my mother breathed her last and left this world.
My family is devastated. We all did everything humanly possible, and we have reached a point where as finite human beings we can only accept God's will.
I write these lines on behalf of my mother, Marbelis Cadenas, my siblings, her husband, and all my family, who are very grateful for all the help received.
We also thank Zcash, and my dad, Roosevelt Gordones, for guiding us and teaching us how to use this tool and the Zcash wallet, in order to receive the donations.
Now we have to overcome this bitter pill for my siblings and me, and make the necessary arrangements for our family reunification outside Venezuela, since we are alone in the country.
Thank you, truly, thank you to everyone in the Zcash community for your words of encouragement and support when we need it.