Grants man needs help in his battle with cancer

By Jim Tiffin
Cibola County Bureau

GRANTS — Gabriel Nieto has a rare and often fatal liver cancer. A fund raiser is planned for Saturday at the Cubero Arena, beginning at 10 a.m., to help pay medical bills and support his family while he is undergoing chemotherapy treatment.

There will be plates of pulled pork, barbecue pork, beans, tortillas, soft drinks, games and a raffle for items donated by local residents.

Nieto is 26, has a 22-year-old wife and two children ages 4 and 2. He had to quit working for the McKinley Paper Co., in Milan some time ago because of his illness.

Three of his last several hospitalizations, since Thanksgiving Day 2007, have cost about $32,000, $24,000 and $18,000.

He was fortunate that his medical insurance covered the vast majority of those costs, requiring a co-pay of $1,000 each. There were several other hospitalizations as well, and he now owes $8,000 in copays to various hospitals, from Cibola General in Grants, to Lovelace and University of New Mexico Cancer Center in Albuquerque.

No medical insurance

That situation has changed, and not for the better.
He will not have a $1,000 copay for any future hospitalizations — his insurance ran out last Friday.
That means any future hospitalizations will require him to pay the entire bill.

Without an income, with no medical insurance, with cancer medications costing upwards of $3,000 a month, the likelihood that he will be able to afford future medical care, needed to help him live, is bleak.

“He has a rare cancer that is in the final stage,” his wife Melinda tearfully told the Independent late Thursday afternoon.

She said the family has tried to get medical insurance on their own, which would cost $500 a month, but as soon as the insurance companies heard the word cancer, they stopped listening, and didn't ask any more questions.

“We can't get medical insurance now,” she said.

His cancer is a Fibrolanellar Hetapocellular Carcinoma and has four stages, the final stage being terminal.

“The doctors said they have never seen a patient with this type of cancer in the final stage like Gabriel has,” she said.

More problems

Melinda has had to quit attending New Mexico State University-Grants, where she was seeking a bachelor degree in business, to care for him and their children.
The family bought a house in Grants three years ago, which costs $705 every month.

He has another doctor's appointment in a couple of weeks, and Melinda said she did not know how much that was going to cost, because the family always paid the $20 copay.

She tried to e-mail the Independent a photo of Gabriel, who has lost 45 pounds in six months, and who needs oxygen several times a week, but no medical company will provide it or pay for it. Her computer malfunctioned and she couldn't send.

Gabriel's sister-in-law, Della Lucero, said the fund raiser and raffle are just to try to cover immediate needs.

“We are having to pay for the food, half the costs on the jumping castles for the kids, but a friend who owns the Cubero Arena offered it to us for this event at no cost,” she said.

The event will last until it ends, she said.

Plates of food are $7 each, soft drinks are $1.
There are “toss” games for the kids, two jumping castles and a two raffles, one a 50-50, where $800 has been raised, the winner receives half, the Nieto family receives the other half.

The second raffle is for items that have been donated, and Lucero said the family is tentatively thinking that the tickets will be $2 each.

That raffle includes such items as free dinners at local restaurants, a free tattoo, free haircuts, and some furniture.

The Cubero Arena is located about one quarter mile east on U.S. Route 66, from a stop sign at an intersection north of Interstate 40 at exit 102. The intersection is about a mile north of the interstate.

Donations, information: (505) 980-7540.

To contact reporter Jim Tiffin e-mail: jtiffin.independent@yahoo.com.