Watsonville dialysis patients try to cope after arson
Santa Cruz Sentinel February 2, 2006
By Daniel Lopez
WATSONVILLE — Life is going to be a little bit harder for the patients
who depend on Satellite Dialysis Watsonville to stay alive.
A Monday night arson damaged the clinic where they go for treatment, forcing
them to travel to a clinic in Santa Cruz and rearrange their schedules while
the Watsonville center is repaired.
The clinic at 40 Penny Lane is owned by Satellite Healthcare, a nonprofit based
in Mountain View.
Someone broke a window about 9 p.m. Monday and lit the interior of the
center on fire with an accelerant, according to police. No one
was hurt, but the 102 patients have been affected. Though some
of them — and
employees at the medical office — are frightened,
they are not letting it get to them.
"It's not affecting my mom," said Hilaria Lopez.
Her mother, Juana Lopez, receives treatment at the center, one of about
a dozen patients who depend on Aptos-based Community Bridges Lift Line
and Courtesy Cab to get to their appointments.
Lopez will now be
taking a cab to her treatments, but it won't cost her a dime, said Alan
McKay, executive director of Central Coast Alliance for Health, which contracts
for the rides with the cab company and Lift Line.
"There will be no out-of-pocket costs for the patients as a result of needing
to go to a new facility," he said.
Any additional costs for transportation would be covered by the alliance,
McKay said.
Most of the patients will spend is a little more time on the highway getting
to the treatments, and that doesn't bother Lopez.
"It's a little bit further but it doesn't matter," she said. "My
mom is getting the dialysis she needs."
The patients, who have experienced kidney failure, spend two to four-and-a-half
hours hooked to a machine three times a week so toxins in their blood can
be cleaned as the kidneys normally would.
"The dialysis lets the patient live a close to normal life so they can be
a grandparent or go to work," said Nora Daludado, clinical manager of the
center.
But things are far from normal this week at the centers.
At the Santa Cruz center, things are busier as the Watsonville patients
and employees who are tending to them have nearly doubled the number of
people in the clinic.
"It's not too bad," said Pauline Persley, clinical manger of Satellite
Dialysis Santa Cruz.
The clinic has gone from using 12 chairs for patients to 20 chairs, Persley
said.
"Things are going pretty smooth," said Persley, though she expects
the clinic to close about five hours later than the usual 6 p.m. on Wednesday
night as patients are being accommodated.
Monday's fire caused about $100,000 to $150,000 in damage to the Watsonville
clinic, said Daludado, adding that the clinic could resume some patient
treatment next week as construction crews begin repairs.
For Daludado, seeing the repairs couldn't come soon enough.
"It's like after a hurricane or an earthquake," she said. "You
fix it and it looks like it never happened."
Watsonville police investigators were following leads Wednesday in hopes
of finding the person responsible for Monday's fire and a firebombing at
the clinic Jan. 25.
Investigators say someone threw a Molotov cocktail at a window of the dialysis
center shortly after 11 p.m. Jan. 25, catching an exterior wall of the
building on fire.
That night a truck parked in the 400 block of Center Street was also hit
with a Molotov cocktail, police said. On Jan. 22, at least one, maybe two,
of the makeshift explosives were thrown at a home on Lawrence Avenue.
"We are looking at the possibility that these incidents are connected," said
detective Mike McKinley.
Evidence gathered from the fires also has been sent to the Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco and Firearms for analysis.
Any results will be available in about two weeks, McKinley said.
Police ask anyone with information about the incidents to contact the Investigations
Division at 768-3350 or the anonymous tip line at 728-3544.