Start the Presses: Hearts on the mend

Meet Sam Valencia. The 36-year-old lives with his girlfriend and their collective three kids. He’s lived in Napa since he was 12, coming here from Mexico City with his family. He’s worked his way through the Byzantine federal immigration system to get fully documented, started a commercial landscaping company, and helps coach football at Napa High. 

And, oh yeah, six of his neighbors credit him with saving their lives in 2017 during the Atlas Fire. 

But right now, he is at Adventist Health St. Helena, staring down a $100,000-plus medical bill stemming from a blood infection of mysterious origins that spread to his heart. Previously, he had health coverage from Kaiser, but let it lapse when it got too expensive. He says he did try to sign up for insurance during the recent open enrollment period, but, ironically, was too ill to complete the paperwork. 

“I’m way better, stronger everyday,” Valencia said from his hospital bed, one he’s been in since Nov. 26. 

But it was dicey for a while. Valencia had a high fever, chills and could hardly walk or move. His skin turned yellow from jaundice and his body subjected to seemingly endless tests and blood work to figure out what went wrong. Doctors were able to remove 95% of the infection, he said, and six weeks of antibiotics will take care of the rest. 

“It’s a terrible time to be sick,” said Valencia. “But I’m grateful to be here at St. Helena. Every single person has been amazing. They found what needed to be found, they fixed it and now we’re looking into recovery.” 

That recovery will itself be a journey, both metaphysical and literal. The antibiotics need to be given intravenously every four hours. That means he’ll be unable to stray very far, or very long, from the skilled nursing facility he’s booked in the Sacramento area until the course is completed in mid-January. 

And Christmas? He has no idea how that’s going to work for him, girlfriend Jackie Pimentel or the kids: Sammie, 6, Ari, 7 and Raquell, 10. He’ll be about an hour from home and, at most, can only be away from the facility three hours at a time. 

“We’ll still respect the day,” he said, “but I really don’t have answers to those questions.”

Fortunately, he’s far from alone. A fellow Napa High coach, Chris Yepson, started a GoFundMe to help defray some of the bills – and perhaps give the family a touch of a normal holiday. It’s doing pretty well – raising nearly $12,000 as of earlier this week – but nowhere near what they need. 

It’s a tough ask, I realize. At this time of year, so many of our physical and electronic mailboxes are full of requests for donations. The Register itself touts many of our local nonprofits through our “Season of Giving” series, something we’ve done for many years, if not decades.

In the nearly two years I’ve been at the helm here, I’ve been constantly amazed about how generous people in Napa are, both in terms of their time and their treasure. It’s incredibly inspiring, and so I want to make this pledge: I will personally match any donations made after the publication of this column up to $500. Hopefully someone reading this piece will be as inspired to help as I was by writing it. 

(Of course, I will have no idea if anyone donated specifically because of this column, but I don’t mind. What matters is giving at least a modicum of relief for a family that would have a hard road in front of them even if all of the medical bills were paid.) 

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On a rather different note, I want to follow-up on the tale of Buddy the dog. If you recall, Buddy, a 2-year-old Golden Retriever, was served an eviction notice in October after he got into a fight with Charlie — a 1-year-old Shih Tzu – at the Napa Valley mobile home park. 

Andrew and Lorraine Reiner promptly paid Charlie’s vet bills, shook hands with the smaller dog’s owner and prepared to put it all behind them. The owners of the park, though, said Buddy had proved himself to be a danger, and said though the Reiners could stay, the dog could not. When I last talked to them in November, they were mulling their options, fearing they had no legal recourse, but dreading moving out of their longtime home. 

So what happened? Lorraine Reiner told me they moved into a single-family home last week in Vacaville with a “nice big backyard for Buddy to play in.” 

Reiner said that though she’s sad they had to leave Napa, it might have been for the best. She figured that if they had been allowed to stay, it would have been under a set of strict conditions “and I didn’t want to be looking over my shoulder all the time.”