Slain Gonzales' woman's kidneys donated to save aunt

December 18, 2009

Slain Gonzales' woman's kidneys donated to save aunt

BY SUNITA VIJAYAN
svijayan@thecalifornian.com

In death, Yliza Martinez of Gonzales is giving life.

Martinez, 30, was taken off life support Dec. 11, barely a week after she and Veronica Gallegos were mortally wounded by gunfire in a Greenfield motel room.

Part of Martinez will live on. This past Sunday, her beloved aunt through marriage, Tomasa Martinez, received her kidneys.

Tomasa, 45, has had Type 2 diabetes for five years and suffers from kidney failure. Without Yliza’s kidneys, the debilitating condition could have cut her life short, said her daughter, Yvette Martinez Mercado.

“She’s doing excellent,” Mercado said Thursday.

But no one is forgetting the tragic events that ultimately led to the life-extending surgery.

On Dec. 5, Yliza Martinez and Veronica Gallegos, also 30, were found shot in a room at the Pueblo Inn on the less-than-100 block of Fourth Street. Gallegos was pronounced dead at the scene, and Martinez was transported with serious wounds to Mee Memorial Hospital in King City. She was later taken to the Regional Medical Center of San Jose.

“During the whole time this happened, my mother was with (Yliza’s) mother at all times, grieving,” Mercado said. “There was a family meeting, and that’s when (Yliza’s brother) asked the physician to check his sister’s blood type (and compare it with Tomasa’s) …. He discussed with his siblings and his mother and specified that the kidneys would go to my mother.”

She said her mother went into the nearly six-hour surgery at 9:30 p.m. Sunday.

Yliza’s other organs, including her heart, have also been donated, Mercado said.

Devastating miracle

Tomasa said receiving Yliza's kidneys has brought mixed emotions.

"The way I got it …. I consider it a miracle that she was even my match -- I'm very grateful for that," Tomasa Martinez said Wednesday. "(But) I'm devastated by what happened with Yliza."

After she is discharged from the hospital, Tomasa will live in housing provided by the hospital for four to eight weeks so physicians may closely monitor her progress.

Before the transplant, Mercado said, her mother's kidneys had been working at 25 percent.

The past five years have been difficult for her mother, she said. Without fail, Mercado said, her mother would go to the DaVita Dialysis Center in Soledad every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

"If it was really bad, sometimes she would go four times a week instead of three," she said.

Mercado said she was close to Yliza, a bond from her mother and her cousin's mother being pregnant at the same time.

She said she is also related to Gallegos, the other woman killed in Greenfield. Mercado's grandmother is a sister of Gallegos' mother.

Gallegos was in a room along with Yliza when the shooting occurred. Police have said the shooting took place in Gallegos' room and that Yliza was a friend -- statements her family corrected Wednesday. Police declined to comment on Friday about the family's correction of the relationship between Gallegos and Yliza, as well as the room they were in.

No answers

Yliza, who recently moved from Greenfield to Gonzales, had been visiting Gallegos at the time of the shooting. She leaves behind two young children.

Mercado said the family still doesn't know why the shooting occurred. A 15-year-old boy was arrested soon after the gunfire and faces charges of murder in Monterey County Juvenile Court. The county District Attorney's Office has filed a petition requesting the boy be tried in adult court. The next hearing is scheduled for Jan. 13.

While sadness lingers, Mercado said, the family also has happiness.

For Tomasa's husband, children and grandchildren, she said, Christmas came early this year.

"It's bittersweet," Mercado said. "We've lost a loved one, but she's never gone. She'll always be with us, and we'll always be grateful."

http://www.thecalifornian.com/article/20091218/NEWS01/91218028/1002/Slain+Gonzales++woman+s+kidneys+donated+to+save+aunt