Diagnosed with Uremia, I Sent My Wife to Prison

Three months after my uremia diagnosis, my shared-payment limit with Nadia was down to ten dollars.

Nadia Henson had set every one of my paychecks to transfer automatically, all of it going to her childhood sweetheart, Ivor Fox.

She called it letting him manage the investments for her.

Severe kidney failure dropped me at a bus stop, where a stranger found me and got me to the hospital.

The doctor wanted a five-thousand-dollar deposit before they'd run the emergency dialysis.

I called Nadia for help. She hung up on me, irritated.

To stay alive, I went back home and took the gold necklace she'd bought two days ago out of the drawer, then pawned it.

I'd just gotten back to the hospital with the cash that was supposed to save my life when the police surrounded me.

"Someone reported you for breaking and entering."

Nadia stood behind the officer, looking at me with disgust in her eyes.

The young officer held the pawn receipt, looking uncomfortable. "This is your husband. He did it to make the deposit so he wouldn't die. That's hardly theft, is it?"

Nadia kept both hands in her pockets, cold. "If he's broke, that's his own fault."

"Three years ago, when Ivor was diagnosed with severe kidney failure and couldn't even afford his meds"

"didn't he sit on Ivor's insurance settlement and refuse to hand it over, and nearly force Ivor to give up treatment?"

I looked at the contempt in her face and calmly held out my hands. "I stole it. Take me in and file the case."

......

Nadia stared at the cuffs on my wrists, her brows knotting together.

"What's with the pitiful act now?"

She jabbed a finger at my face.

"You think if you turn yourself in, I'll go soft and drop the case?"

"Warren Delgado, you're so selfish."

"You only ever think about yourself. You never once consider how anyone else feels."

"Ivor's condition finally stabilized, and you have to go steal something right at this exact moment."

"You want him to feel like you stole because of him, don't you?"

"You're using a crime to guilt-trip him!"

I stared at Nadia while the pain tore through my lower back and belly, wave after wave.

I didn't even have the strength left to stand up straight.

"Nadia, I'm in end-stage uremia."

I stated it as a fact.

"There's ten dollars in my account."

"I didn't even have the money for a cab to the hospital."

"I passed out at the bus stop. A passerby called 911."

"If I don't pay the deposit, the doctor won't do the dialysis, and I'll die."

"You gave every cent to Ivor Fox. Pawning your necklace was the only thing I had left."

Nadia let out a scornful laugh.

"Don't try to hold your illness over me."

"So what if it's uremia? Does uremia mean you get to ignore the law?"

"When Ivor was gravely ill back then, where was your sympathy for him being a sick man?"

"Everything you're suffering now is the karma you brought on yourself."

"I gave my paychecks to Ivor to manage because he understands investing."

"What can an unemployed drifter like you do with money except waste it?"

"Besides, right now Ivor needs money to feel secure."

"If I don't help him, am I supposed to just watch him die?"

Fast, sharp heels clicked outside the ER.

Ivor Fox came running in, dressed in Versace couture, an Herms bag on his arm.

His eyes were rimmed red as he grabbed Nadia's arm.

"Nadia, don't blame Warren."

"This is all my fault."

"If I hadn't lost that bet today and made you transfer me fifty-two thousand,"

"Warren would've had the money for the hospital deposit."

"Please, tell the officer to let Warren go. He's still sick."

He turned to look at me, his voice gone impossibly gentle.

"Warren, don't be angry with Nadia."

"She just worries about me too much."

"You know I haven't been emotionally stable lately."

"Nadia's afraid something will happen to me, so she stays by my side."

"I'm not blaming you for the necklace."

"I'll pay the money for you right now."

As he spoke, he pulled a stack of cash out of the Herms bag.

Nadia slapped the money out of his hand.

The bills scattered across the floor.

"Ivor, you're just too kind."

At the ER triage desk, a nurse came running out with my blood report.

The nurse was shouting my name.

"Family of Warren Delgado! Is anyone here for Warren Delgado?"

Nadia Henson stood two steps behind me.

Hands in her pockets. She didn't even turn her head.

Ivor Fox tugged at her sleeve.

"Nadia, the nurse is calling for Warren's family."

"You should go check on him."

Nadia laced her fingers through Ivor's.

"Don't bother with him."

"He just paid off the nurse to put on a show for us."

"The whole crying, screaming, throwing-himself-around act. He's been running it for three years."

"I'm not buying it."

The nurse ran up in front of us and blocked the officer.

"He can't leave!"

"The patient is in severe kidney failure. His blood barely clots."

"He's already showing signs of heart failure."

"He needs to be admitted for dialysis right now, with a resuscitation team on standby."

"He walks out that door, and whose life is that on?"

The nurse turned to Nadia.

"Ms. Henson, a man's life is at stake here."

"Go pay the deposit and get him admitted first."

"Everything else you can sort out afterward."

Nadia let out a cold laugh and stepped up to the nurse.

"How much did she pay you?"

"To go along with this cheap little performance of his?"

"He's built like an ox. There's no way he's in end-stage kidney failure."

"I keep him fed and comfortable every single day."

"He just wants to con money out of me to prop up that broke family of his."

The nurse's face went red with anger. She slapped the report straight against Nadia's chest.

"See for yourself!"

"His creatinine is over eight hundred!"

"A normal person would've been on dialysis long ago!"

"He's held on this far on willpower alone."

"Are you even a woman? You'd throw your own husband's life away?"

Nadia didn't so much as glance at the report. She threw it on the floor.

And stepped on it.

"I already told you, he's faking."

"And even if he really is sick, that's because he never took care of himself."

"I kept telling him to exercise. He wouldn't listen."

"Now something goes wrong and suddenly he expects me to cover for him."

"Why should I be the one paying for his laziness?"

Ivor bent down, picked up the filthy report, and carefully wiped it clean with a tissue.

"Nadia, don't say that."

"Warren might really be in a bad way."

"Look how pale he is."

"Just think of it as... earning some good karma for my sake."

Nadia snatched the report from him and tore it to shreds.

"Ivor, you're just too soft-hearted."

"That's your money too, money you worked hard for."

"Why should he get to waste it?"

"Today he dares to steal a necklace for a deposit."

"Tomorrow he'll steal the deed to the house and sell it."

"He needs to learn his lesson."

"If anything happens to him, I, Nadia Henson, take full responsibility. I won't come after any of you."

That was the last straw for the nurse.

"Ms. Henson, this is criminal abandonment!"

"Your husband is in critical condition right now."

"If you refuse your duty to get him treated, you're legally liable!"

Nadia wasn't shaken in the least. She took out her phone.

Dialed a number.

"Jackson Chavez, bring your people to Riverton General right now."

"There's a nurse here interfering with how I handle my own family affairs."

"And trying to force me to hand over money."

"Yes, bring the media too."

"I want everyone to see how our police officers these days conspire with thieves to extort people."

She hung up.

Nadia looked down at me.

"Warren Delgado, did you think this would make me give in?"

"Let me tell you, I don't care who shows up today."

"I'm not paying a cent. You like stealing, don't you?"

"Then go do it slowly in a cell."

A sharp pain tore through my abdomen, like something inside me was sinking down.

I clenched my teeth as cold sweat rolled off my forehead in heavy drops.

"Nadia, let's get divorced."

My voice was faint, but every word was clear.

"Sign the papers."

"I'll walk away with nothing. I'll sign the consent for my own surgery."

Nadia froze for a second.

Then burst into loud, mocking laughter.

"Divorce?"

"You think a divorce lets you dodge the law?"

"You think a divorce lets you keep all the money from my necklace for yourself?"

"Warren Delgado, dream on. Not only am I not divorcing you."

"I'm going to make you carry the name of a thief for the rest of your life."

Ivor stepped forward and gently touched my arm.

"Warren, stop saying things you don't mean."

"Nadia loves you, she really does."

"She's just angry that you stole."

"Hurry up and apologize to her. Promise you'll never steal again."

"She'll definitely forgive you."

I shook his hand off.

A hot stream surged up the corner of my mouth.

Drip.

Drip.

Dark red blood spread across the white tiles.

The nurse screamed.

"Blood! He's coughing up blood!"

The ER doctor heard the commotion and came rushing out with a gurney.

"Move! Get him up!"

"Prep the trauma room!"

"Call the head of nephrology down for a consult, now!"

Hands grabbed me from every side and lifted me onto the gurney.

Blood had already soaked through my hospital gown.

The sight of it stopped Nadia cold, that spreading pool of red.

She took half a step back.

But there wasn't a trace of worry on her face.

Only disgust.

"Warren, you're really something."

"You'd cut yourself open just to squeeze money out of me."

"Did you hide a blood packet in your mouth beforehand?"

"You think a cheap trick like that could fool me?"

She jabbed a finger at the doctor and let loose.

"And your hospital, playing along with his little act. Do you get a cut of it?"

"An hour ago he was fit enough to run home and steal from me."

"Now he's dying?"

"Tell it to someone who'll believe you!"

The doctor pushed the gurney toward the trauma room.

He had no time for Nadia's ranting.

"Heart failure's worsening!"

"O2 sat is dropping!"

"Prep for emergency dialysis!"

The doctor slapped a consent form against Nadia's chest.

"You're the family, right?"

"Sign it. Now!"

"The patient is hemorrhaging. He needs dialysis and a transfusion immediately."

"One minute late and he's dead!"

Nadia held the form and glanced at the estimated cost printed on it.

She let out a cold laugh.

"Dialysis? A transfusion?"

"And imported clotting medication on top of that?"

"Your hospital's just robbing people!"

"Regular dialysis won't do? It has to be emergency dialysis?"

"Other people's husbands get treated for a couple hundred bucks."

"His treatment costs tens of thousands?"

"Does he think he's some rich little prince?"

The doctor was practically hopping with frustration.

"Do you not understand plain words?"

"He's in heart failure! Regular dialysis will kill him!"

"Is money more important right now, or his life?"

Nadia threw the consent form down on the triage desk.

"Money, obviously."

"My money doesn't fall out of the sky either."

"Ivor's anti-rejection meds cost thousands every month."

"And he takes the cheapest domestic ones there are."

"What makes Warren think he deserves imported drugs?"

"Is he even worth it?"

"Let me be clear. I won't pay a single cent."

"If you're going to treat him, treat him with the cheapest option."

"If he dies from it, that's just his bad luck."

Ivor stood off to the side wiping his eyes, then walked over and picked up the form.

"Nadia, don't be like this."

"Money's gone, we can make more."

"Warren only gets one life."

"I know he's always been harsh with me, and he's gone around telling everyone I'm the other man."

"But I can't just stand here and watch him die. Let me pay for it."

He took out his phone, pulled up his account balance, and held it out to the doctor.

"Doctor, I've got fifty thousand and change here. It's money I won on a bet today."

"That should be enough to cover Warren's dialysis, right?"

The doctor snatched the phone.

"Enough, that's enough!"

"Get to the payment window, fast!"

"Family, sign the form!"

"I'd like to see anyone dare."

Nadia snatched Ivor's phone right back.

She shot the doctor a vicious look.

"This money is for Ivor's care. Nobody touches it."

"Didn't Warren steal my gold necklace?"

"That necklace would've pawned for at least twenty thousand."

"Let him use that money to get treated!"

The policewoman was shaking with rage.

"The money from pawning that necklace has already been seized by us as evidence!"

"Nadia, you're not even human!"

"Your husband is in there fighting for his life."

"And you're standing out here haggling over a few thousand?"

Nadia squared her shoulders, completely unbothered.

"I'm a person of principle. One thing at a time."

"He stole. That's a fact. He wants me to sign to save him? Fine."

"Have him sign a confession first."

"He admits to breaking and entering, admits to extortion."

"The moment he signs, I'll sign his consent for dialysis."

"Otherwise, he can lie in there and wait to die."

The trauma room door swung open, and a nurse ran out with blood all over her hands.

"The patient's gone into shock!"

"We're losing his blood pressure!"

"No consent from the family yet? It'll be too late if you don't sign!"

Nadia crossed her arms over her chest.

"What's the rush."

"Take this confession in and have him put his thumbprint on it."

"He prints it, I sign."

The nurse stared at the paper Nadia was holding out.

His whole body went rigid.

"Are you insane? The patient is unconscious!"

"How is he supposed to press a fingerprint? This is murder!"

Nadia clicked her tongue, impatient.

"Unconscious? Then use his blood."

"He's coughed up plenty of it. One fingerprint won't make a difference."

"I'm a fair person."

"He wants his life, he trades his name for it."

"That's what he owes me. And what he owes Ivor."

Ivor took the confession from Nadia's hand.

Step by step, he walked to the door of the ER.

He looked at the nurse, his voice soft enough to drip.

"Miss, I'm sorry, could you make an exception? Nadia only wants what's best for Warren."

"Warren's stubborn. He won't admit he's wrong until he's suffered a little."

"One fingerprint, and Nadia pays and signs right away."

"You don't want to watch Warren die on the operating table, do you?"

The nurse shoved Ivor away, shaking with fury.

"Get out of here! The two of you make me sick!"

"I quit!"

"I'll take responsibility myself and start his dialysis!"

She rushed into the ER and slammed the door shut behind her.

On the table, the attending physician had already raised the dialysis catheter.

Moments earlier, the on-duty hospital director had invoked Article 1220 of the Civil Code, the "emergency treatment authority."

Bypassing family consent, he stamped the hospital's official seal straight onto the papers.

"Save him first! The hospital takes all responsibility!"

The director's words were still echoing over the intercom.

I lay on the cold operating table, the surgical light too bright to open my eyes against.

The lower half of my body had gone numb.

Only the shrill blare of the machines rang in my ears.

The doctor was performing CPR on me.

"Warren! Wake up! Don't go to sleep! Think about your family!"

My eyelids were as heavy as lead.

Then the ER door was kicked open.