Felix Patino and Lorena Patino have been married for 22 years and their love has never been stronger. Originally from Guanajuato, Mexico, they immigrated to the United States and met in Chicago, Illinois, where they currently live with their two daughters.

Felix was diagnosed with diabetes in his early 30s and since, his health has declined. Unfortunately, in 2013, his kidneys and his eyesight began to give out. Felix had to lose his job and stay home, attending medical appointments several times per week.

He went through laser eye surgery during the early stages of his cataracts, all which failed and only complicated the matter. He then had a couple operations to remove the cataracts, but instead he lost full vision on his left eye and now has only about 10% of his vision on his right eye.

Around the same time, he began getting treated with peritoneal dialysis at home, for which his wife, Lorena was trained to operate. The treatment runs every night for 11 hours and this causes Patino sleepless nights and some pain.

“I regret not taking care of myself earlier in life. I don’t want people to feel bad for me. I want them to take me as an example of why we should all take care of ourselves, especially those with diabetes,” he says.

As head of household and caregiver of Felix, Lorena has a lot on her plate. She works from the home as a babysitter during the week in order to be able to stay at home caring for her husband.

“Sometimes I think he takes advantage of his condition because he knows I love him more than anything in the world and will do everything to make him feel good.”

However, her daughters have also stepped up and help take care of their dad by giving him his medicine, working, taking him to doctor appointments and even doing the dialysis treatment.

“We take care of each other. We don’t have much materialistically but we make ends meet somehow. All that matters is that we are together no matter what we go through,” their 17-year-old daughter, Mariana, says.

“I may not have my vision or a good set of kidneys, but I can hear and I can speak, so that means I still have more to give. I never lose faith that we will be okay in the end” he says.

Their 18-year-old daughter Mariana Patino  has endured these hard times since she was thirteen years old and continues to show nothing but strength. 

"Family is all that matters to me now. As long as we have each other, there is no reason why we can't handle anything that comes to us," she said. 

Mariana helps her family in any way she can. Although they do struggle financially, she has not had the opportunity to get a job because she is needed more at home. Her mother is thankful for all the support she gives them, especially with the heavy load of caring for her father. Mariana is in charge of medication schedules, insulin injections, manual dialysis, etc. She does everything with love and never hesitates to aid her dad. 

"There is a lot I've had to sacrifice. I often stay home instead of going out with friends because I have to help at home. My dad is different from my friends' dads. But I am not ashamed of my family. I can never be ashamed of someone who has given everything for us." 

In May of 2018, Felix Patino and his family noticed his toe injury was not getting any better.

When they saw no improvement after seeing several doctors, they went to a specialist that told them his toes were not going to get any better.

On May 23, 2018 Felix got two toes from his left foot amputated. Thinking this was the end, the Patino family was sad but relieved. However, his foot had an infection, gangrene, that had already spread to the rest of his foot.

Doctors decided to amputate further, and on July 19, they amputated half of his left foot.

Still, the infection continued spreading, and due to bad circulation, doctors decided that it was best to amputate below the knee.

Finally, on September 10, he received an emergency amputation to his ankle and on the 14th, they conducted his fourth and final amputation.

Since September, Felix and his family have worked hard to help him get better so he could get a prosthetic left leg as soon as possible.

On February 26, after various hospitalizations at Mount Sinai Hospital and admissions to Schwab Rehabilitation Hospital in Chicago, Illinois, he began physical therapy with his prosthetic.

During this time, both Felix and Lorena Patino received their green cards and became residents of the United States.

They hope that this opens doors to a possible kidney transplant for Felix so he can leave his dialysis treatments and begin focusing on finding a solution for his vision loss.