About Veronica |
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Veronica Castellana |
Ryan
Sanchez |
This web site was created by Ryan Sanchez for Veronica
Castellana. Veronica is a Registered Nurse and suffers
from a severe Latex hypersensitivity. She
suffers from all the possible symptoms one can get from
a Latex allergy. She gets severe reactions from inhaled
or ingested Latex particles. Her allergy has built up
over several years and has gotten to the point where she is
severely affected by it on a daily basis. The effects
she feels are not only physical but they are mental as
well. Most of the mental anguish she suffers is due to
abuse by other people in society who are negligent to
the effects of the allergy. |
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When she first started getting severe reactions from
Latex, she was working as an Emergency Room Nurse. Once
she got the reaction, she was sent to doctors who told
her that there is no such thing as latex allergy.
She initially found doctors who diagnosed her with the
allergy, then "mysteriously" changed their diagnosis
when she tried to file for workers comp. |
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On a daily basis, she gets people looking at her funny
and being rude about accommodating her allergy. Most
negative comments and attitudes occur in the food
service industry. Most restaurants around the country
use latex to prep their food. This causes severe
reactions for people with allergies like Veronica's. If
you were to walk in a restaurant and say you were
allergic to peanuts, they won't use peanuts in the food.
However, if you said that you were allergic to Latex,
they can't and usually won't do anything about it
because they are uneducated about how to actually prep
the food without Latex gloves.
Click Here to see a list
of Latex-free restaurants that we know are safe. |
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If Veronica was ever in need of emergency medical care,
she would not be able to go to any hospital or doctor's
office either. Even if a hospital does not use Latex
gloves, there are thousands of other products used in
hospitals that contain Latex. Therefore, she would
probably die from that rather than whatever she went
there for. |
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Veronica is not the only person suffering form this type
of reaction to Latex. There are thousands of people
throughout the country suffering from the same allergy.
When there is a virus or salmonella threat that kills a
couple of people, the FDA gets involved and the media
makes a big deal about it. Why isn't the same thing
happening with Latex. Latex is still a contamination
that can make people sick if it gets in the food. Visit
the Latex Allergy
Info page for more information about the allergy,
tips on preventing reactions and some proof that the FDA
knows about the problem but hasn't done anything about
it. |
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MY LAST DYING WISH IS FOR SOMEONE TO LISTEN |
By
Veronica Castellana |
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I am going to die soon. I need to tell my story and I
hope that America listens and reacts to my story to save
other people’s lives. My mother always told me that I
can save the world, that one voice matters, that every
vote counts, that I could be whatever I want if I just
put my mind to it. My mother is no longer here to tell
me those things. |
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I call what I have a disease. I have a disease that I
have to face alone. No one understands it. No one can
save me. Not doctors, not nurses, not paramedics, and
not the emergency room or even a hospital. Most people
who have my disease do not even know that they have it.
Most people who have my disease will die from it and it
will never be known what the cause of death was for
those people. The statistics are lost on these people
and not registered. In order for my disease to become
known and for other people to be saved, reports need to
be made to the Food & Drug Administration (FDA), the Center for Disease Control
(CDC), National
Institutes of Health, and Departments of Health. There
are people dying from my disease on a daily basis and
the numbers that are lost will increase everyday.
Thousands of people across America have died from this
but not enough people have been reported with this
disease for there to be a difference. |
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If a reporter is taken in Iraq in a war and held
hostage, America listens. America feels sorry for this
reporter and we report what is happening and we do
everything in our power to negotiate and get that
reporter back. If a dog is missing, signs are posted and
a search and rescue by the neighborhood is done and we
get that dog back. If Paris Hilton drinks a Margarita at
a charity event, we plaster her face on every news
channel and every paper in America. She is newsworthy. I
am not news. My disease is not news and the thousands of
Americans who have died from my disease are not yet
worth saving. |
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My worst fear is the torture of a severe reaction. I
have problems breathing initially. The airways in my
lungs become constricted within seconds. My voice will
become raspy; my throat tight. If someone were watching
as this happened, they would say that I was having an
asthma attack. This isn’t just asthma. The oxygen in my
system rapidly depletes since I can not take in a
breath. I begin to collapse and loose coherency like
someone who is passing out. I am dying and there is
nothing that can be done for me. If anyone calls for
paramedics, they will not make it in time. By the time
the paramedics make it there to treat me, it is too
late. Some paramedics even make the issue worse. Most
have not dealt with an illness like mine before. They
may be there to help me but they can speed up my death
without even knowing. In less than a few minutes I am
incoherent due to lack of oxygen. If I do not get help
soon, I will be dead. Anybody who watches my death would
not have a clue as to what happened. When the cause of
my death is determined, it would most likely be blamed
on something else. I am not ready to die. My life has a
purpose. The world still has a lot to learn from me and
this may be what is keeping me alive. |
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After my first attack, I knew I had to be smart if I
wanted to survive. Being smart includes being prepared.
In my purse is an arsenal of medications to help keep me
alive. I have inhalers to loosen up my lungs, several
types of antihistamines sold by prescription and over
the counter, and an epipen which is adrenaline used for
emergencies. I go to bed at night wondering if I will
get through the night. I can not breathe on a nightly
basis. I have to take antihistamines everyday of my life
or I will stop breathing. I can not walk into a doctor’s
office, a hospital, or an emergency room for help even
though that is where I saved many lives. No one can save
mine. There is nothing that can be done to help me. |
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Baseball, hotdogs, apple pie and Chevrolet are American.
I am American but I can not go to a baseball game and
enjoy a hot dog, I can not eat most apple pies and I can
not sit in a new Chevrolet. |
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The Web sites on the Internet and material that is out
there on my disease is outdated. I know more about my
disease than the FDA, CDC, Departments of Health and the
National Institutes of Health. What they all have on the
subject of my disease is outdated by many years. Why do
I know more about my disease than they do? I wrote about
what happened to me in several of the books that I have
published and people across America have contacted me
who have my disease. They have my exact symptoms not the
symptoms that you find online or in publications. Those
are old. When someone writes a story about my disease,
they will extract every study ever done that they can
find and then they will write an article on it. It will
list references to studies that were done years and
years ago but the article will not be current. The
material they are using is not current but they are
writing a current article? The facts on my disease have
not been able to be reported. |
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Can one person really make a difference? Well, let’s put
that theory to the test. I am not a reporter in Iraq, I
am not a lost puppy, and I am not Paris Hilton. Who am
I? I represent every person who has ever worked in a
hospital, every firefighter, every police officer, every
restaurant worker, every crop picker, every child on the
playground and every person that eats in a restaurant.
My life has changed other people’s lives, I am important
enough to save and I should be newsworthy. What I have
to say needs to be told. I promise you that I can save
almost everyone who has my disease if the people who
make decisions will want to listen to me. There is a
simple cure but the FDA, CDC,
Departments of Health, and the National Institutes of
Health want more people to die and more statistics
reported before they will listen even though they know
that this disease does exist and that they have the
power to save it. |
