Eric De La Cruz is 27-years old. He grew up in a loving family. As a kid, he loved to play sports.
But when he was 22, Eric was diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy. Now his heart is failing and his doctor says he'll only last a few more weeks at best.
"You can't give up. I go and I see my brother in the hospital and there is just no way I'm going to stop. There's no way I'm going to stop fighting," Veronica De La Cruz, Eric's older sister, says.
Veronica is fighting because Nevada Medicaid won't cover a heart transplant. Since its a pre-existing condition he can't get private insurance.
All that's left is federal Medicare and they denied Eric.
"I've had a lot of people reach out to me saying, I have lupus, I have cancer, I have this or the other and I can't get medicare either. The system is set up so we fail. The red tape is there so we don't succeed, so we give up," Veronica says.
We also wanted to know why Eric couldn't find the help he needed.
We contacted the State Department of Health and Human Services. They tell us, its primarily about cost. A heart transplant is just too expensive.
So Eric has to get Medicare or pay for the surgery himself.
"There's a serious cost component within the healthcare system at this point, unfortunately that does lead to situations where people can't get the care they require," Ben Kieckhefer, with the Dept. of Health and Human Services says.
So many people in fact complete strangers built websites to support Eric across the internet.
But support doesn't equal heart surgery.
"Its been really, really hard and I know he needs my help and so far I'm the only person who's helping him," Veronica says.
Eric is appealing Medicare's decision, but it could take more than a year to process.
Eric doesn't have that kind of time.
Action News has contacted Senator Harry Reid, Senator John Ensign and Congresswoman's Dina Titus' office.
All three say they are now looking into this case.
Stay tuned to Action News as we continue to stay on top of this and let you know what happens.
