Five years ago, Hortensia Peters didn’t imagine not being able to work again, and relying on her 30-year-old daughter to help provide for her. After a horrific fall in 2016, Hortensia was left with three lost teeth, a cracked skull, cracked jaw, hurt back and without a joint in her elbow. But with her contagious laugh, you wouldn’t know any of that if you were only talking to her.

Before the accident, Hortensia was a supervisor for a nonprofit company that specializes in work with home care living.

“I was a supervisor; I was a care home manager”, Hortensia explained. “I supervised 10 staff members that took care of five adult males that were in a care home. I had just gotten that position after working there as a care provider. I got promoted and I was working at that time, and then I fell.”

Six months after her injury, she was fired from her job. Because she worked for a smaller nonprofit company, Hortensia didn’t qualify for unemployment and she lost her insurance; she has also been waiting on disability for four years.

When a friend told her about Mercy Care after her accident, she knew the opportunity was too good to pass up. The doctors at Mercy Care have helped Hortensia manage her diabetes, while also working to correct the vision problems that she was experiencing.

“I had Dr. Benoit and he only specializes in serious stuff and I was one of those people”, she said. “He helped me little by little to stabilize my diabetes and my sugar control. He helped with my vision and I was able to get glasses. I went to a place where I didn’t have to pay for them, which for me was wonderful, because I didn’t have a job; I didn’t have unemployment.”

She came to the diabetes support group that Mercy Care offers, and it has helped her control her diabetes. The support group has taught her how to still cook the foods that she loves, but without all the grease and fat.

According to the American Diabetes Association, the price of insulin has nearly tripled since 2002. She was astonished when she was told what she would be paying at Mercy Care.

“One of things that has been amazing is getting insulin for me, which is crucial,” she said. “I only pay $4 for my monthly dose, and that is amazing. If it wasn’t for Mercy Care, I wouldn’t have been able to have any medical care for my diabetes. For everything else: mental health, and a lot of different things.”

Her favorite thing about Mercy Care is the doctor’s willingness to understand and listen.

“I love it here,” she laughed. “I don’t want this place to ever go away.”