Thread: Illegal Alien Stays Free in CA Hospital 1 Year; 12 Surgeries...

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Man set to go home today after more than year at Fresno hospital
His was longest acute-care hospital stay.

By Barbara Anderson - The Fresno Bee

Tuesday, Jan. 03, 2012 | 10:43 PM

Doctors say Marco Antonio Fuentes is well enough to go home today.

At last.

Fuentes has spent 374 days at Community Regional Medical Center, the longest uninterrupted stay by a patient at the Fresno acute-care hospital, according to staff recollection.

"God has helped me to make it in here and to make it out of here," Fuentes said softly from the edge of his hospital bed Tuesday.

Doctors struggled to keep him alive since Fuentes was admitted to the hospital Dec. 26, 2010, with an excruciating belly ache.

Fuentes' abdomen was full of infection. Surgeons could do little that first day but drain the abscesses and sew him up, said physician assistant Neydi Salaverri-Edmonds.

Necrotizing pancreatitis, an infection of the pancreas, had eaten away tissues, including his intestines, she said.

Doctors suspect Fuentes, 35, had gallstones that developed into a gallbladder infection, which was left untreated and progressed.

The average length of hospital stay for uncomplicated pancreatitis is about two weeks, with a complicated case taking as many as 45 to 65 days, according to the Society for Surgery of the Alimentary Tract.

But Fuentes' case was far from uncomplicated.

Fuentes had 12 surgeries overseen by three trauma physicians -- Drs. Jim Davis, Ricard Townsend and Kunjan Bhakta.

The holes in his intestines allowed bile and feces to escape into his abdomen -- and he had blood infections and blood clots in his lungs that were life-threatening.

"You name it, as a complication, he had it," Salaverri-Edmonds said.

For 11 months and two weeks, he was too ill to eat food or have water. He was fed intravenously. The open wound in his stomach needed daily dressing changes.

But Fuentes did not argue or complain. "There were times when he kept me going," Salaverri-Edmonds said. "Just looking at him, fighting for his life so hard kept me going."

There were times, however, when Fuentes turned to the hospital staff to keep from despair.

During dressing changes, when he saw the gaping wound in his stomach, his heart sank. "It was going through my mind, 'I was never going to get better,' " he said.

For the shy Fuentes of Kerman, who worked as a farm laborer since 1997, words came slowly Tuesday, especially trying to describe a year spent in a hospital bed. But Salaverri-Edmonds helped fill in gaps and interpreted Spanish for the patient she has grown to know in the year he has been in her care.

He thanks God -- and doctors and nurses -- he's alive, and the hospital for his care, he said. Fuentes, an illegal immigrant from Mexico, has no health insurance.

On Tuesday, the final cost of Fuentes' care was not available. Much of it will be taken on by the hospital as charity care.

Last year, for all patients, the hospital provided $100 million on charity care, according to hospital spokeswoman Mary Lisa Russell.

Fuentes has lost track of time -- but it feels longer than a year since he came to the hospital, he said.

His early hospital memories are hazy: "I felt like I was in a boat, looking out into the ocean."

At night, Fuentes had dreams about drinking juices only to wake knowing he couldn't have even a glass of water.

And there was loneliness, days and days of it. "Yes, I was very lonely," he said.

Nurses helped cheer him. And family, including a brother, uncle and cousins, came from as far away as South Carolina to visit, staying at Terry's House across the street from the hospital, said Denise Goodman, the hospital hospitality house manager.

"Having someone here gave me a peace of mind," Fuentes said.

In August, his eighth month hospitalized, his mother, Estella Castillo, came from Mexico. She had been ill, and Fuentes realized his condition worried her. "I had a lot of emotions," he said. "I was sad. I didn't want her to see me that way."

His mother was at her son's bedside Tuesday. She was frightened when she first saw him in the hospital months ago, she said. "I thought I was going to lose my son."

But Fuentes began to rally after a final surgery on Nov. 11.

The surgery to reconstruct his intestines was crucial, Salaverri-Edmonds said. "But we didn't have very high hopes that it would work."

Over nine hours, surgeons were able to rebuild his gastrointestinal tract.

And three weeks ago, he had his first hospital food.

The ground turkey and mashed potatoes was not a meal Fuentes would choose himself. "But it was really good," he said.

On Dec. 20, hospital staff threw him a Christmas party. For that occasion, he had homemade enchiladas. They were "really, really" good, he said.

He's stronger now. He can dress himself, make his bed -- and walk, using a cane for balance. After a couple of weeks convalescing at an uncle's home in Red Bluff, Fuentes will go to Mexico to live with his parents and work at their small, tortilla-making business.

Fuentes said he learned something from his time in the hospital he wants to share with other patients: "I will tell them not to give up."

Source: http://www.fresnobee.com/2012/01/03/...-hospital.html

ERIC PAUL ZAMORA / THE FRESNO BEE

Marco Antonio Fuentes sits on the edge of his bed at Community Medical Center's Leon S. Peters Rehabilitation Center, Fuentes, who suffered from an infectious of the pancreas, was scheduled to go home Wednesday, Jan. 4 after more than a year.



Read more here: http://www.fresnobee.com/2012/01/03/...#storylink=cpy

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