Difficult decisions ahead for family of comatose immigrant
August 21, 2007 - Posted at 12:00 a.m.
BY GABE SEMENZA - VICTORIA ADVOCATE
http://www.thevictoriaadvocate.com/233/ ... 09536.html

An illegal immigrant, who has lived in Victoria for years, is in a coma and worsening, the man's ex-wife said late Monday.
Eduardo Cortez Hernandez, 43, is hospitalized at Temple's Scott and White Hospital after falling headfirst from scaffolding while working out of town.

Hernandez, a commercial painter, has been hospitalized for a week - ever since suffering major head injuries in the fall.

Lisa Soule, a hospital spokeswoman, said last week Hernandez is in "critical" condition, meaning his vital signs are unstable and his "indicators are unfavorable."

She declined further comment on Monday, citing restrictive hospital policy.

Doctors now need a picture ID of Hernandez, "to make sure he is who we say he is," Mary Ester Fuentes, the injured painter's ex-wife, said.

Hernandez did not have a wallet or identification when he was injured.

Fuentes spoke to the Advocate by cell phone just minutes after talking to a Temple surgeon from within the hospital on Monday night.
Fuentes was in tears.

"They took another CAT scan of his head, and it's worse than the first one," she said.

Fuentes said doctors told her they can't operate until the massive swelling in his brain decreases.

"His brain is bleeding," she said.

"(The fall) has severely damaged the part of his brain that makes him walk and talk. That is destroyed."

Fuentes was at the hospital with one of Hernandez' sisters, whom she said lives in Dallas and is a legal citizen. But Fuentes said the sister only speaks Spanish and thus couldn't talk to the Advocate.

Last week Fuentes and friends rushed to locate Hernandez' blood family members - anyone who could sign the paperwork they said doctors requested to provide emergency surgery if needed.

Now Fuentes said doctors are requesting a picture ID to further confirm his identity, as well as the sister's identity, as difficult decisions approach.

Fuentes said doctors don't know if the man can live a normal life if he survives the coma and brain swelling.

"They asked me about if he was to have to live on a machine. 'Would he want to be like that?' I told them, 'No.' He always told me that he wouldn't want to live like that."

Now, she and the sister wait patiently as another family member in Mexico rushes to retrieve Hernandez' birth certificate, Fuentes said.

"This decision is up to the sisters," Fuentes said. "I'm pretty sure they're not going to want him to live like that on a machine."
Gabe Semenza is a reporter for the Advocate. Contact him at 361-580-6519 or gsemenza@vicad.com, or comment on this story here