DEL.ICIO.USGuatemalan teen awaiting transplant dies
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Wednesday, July 01, 2009
Fate had started to change for 18-year-old Juan Gonzalez.
He had gotten on a list for the heart transplant he so desperately needed. His parents had arrived from his native Guatamala to be with him.
Carol Hewitt /Special
Juan Gonzalez, 18, lost his battle with a weak heart Friday. ‘He always had a smile on his face,’ said Carol Hewitt, a nurse who cared for Juan for seven months. ‘When you walked in the room, that’s what you saw.’
And a U.S. congressman was one of many former strangers who stepped in, even helping Juan get a temporary visa.
But on Friday, he lost his battle with a condition called dilated cardiomyopathy, which made his heart too weak to pump blood.
“He was a very sick boy,” said nurse Carol Hewitt, who cared for Juan for seven months. “We had hoped for a different outcome. But he lost the battle.”
Juan came to Georgia hoping to work and send money home to his family. He found work not far from where his uncle lives in Paulding County.
But in November, he was diagnosed with the heart condition. A clinic sent him to the emergency room at Redmond Regional Medical Center in Rome, his uncle Salvador Sondoval said.
At Redmond, Juan was in the care of cardiologist Frank Stegall and his staff.
“When you work in a hospital, you don’t know what’s going to be there when you get there each day,” Hewitt said. “Then we found out how sick he really was.”
When he wasn’t in the hospital, he lived with Sondoval. Knowing his prognosis wasn’t good, Juan wanted desperately to see his parents — Pascual and Maria. Others made it happen.
“There are a lot of problems in Guatemala with health care,” Sondoval said. “If you don’t have money, they don’t take care of you.”
But in the U.S., he was in the care of doctors and nurses in Rome and Atlanta. Juan spent the final weeks of his life at Saint Joseph’s Hospital.
Juan’s funeral will be held Thursday at Fred Talley’s Parkview Chapel in Rome. Visitation will be from 6 to 8 p.m., and the service is at 8, Hewitt said.
A bank account previously set up to help pay for Juan’s medical expenses now will be used to help fund his parents’ trip home. Juan’s body will be flown back too, Sondoval said.
Those wishing to donate to the “Juan’s Wish” account should contact United Community Bank in Rome or mail payment to P.O. Box 1327, Rome, 30162-1327.
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