ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, October 11, 1996 TAG: 9610110063
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-5 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: NORFOLK
SOURCE: Associated Press
MEMO: NOTE: Shorter version ran in Metro edition.
THE MIGRANT WORKER was paralyzed from the chest down in a recent car wreck. He won't be going to rehab. Instead, he must go home.
Marcos Gonzales came to the Eastern Shore to pick vegetables for $34 a day in farm fields where most Americans wouldn't want to work.
He sent most of the money to his family in a Mexican village. Now he's getting ready to go back himself because he no longer can work.
The migrant worker broke his neck in an Aug. 1 car wreck and is paralyzed from the chest down. When he is discharged from the hospital, he will leave the country voluntarily rather than be deported.
Gonzales, 24, is an illegal alien. He cannot remain in the United States legally, despite efforts by the Roman Catholic church to help him.
Gonzales is being treated at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital.
``His is the most devastating injury that I have seen in six years in the hospital,'' said Jackie Willard, his case manager at the hospital.
Gonzales will never walk again. He receives oxygen through a tube in his throat. His lungs must be suctioned often to remove fluid. He is at risk of developing pneumonia, bed sores and blood clots.
Willard said most such patients go to a rehabilitation center after they leave the hospital. Gonzales will have to go home to Mexico instead.
Willard called the Catholic church seeking support for her patient.
Jim Albright, coordinator of the church's migrant ministry, tried to find ways to keep Gonzales in the country for rehabilitation. But he said no center would take Gonzales without his having Medicaid or long-term insurance.
After lobbying by Willard and Albright, the federal government agreed to let Gonzales' family into the country to be trained in the care he requires.
Gonzales then will be moved to a house on the Eastern Shore where the family will practice home therapy. They will leave for Mexico within six months.
A hospital bed and wheelchair have been donated to the family, and the hospital has absorbed the $161,959 cost of his two-month stay.
Willard estimates Gonzales' care once he leaves the hospital will cost up to $1,000 a month, including oxygen, catheters and medicines. Albright is trying to find long-term help for the family.
The Rev. Roberto Gloisten said the United States is willing to let migrant workers pick crops to keep food cheap but won't share its resources to help the workers in time of need.
``Everyone knows they're there, but if the Immigration [Service] goes after them, the crops don't get picked,'' said Gloisten, who conducts Mass in Spanish for local Hispanics.
LENGTH: Medium: 59 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. As friend Maria Newman holds the telephone recently,by CNBMarcos Gonzales talks to his mother in Mexico. The Rev. Roberto
Gloisten listens at right.