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Honduran cancer patient reunited with family

DON BOXMEYER

April. 16, 2005 - 'Excuse me," Jose Hernandez said. "I should call home. I'd like to talk to my mother." Not an unreasonable request for a young fellow, especially since Jose is so far from home, he hasn't seen his mother or any of his nine older sisters in 15 years, and the doctors have said the cancer he has very likely will kill him soon.

That was last fall. Jose even dreamt he was dying and was depressed because he feared it would happen so far from his home in Honduras. Bev Ryan, an oncological social worker at United Hospital, was just getting involved in Jose's case then.

"When I found out it was so important to him to contact his family, I got him a calling card," says Bev. She knows how important family is; Jose is 35, and Bev lost her own son, who was 48, in September to lung cancer.

Jose would never be able to go to his family in a remote section of Central America, so Bev began thinking about bringing his mother and another member of his family here, to St. Paul, to Jose.

"I've never done anything like this before," says Bev, "and the first problem was that the family has absolutely no money. We had to find the money to pay for everything."

The first hurdle Bev cleared was housing. She learned that United has several apartments rented in a building close to the hospital and connected with a tunnel. She arranged for one month's free rent there.

"It taught me that all you have to do sometimes is ask if you can get to the right people."

She had the housing, and now she needed two airline tickets. Among the first potential benefactors she contacted was the Lumen Christi Foundation of Catholic parishes in Highland Park.

After Bev explained Jose's serious illness, the foundation donated the cost of one ticket ($700). She then contacted the Minnesota Oncology and Hematology Foundation of St. Paul, "because I knew they had money for this sort of thing."

"We can give you $1,100," the foundation told Bev. "Will that do?"

It would get things off to a jolly good start, Bev reported. She had the money for two airline tickets and some expenses while Jose's family was here.

"Now I needed to talk to the family," says Bev. "That's where Diana comes in."

Diana is Diana Orellana, an employee of United Hospital and a native of Honduras who was asked to serve as an interpreter.

"She became the angel on my team," says Bev. "We not only had to talk to the family, but to deal with the American embassy in Honduras."

They needed a pair of visas from the embassy, not easy to arrange at any time, let alone expedited visas necessary in this case because Jose's condition appeared to be worsening. Bev worried that she would not get his family here in time to see him.

Jose came to St. Paul about 15 years ago and has worked during some of that time as a laborer, Bev said. He is married, and he and his American wife, Marlo, have a 10-year-old daughter, Bryanna. Marlo helped get some of the documents that were needed for the visas.

Diana maintained contact with the embassy, providing them letters from Jose's doctors and his minister. And Bev went back on the hunt for more cash ($658) that was needed to expedite the visas.

"How much do you need?" asked the Ouellette Foundation of St. Paul. When Bev told folks there, the reply was, "The check is in the mail."

"Not only the foundations," says Bev, "but the medical staff. Some of the doctors were very generous in their donations."

"It's a miracle how people have helped," says Diana. "And the news that his family was coming put a breath of life back into Jose. He just wanted so badly to be close to his mother."

His mother, Carmela Avelar, who is 78, and his sister, Olga Diaz, arrived in St. Paul on March 19 for a one-month visit.

"They didn't get here until late at night, and when Jose saw his mother, he was dressed for the first time since he came to the hospital. Not only dressed up, but he stood up! I don't know where he got the strength!" Diana says.

Jose, who has acute myelogenous leukemia, was described in a letter from his physician to the embassy as suffering from a "serious illness (that) may result in death in the near future."

But according to Diana, "He has more determination now. Before he was resigned to dying, but now he believes in miracles."

The day I met Jose, he'd just had a bone marrow biopsy, his seventh. Getting one of those is a bit like getting kicked in the side by a mule, but when I mentioned, through Diana, Jose's mother, his grimace turned to a smile, and his eyes brightened.

"I don't have words for the happiness at seeing my mother and sister," Jose said. "Before they came, I was ready to die, but this has given me new hope in living. (But) I'm afraid when they go back that it will be worse than before they came.

"That will be tough to take."

Jose has since been released from the hospital to the care of Carmela and Olga, who return to Honduras on Tuesday. There is now some talk of a possible bone marrow transplant that could be life saving, and Carmela has said she'd like Olga to return for that, should it occur.

Whether or not that happens, Jose's life has, for this brief, shining moment, changed.

"Jose is different!" says Diana. "He's alive! He wants to live! He wants to survive!

"I know he's touched my life," she adds. "And he's touched a lot of others around here."

"I will come back here later," said Jose, "and visit these people with love."

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