LEE COUNTY
The family is trying to save their loved one as Gulf Coast Medical Center orders him to leave.
A hospital has filed suit to remove Leon Mendoza, who suffered a stroke while visiting Fort Myers. They gave him three options; go home to Ecuador, go to a home in Fort Myers, or go to hospice.
After the hospital and family met at the Lee County Courthouse on Monday, Lee Health is going to give the patient his own ventilator and install it for him at his relative’s home in Fort Myers. The hospital will pay for the first three months of upkeep until family members get back on their feet.
This is a dramatic change from the lawsuit filed by Lee Health, which said that essentially there was nothing more we could do, so the patient had to go.
In June 2022, Leon Mendoza, 35, came to the United States on a visitor visa with his wife and two daughters to visit family.
He had a stroke while driving, hit a light pole, and is now paralyzed. He has been on life support ever since.
His wife, Jessica, told WINK News through an interpreter that she never thought of giving up on her husband.
“She says that if she were in that position, she knows deep down that he would do the same for her. She hopes that her daughters will see their father and it breaks her heart that her daughters are so young, I think four and five, and they’ve already been through so many painful moments at such a young age, and it’s just so,” Jessica said via his translator.
An attorney for Mendoza’s family said it’s hard to say when his client will go home. It depends on how long it takes to get a ventilator. It could be a few days or a few weeks.
