Decision on teen's fate falls to family

Javier Yebra, 17, has been in a coma since Memorial Day. His parents must decide whether he should be taken off life support.

By DEBORAH O'NEIL

© St. Petersburg Times, published June 9, 2000

The last time Maria DelCarmen Hurtado Yebra saw her 17-year-old son, Javier, he was happily preparing to leave home in Guanajuato, Mexico, for the United States. Here he would join his father working long hours at jobs where it doesn't matter that they can't speak English.

Their earnings would be sent back to Mexico for Mrs. Yebra and Javier's five younger brothers and sisters.

That was January.

Thursday, weary from days of not sleeping, Mrs. Yebra, 34, sat on a bench in the antiseptic waiting area of Bayfront Medical Center in St. Petersburg, a few hours after her plane arrived from Mexico. Her husband, Lorenzo Yebra, 37, sat nearby in a red baseball cap, arms crossed. Their heartache was in their eyes.

"There's no recovery and no hope," said Joann Hurtado, Javier's aunt who lives in Pinellas Park. "They have to think it over. It's not an easy decision."

The decision is whether to pull Javier off the life support. He is in a coma from which he probably will never recover after being hit by a car in Clearwater on Memorial Day.

Three brain surgeries in 10 days have done nothing to change his condition.

Since the accident, Hurtado has been shuttling Yebra to the hospital because he has no transportation. She stays with him because he needs a translator whenever he tries to communicate with doctors or nurses about his son. Hurtado worries about the family, which doesn't have insurance -- especially about their bills. She said the family doesn't know how much Javier's care will cost but guessed it's probably in the neighborhood of $100,000.

"How much is brain surgery?" Hurtado said. "I don't know, $50,000? He's had three."

On Memorial Day, Javier told his father he was going to apply for a second job at a store and the teen took off on a rickety 18-speed bicycle with no front brakes, no headlight or taillight, and a reflector that had been painted over.

Yebra said he isn't sure where his son was headed, only that he said the store, "right around the corner" from their mobile home on Clearwater/Largo Road.

At 6:45 p.m. Javier was riding his bike south on U.S. 19 and turning right onto Drew Street. As he went around the corner, Javier turned into the path of Xuyen Duc Diep, 19, of Clearwater, who was driving west through the intersection in a two-door Honda, said Clearwater police spokesman Wayne Shelor. Diep was driving below the 45 mph speed limit, according to traffic investigators.

Diep swerved but the right rear-view mirror of his car hit Javier, who fell head first to the pavement. Shelor said the investigation is ongoing but at this point, charges probably won't be filed against Diep.

Javier finished school two years ago in Mexico and has worked ever since. He was busing tables at a Clearwater restaurant at night and trying to find a day job, his father said. He turned his wages over to his father, who would send them along with his own back to Guanajuato.

Javier didn't play an instrument but was captivated by the idea of being a musician.

"He had dreamed of putting a band together and being famous," Yebra said.

"He has always been a good son," Mrs. Yebra said. "We've never had a problem with him."

Hurtado holds the waning hope that Javier might respond to his mother, a reminder of home. At the bedside, a father talks to his son:

"Wake up son. It's time to go. We're going home."

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