[ad_1]
Sergio Humberto Padilla Hernandez prepared his last farewell to his family, while still hoping he could still recover.
“I will recover, God willing. We will move forward,” he said in the video. “No matter what, you will always look out for my best interests, always. I love you and you are in my heart.”
The frontline worker died on November 6, hours after being intubated at the hospital where he worked in Cuauhtemoc, Mexico, his family said. He was only 28 years old.
Almost the whole family has fallen ill with the virus this year, he said. Padilla Hernandez’s mother has been hospitalized for a while and her father is on oxygen at home, her cousin said. Dolores’ twin sister and her daughter also fell ill.
So far, Padilla Hernandez’s wife, Denise Hernandez, and their 5-year-old son, Sergio Hernandez III, have remained in good health. But now they have to face a life without a husband and a father.
He risked his life to help others
Padilla Hernandez worked as a nurse at Angeles Cuauhtémoc Hospital. His cousin said he was motivated by a life of service and that it came from helping people.
Still, Padilla Hernandez stayed away from hospital for months when her mother and twin sisters fell ill with the virus in July. His family needed him and he couldn’t work because of the exposure, so he took care of his family.
When he returned to hospital in mid-September, his cousin said he had done so to fight the virus he had seen ravage his family.
Padilla Hernandez tested positive for Covid-19 on October 22, her family said. He stayed home while he recovered.
But on November 5, it was getting too hard to breathe. He knew he needed oxygen, so he went to the hospital, Adalberto Hernandez said.
“At this point all the tests showed he had lost 90% of his lung function,” said Adalberto Hernandez. “The saddest thing was that the doctors felt… very confident in his chances because he had no previous health problems, he was young, healthy.”
That night, Padilla Hernandez filmed the heartbreaking video of himself to send it to his family.
“Now that we’re watching him again, that almost served us goodbye,” Adalberto Hernandez said.
‘It’s like we’ve lost a brother’
Adalberto Hernandez recalls spending time with Padilla Hernandez, her twin sisters and their older sister at her family’s home in Fresno County, California.
“Growing up we spent a lot of time together as kids,” said Adalberto Hernandez. “He was 12 years younger than me, so I could see him when he was young. I was able to babysit his sisters.”
When the Hernandez Padilla family returned from California to Mexico, they still tried to take trips to see the family.
Even though the families were miles from each other and a country away, they remained close. Adalberto Hernandez, a 40-year-old elementary school principal from Medera, Calif., Said he and his cousin have kept in touch online over the years.
Hernandez Padilla loved combat sports and he and Adalberto Hernandez watched boxing together. He also loved traveling, his nursing job and especially his family.
“He dedicated his life to service and helping others, but more than that he was a son and a father. He had nothing but the greatest hopes and dreams for his son,” said Adalberto Hernandez.
His cousin, he said, even looked like him and his siblings, sharing a family resemblance.
“It’s so tragic for us,” he said. “It’s like we’ve lost a brother.”
Family struggles with medical bills
The tight-knit Padilla Hernandez family owned a furniture store in Chihuahua, Mexico, and had a good life for themselves, Adalberto Hernandez said.
Today, the family has nearly $ 50,000 in medical debt between the deaths of Hernandez and her sister and their mother’s hospitalization before she recovered, Hernandez said.
“They went from a pretty good life and a selling everything furniture business,” Adalberto Hernandez said. “They were all aimed at helping people and now their whole world has been turned upside down.”
“Now that he’s gone, his sister is gone. There is one less good person to help people in need because that’s what it was all about,” he said.
Padilla Hernandez gave her life to help others and her cousin hopes people take the coronavirus more seriously, Adalberto Hernandez said.
“Watching this video totally breaks your heart and makes you appreciate life, but also why?” he said. “Why this family? Why him? He has just lost his sister.
“Mom, it’s such a fresh wound to lose a child and now you have to watch another child die,” he said. “It is simply unimaginable.”
CNN’s Claudia Morales contributed to this report.
[ad_2]
Source link