Heart Patient Rejected in U.S. Dies in Mexico

Hector Bojado, a 29-year-old heart patient who could not raise the money for a transplant operation at UCI Medical Center in Orange, has died of severe internal bleeding and other complications in a Mexico City hospital, family and friends said Tuesday.

“I talked to an older brother in Mexico City, and I wanted to talk to his mother but I couldn’t because she was devastated,” said Juan Valencia, a close friend of Bojado’s who lives in Anaheim. He said Bojado died Monday.

Bojado left the United States about two months ago after he was rejected as a heart transplant candidate at UCLA Medical Center and Hoag Hospital in Newport Beach, in addition to UCI Medical Center. Doctors at UCLA rejected him because of a

past history of drug use.

A spokeswoman for UCI Medical Center referred to the death as “a real tragedy.”

Valencia said he advised Bojado after he had been turned down repeatedly for a new heart that he had a better chance in Mexico than in the United States.

“I suggested to him to go play his last card in Mexico,” Valencia said. “The hell with them here. In Mexico, they had a donor but could not perform the operation until he got better. Then he took a turn for the worse.”

According to a brother in Colima, Mexico, Bojado’s health was stable in January, and he was able to walk about five to six minutes daily. But after a third heart attack, his health began to severely deteriorate, said Sergio Bojado.

Bojado had suffered from cardiomyopathy, an irreversible swelling of the heart. He was diagnosed with the disease after he complained of extreme tiredness, loss of breath, and other symptoms last year.

His plight, and that of a second heart patient, received widespread attention and spawned fund-raising efforts by UCI Medical Center’s Auxiliary to raise $80,000 to help pay for a heart transplant operation.

But the auxiliary fell short of raising what was needed, collecting only $50,000 for both Bojado and Stephen Regalado, 23, of Mission Viejo. Regalado died before his name could be placed on a transplant waiting list.

Bojado’s plight also underscored escalating medical costs that have prohibited hospitals such as the UCI Medical Center from underwriting heart transplants and other major operations.

Bojado will be buried in Colima. He leaves a widow, Lisa, of Buffalo, N.Y., and two daughters.