Mother Grieves After Arriving in U.S. Too Late : Illness: Adela Lopez, who traveled from El Salvador, was upset she didn’t see Fernando Pedrosa alive but was overwhelmed by love shown to the leukemia patient.

In his last moments, Fernando Pedrosa squinted hard as he struggled to continue breathing for his mother.

But Pedrosa, 25, died of leukemia in a nursing home here just hours before his mother was to arrive from El Salvador.

Learning that she was too late, Adela Lopez broke down as she was being driven from Los Angeles International Airport by relatives about 11 p.m. Thursday.

“No! He was supposed to wait for me,” she cried out. “I was supposed to be his medicine.”

Lopez, who grieved through the night, talked with reporters during a press conference Friday afternoon at Flagship Health Care, where her son lived his final month. The 58-year-old woman from the small village of Amatio spoke softly through an interpreter. She said she was not angry with the U.S. State Department for refusing her entry into the country sooner and spoke of how she was overwhelmed by the outpouring of love for her son.

American officials had denied her visa in November because she did not have sufficient money to guarantee her return to El Salvador, according to Rico Cabrera, spokesman for the Los Angeles district office of the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

Social workers and relatives persevered. On Feb. 12, local INS authorities finally recommended approval of an emergency visa for Lopez and sent it to Washington. The permit was granted Tuesday afternoon. A family friend then flew to El Salvador to escort Lopez on the trip.

Disappointed acquaintances who had been cheering for Pedrosa and his mother said Friday that they were frustrated with the INS for not acting on the request during the three-day holiday weekend.

“The INS was not in the hospital room with Fernando,” said Barry Boyd, a Westminster chiropractor whose secretary volunteered to pick up the patient’s mother in El Salvador. “If they had been here and heard him pleading for his mother, there’d have been an emergency status to get her here over the weekend.”

The escort, Rachel Ortiz, said Lopez was nervous on the plane, alternating between crying and praying.

Late Thursday, Pedrosa’s deathbed was surrounded by flowers and loving messages from elementary school students. Lopez sobbed beside the son she had not seen since he left for America 3 1/2 years ago.

“Why didn’t you wait for me? I’m here. Why didn’t you wait for me?” she asked Pedrosa’s still body.

Then, nearly 75 relatives and friends were allowed in to pray around Pedrosa while two small rabbits playfully snuggled against him. The rabbits, one white and the other brown, had been bought with coins and wadded-up dollar bills donated by children at Liberty Christian Schools in Huntington Beach. Boyd, whose children are students there, told the students about Pedrosa and how the dying man had liked to play with rabbits when he was little.

Lopez had never wanted her son to leave their small village. But Pedrosa begged for her approval and promised that he would work to send money back to help clothe and feed his five siblings.

“He loved her and she loved him,” cousin Isaias Lopez said. “She never thought this would happen.”

Nurses said they disagreed with Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach), who said Pedrosa, an illegal immigrant, should have been sent back to El Salvador to be treated instead of costing American taxpayers about $250,000.

Linda Moore, director of admissions for Flagship, said Medi-Cal paid $73.50 daily for Pedrosa’s care, and the hospice program under Medi-Cal paid more than $80 for his room, board and medical supplies.

“It’s a much more complex issue than a lot of people accept it to be,” nurse Steve Vancleave said. “Undocumented workers contribute a lot and do the work that no one else wants to do, housekeeping and gardening. The last facility I worked at, many of the housekeepers were undocumented. We condemn them on one hand but use them on the other.”

Pedrosa’s body has been taken to Colonial Mortuary in Santa Ana, where there will be visitation at 6:30 p.m. Monday.

Isaias Lopez said the family is trying to raise money to return Pedrosa’s body to Amatio. Donations should be sent marked for Fernando Pedrosa to Flagship Health Care, 466 Flagship Road, Newport Beach 92663.