Activists Cite Boy’s Death as First Prop. 187 Casualty : Immigration: O.C. parents say they delayed care out of fear. Measure’s backer skeptical; autopsy results pending.

Latino community leaders Tuesday cited the death of a 12-year-old Anaheim boy as the first casualty of Proposition 187.

Julio Cano, a seventh-grader at Sycamore Junior High School, died after his illegal-immigrant parents delayed seeking medical treatment--out of fear, the parents said, that a hospital would report them to immigration officials.

“If it weren’t for Proposition 187, the first day he felt sick we would have taken him to the hospital,” said his father, Constantino, who has a different last name than his son and spoke on the condition that he not be fully identified because of his illegal status.

Proposition 187 allows for emergency health care but denies other health services to illegal immigrants, along with public education and other social services. It requires that health care workers report suspected illegal immigrants.

Ruth Coffey, head of a group that worked for passage of Proposition 187, said Tuesday that the Anaheim family’s story is not believable. Coffey suggested that the family was “probably thoroughly coached by somebody with a very vested interest in seeing Proposition 187 defeated.”

“I don’t care what language they speak,” said Coffey, president of Stop Immigration Now. “Everybody knows this is not in effect yet. Not one step has been taken as far as denying medical services to anybody. Over and over it’s been repeated. It will be years before it (litigation over 187) is resolved.”

But Latino activists said that even though enforcement of the law is currently being blocked by a court order, many illegal immigrants are unaware of that.

Julio fell ill early last week, complaining of a cough that sent pain shooting through his bowels. But his father said he and his wife were afraid to go to a hospital and postponed seeking help until they could raise the $60 to take Julio to a private doctor on Friday.

By Saturday morning, the boy was dead of unknown causes.

Autopsy results are pending and it was not known Tuesday whether the boy’s death could have been prevented if his family had sought free medical attention earlier at a community clinic or hospital.

Latino activists say Julio’s case highlights the extent of fear and misinformation swirling through the immigrant community.

“For goodness’ sakes, this is a case that should never have happened,” said Amin David, the chairman of Los Amigos of Orange County, which focuses on Latino community issues. “The victims of Prop. 187 are preponderantly children, and here it is.”

David said the group will take the issue up at its meeting today and plans to ask Spanish-language newspapers to spread the word that it is still safe to seek government-provided care.

John Palacio, an official with the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund in Orange County, said that while his organization is still gathering information about the case he believes that Proposition 187 is keeping people away from medical services.

“One thing is clear . . . people are not sure whether or not to go to a hospital or community health clinic because of the passage of Proposition 187,” Palacio said.

At the family’s one-bedroom apartment Tuesday, Julio’s mother, Rosa, sobbed as she cradled her month-old baby and welcomed a stream of visitors, including the boy’s art teacher and the principal at his school.

Their son was a shy, bright boy who wanted to be a lawyer, picked up English quickly and tutored other recent arrivals who spoke only Spanish, said Principal Pat Savage.

Staff and students at the school collected $800 for the family Tuesday. Anaheim firefighters had raised $600 for the family, and several churches have begun fund-raising efforts. Constantino said they don’t have the money to claim Julio’s body from the morgue, let alone pay the $2,800 costs of burial.

“I know that the students were devastated. He was good friends with so many of them,” Savage said. “He always came to class with a smile and he was always willing to help.”

Savage said that Julio was out sick last week. On Wednesday, he came to school for about three hours and complained of feeling ill.

“He went to a health clerk (at the school) twice, but he had no fever at all,” Savage said. “He would not tell anybody what was wrong because he knew that his parents didn’t have the money to take him to the doctor.”

Constantino and Rosa moved to Orange County from Acapulco four years ago. Julio and the couple’s other older children, ages 13 and 11, were born in Mexico and joined their parents here only three years ago. They are all undocumented, Constantino said.

The couple’s youngest children, age 1 month and 1 year, were born in the United States.

Even before the passage of Proposition 187, the couple was unsure where to seek medical care, they said. The three eldest children carry Medi-Cal cards ensuring only emergency and pregnancy-related services.

Constantino and Rosa said Thursday that a daughter had been denied care at a Garden Grove hospital once because her condition was not deemed an emergency, and Rosa said she went to UC Irvine Medical Center seeking a free pregnancy test once and was denied.

“We have two babies here who were born here. If they deport us, what would the smaller children do without us?” he said. “We were worried they would ask us for our documents.”

The father said he waited until Friday to take his son to the doctor because that is payday at the factory where he works. They went to the Family Medical Clinic, a private facility.

Physician N. Radd Radparvar said he had treated the boy Friday for constipation and rectal pain.

The doctor said Julio came into the office needing to be physically supported by family members, and left “in good condition,” walking on his own. “The mother and father, they were grateful,” he said.

The doctor, a general practitioner, said he administered a “small enema” and gave the boy antibiotics and vitamins to take at home. He said he told the family that if the youngster’s condition did not improve, they should “rush” him to a hospital emergency room. The clinic is closed on the weekends, he said.

Constantino said that Julio was “up all night going to the bathroom” Friday after he took an antibiotic.

“When I was going to work at 5 a.m. on Saturday, he had just come out of the bathroom. I asked him, ‘How do you feel?’ and he said he felt well,” Constantino said. “So I went to work.”

Rosa said her son’s condition worsened quickly. She left the house to get him a drink from the store and when she returned he could not speak.

“His jaw was very tight. He couldn’t open his mouth,” she said.

Joe Gutierrez, an Anaheim Fire Department captain and paramedic, said Julio wasn’t breathing and his heart was not beating when his team arrived at the family’s home Saturday morning.

After paramedics attempted unsuccessfully to revive him, the youngster was transported to Anaheim Memorial Hospital where further attempts at resuscitation failed.

The autopsy on the child was completed Sunday and results will not be available for several weeks, said supervising deputy coroner Cullen Ellingburgh.

Gutierrez said he learned from a friend of the family at the hospital that Julio’s father was behind in his rent and had been working weekends to make ends meet. Moved by the family’s tragedy, Gutierrez returned to the home Sunday on off-duty time to see what he and the Anaheim Firefighters Assn. could do to help.

“The mother said, ‘I wish you could have brought my son back,’ ” he said. “I think she was just in anguish.”

Gutierrez said he sensed that the father was blaming himself. “He shared with me that his son had gotten sick on Tuesday and (the family) did not want to take him to a clinic for fear of 187. . . . He waited until Friday to take him to the doctor.

“I said, ‘I think you and your wife did everything you could.’ ”

Gutierrez stressed that Proposition 187 played no role in the firefighters’ decision to help, but that the child’s death has emotionally affected everybody on his crew.

“I think everybody on our crew has children ranging from infants to grown children who are out of the house. Everybody was able to envision or see Julio as their child.”

Tuesday, Constantino flipped through a quilted photo album that contained more than half a dozen awards from teachers commending his son on his work.

“Julio was the brightest one of the whole house,” he said. “He spoke the best English. He was very dedicated to his studies. He wanted a degree so he could be a lawyer.”