Hospital Improves Family’s Hard Times

That cold north wind was blowing. David Duran lost his job and, the same week, lost his left leg too, amputated below the knee because of complications from diabetes. His last paycheck--for $211--had to go toward the rent.

He and his wife and four children, who share two beds in a cramped Whittier apartment, were looking forward to Christmas, certain that there would be no Christmas.

It was the saddest of sad holiday tales until--surprise!--Joe Aldana came along, grinning like a 6-foot elf.

Aldana, a young registered nurse, had an idea.

“It just snowballed,” he said.

Which was why on Friday, at Presbyterian Intercommunity Hospital, Christmas came early. The diabetes unit, known as 2 North, became “2 North Pole,” as proclaimed on a candy-striped sign at Duran’s bedside. Nurses hauled in a live tree bedecked with poinsettias and silver and gold ornaments and topped by an angel.

There were gifts, too, in ribbons and red gift wrap: a Barbie, a stuffed Winnie the Pooh, coloring books, jackets, a soccer game and the video movie “Mulan.” About two dozen nurses, housekeepers and other hospital staff members also chipped in their own holiday bonuses--$20 gift certificates from Ralphs--to give the Durans $400 in shopping money.

“It doesn’t all fit in my heart,” a beaming Duran, 41, said in Spanish while the children played with some of their new toys--the ones that wouldn’t wait for Christmas--on his hospital bed. “I’m very grateful to all of you and to God.”

Duran, who moved from Mexico two years ago, had been diagnosed with diabetes in his early 30s and began having trouble with his foot last summer. The problem would turn out to be osteomyelitis, a bone infection common to diabetics, especially those who fail to take their insulin.

With no health insurance, Duran could scarcely keep up with the $50 a week it costs for insulin and syringes. He was the family’s only wage earner, unloading heavy bags of tuna at a canning plant in Santa Fe Springs for $6.25 an hour. They scrimped where they could, eating out once a week, at Burger King, as a treat for the kids.

The children are well-dressed--and they got gifts last Christmas--but neither parent has bought new clothes in the two years since they arrived in the United States.

Even when the foot got really bad, Duran tried to keep going. “I had no choice,” he said. There was no safety net. He worked until he could no longer walk on it.

A week before reaching three months of employment--when he would have qualified for health care--he had to give up the hard physical labor and get help. Doctors saw how bad the leg was and immediately amputated Dec. 5.

“That’s usually devastating,” said Dr. Mark Melden, who described Duran’s calm, gentle strength through the trauma as “heroic.” He was down but resolved, consumed with fears about the future, but never crying, always ready to see his children.

Maria, who doesn’t drive, walked to the hospital for daily visits, bringing their son, David, 9, and three daughters: Elid, 7; Jaydi, 2; and Atceri, the 8-month-old.

“We all felt really bad,” said head nurse Pamela Dykier. “We worried about him, because how’s he going to support his family? All these little kids would come in and eat with him, and your heart just broke.”

Nurse Aldana pictured his own 4-year-old daughter, Celeste, going without a Christmas. He decided something had to be done.

“I just felt Christmas is for the kids,” he said.

Aldana used a day off to do the gift shopping. On Friday, he stood grinning in Duran’s hospital room while Jaydi unwrapped the Pooh and ran with it to her brother.

Elid, the 7-year-old, waved a sparkling magic wand, and it seemed to be working. The family began to see some hope. Duran will get a prosthetic leg in a few weeks--a gift from the hospital. He plans to stay home for a while.

Maria, who worked at Del Taco before having the baby, will try to get her job back. She has more to wish for--good health, and a chance to keep their home--but she is happy: “I never would have imagined all this would happen.”