Support Carlos Mejia's Critical Recovery

My name is Peggy Waite and I am one of hundreds, literally hundreds, of close friends of Carlos Mejia. I've never met anyone with as many friends as Carlos, who also has the biggest heart and most positive attitude of anyone I know. Most of you who know him, know that he fought childhood stomach cancer and was in the Sanar Children's Cancer Hospital in Pereira, Colombia, for 2 years, from age 10-12. Although they rid him of the cancer, it left lifelong gastrointestinal damage due to the intensive radiation treatments. During our 20-year friendship, I have witnessed a couple of trips per year to the ER, but after treatments, he has bounced back. Unfortunately, last Thursday, we rushed him to the ER at Holy Cross Hospital in Fort Lauderdale. He hasn't been as lucky this time. He went in for emergency surgery at 5:00 AM Friday morning, then another on Sunday morning. Tomorrow he is slated for the 3rd surgery. He has been on a ventilator and kept in an induced coma for the past 5 days. He had a bowel obstruction which led to a rupture in the colon, resulting in sepsis. Although unconscious for the most part, his closest friend, "uncle Lou", and a few others have been at his side 24/7. We are all praying that after tomorrow's surgery, he can begin the healing process. Even if the 3rd is successful, he is looking at 7-10 more days in the hospital. If not, it could be longer. Once home, it could be several months until he has the strength to go back to work.

There is no one more generous than Carlos. Every year he goes back to Colombia to volunteer at the children's cancer institute that saved his life. He is the longest-living childhood cancer survivor from that hospital, and he has been their "poster child" for years. He has been instrumental in not only donating time but fundraising for the hospital. His generosity does not end there. As a teen in Colombia, after being discharged from the hospital, he took refuge living with multiple families of the nurses in the hospital that needed help at home. Being an orphan, these "nurse mothers," as he refers to them, gave him housing, and he, in return, took care of their children and their elders. After coming to America, he did the same. Since I've known him, he has cared for many elderly people, many of whom have passed, mostly during his spare time and asking for nothing in return. To this day, 30 years later, he still visits his nurse mothers in Colombia, who are now in their 70s and 80s.

Now is our time to help him. He does not have disability insurance. Between medical bills and living expenses, I can only imagine the hole he will be trying to dig out from under. If everyone out there that knows him and calls him a friend could just donate anything, no matter how small, I know he would appreciate it from the bottom of his heart.