The heart of a fighter lives on, saves lives

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Updated: August 4, 2011 4:20PM

Alejandro Rodriguez used to visit his brother’s grave every day. He knelt next to the marker and told his brother how the family was holding up after his untimely death.

Francisco “Paco” Rodriguez, known as El Nino Azteka in the ring, collapsed during a fierce fight in Philadelphia on Nov. 19 of last year. He died from a brain injury two days later. Rodriguez was 25 and a beloved member of the Chicago boxing community. He won the national Golden Gloves championship and tried out for the U.S. Olympic team before turning professional.

His father and another brother, both former boxers, were in his corner as his trainers that night, but Alejandro, the oldest brother, stayed in Chicago.

Alejandro remembers the phone call he received that night. Paco was not doing well and had been taken to the hospital. Alejandro and the rest of the family, including Paco’s wife and baby daughter, traveled to Philadelphia.

“The doctor told us that Paco was not going to make it. His brain was severely damaged,” Alejandro said. “We prayed for a miracle, but he died the next day.”

Soon after the doctors told the family the bad news, a woman at the hospital asked them to consider donating Paco’s organs. Although the idea of organ donation had never crossed his mind before, Alejandro knew Paco had been an athlete in perfect physical shape and that his organs could help others to live. This, he told the family, is what Paco would have wanted. They agreed.

Paco’s heart, lungs, kidneys, liver and pancreas were donated to five individuals, with one kidney going to Paco’s own uncle.

“This way, Paco will continue to live through others and his heart will not cease beating,” Alejandro said to me before a mass held last Monday at Our Lady of Grace Church to commemorate the first anniversary of Paco’s death.

On one of those visits to the cemetery soon after his brother’s death, Alejandro asked Paco “for a sign” to show him what to do next in his life. Minutes later, while he was driving home, Alejandro received a call on his cell phone. At first, he did not answer because he did not recognize the number, but the phone kept ringing.

The caller identified herself as a representative of Gift of Hope, a tissue and organ donation network. Raiza Mendoza, the Latino outreach coordinator of Gift of Hope, asked Alejandro to become an ambassador for Gift of Hope and to help educate Latinos about organ donation. Alejandro agreed and, ever since then, has made a point of talking to groups about organ donation.

“That was the signal that Paco sent me,” Alejandro said. “People are receptive to the message about how Paco helped five people to keep on living. But there is misinformation about organ donation in the Latino community.”

Consent rates for organ donation have been climbing for the last four years among Latinos in Illinois, according to Gift of Hope. Last year, the rate was up to 71.4 percent.

Signing up to be an organ donor is a personal as well as family decision, but I urge readers to seriously consider doing so. So many people can be helped, sometimes so close to home.

I have a friend who is on a waiting list for a heart transplant. It’s his only hope for survival.

Paco’s family is anxiously awaiting a reunion next month with those who were fortunate enough to receive his organs. The family knows bits and pieces about the recipients, but not much, and Paco’s mother is especially eager to meet the woman who received her son’s heart.

Alejandro likes to say that his brother’s life has been multiplied by five, and that’s a pretty good way of looking at it.

This Thanksgiving, five people and their families will have a tough fighter to thank for the gift of life.