Since January we’ve been following the story of Ignacio Garcia and his family. His 7 year old daughter Mazia Garcia died from a massive asthma attack on January 1st. Garcia blamed his daughter’s sudden death on the fumes from the buses that park in front of his home on Woods Street. Since then the situation has gotten worse.
As we told you in April, Ignacio Garcia had to be rushed to Los Angeles because he had both lung cancer and tuberculosis. And while he was in the U.S. another of his daughters – 10 year old Addy Garcia missed 37 days from school because of breathing problems - which the family again attributes to the fumes. After spending 81 days in a Los Angeles Hospital, Ignacio Garcia returned to Belize a month ago. He is better but not well – because he still has cancer. We revisited Ignacio Garcia today and found that for this father whose already lost one daughter, the fumes have now become a way of life and a road to his death.
Keith Swift Reporting,
His oxygen tank, this surgical mask, and a cocktail of more than 10 different medications, including chemo pills, are what’s now keeping Ignacio Garcia alive. He has lung cancer and as this x-ray shows –three quarter of his left lung is already gone.
Ignacio Garcia, Has Cancer
“M y situation right now is bad, believe me. I have a fifty-fifty chance. That is the way they put it: I am a 50-50 – I can live or die. That is the way life is right now with me. Right now I have one and a quarter lungs and on the other lung that is good, there are two spots and they have detected it as cancer too and so they give me chemo-pills to try and clear that. If it works then I will have one good lung and the other quarter will get destroyed, probably slowly.”
Keith Swift,
And if it doesn’t?
Ignacio Garcia,
“Then that is it; that is goodbye. Once it doesn’t – that is it.”
Garcia says the fumes from buses that idle with their engines running near his home on Woods Street killed his daughter 7 months ago and are now slowly killing him.
Ignacio Garcia,
“What the doctor told me in the States is the area I live, it is too much smoke around the area. He used a word that I don’t really know but he says we are inhaling too much emission and too much carbon monoxide. I told him I live by a gas station, not even 50 feet from me, and he asked how they allowed that in Belize. I said that is because this is Belize, not America.
All I ask them is to just out their engines when they are filling up because the big trucks come and fill up diesel and there is all that smoke. I would like for you come here tomorrow morning and they would be there filling up, three trucks, and you could sit down right there and you won’t be able to handle it.
When I spoke to the doctor he said I should move from here if I want to live a little bit longer, that is what he told me. I told him I can’t move – I born and grow here. I am older than the gas station that is there.”
And the decision to stay on Woods Street could be a death sentence for Garcia. It is an inevitability he has already resigned himself to.
Ignacio Garcia,
“I could be talking to you now and by this evening that is it. I got faith and I believe in God so I was already dead when I was in the States. I think the Good Lord put me back for a reason. I have faith and that’s all I can go along with right now. The pills don’t make you betta, God makes you betta. It is a pity that we’re punishing and people don’t understand because if anyone was sick and they asked me to do that, I would have walked away a long time – I don’t care who owns the bus because you are hurting people innocently.”
Keith Swift,
Your husband says there is a chance he might not make it, he says it is 50-50. Are you prepared for that reality that maybe your husband might not survive?
Adelia Garcia, Ignacio’s Wife
“Well I trust God because says 50-50 but I tell him I don’t give him 50-50, I give him more than that. But the tank helps him and that is why I am appealing to the people to help us get a bigger tank so he can use it because sometimes at night when I see him blowing short I get frightened because I don’t really worry about me but my two daughters need a father, they love their father.”
While his lung cancer isn’t cured, his tuberculosis is. Ignacio Garcia is taking chemo-pills which are actually better than the actual therapy. He is in constant connection with his doctor who is Belizean born cancer specialist Elford Grant. While Garcia says he has been told that carbon monoxide poisoning caused his cancer – we were unable to verify that.
Doctor Ervin Gabourel who has treated Ignacio Garcia and is regularly updated on his condition says it is hard to determine if the carbon monoxide from the gas station and the buses are responsible for Garcia’s cancer. He is sure the fumes are an aggravating factor but it is hard to determine the exact effect. He notes, as do the doctors in the States, that Garcia used to smoke and even though he stopped several years ago – it is still a factor.
