While the Coast Guard is assisting fisherfolk to reclaim their stolen possessions, the Zelaya family is asking for your assistance for their mounting hospital bills.
23-year-old Marcus Zelaya was shot a little over two years ago in gang warfare. And while he survived, he was left paralyzed. His hospital bills are in the thousands of dollars and he has a bedsore that needs urgent attention.
His father, who has already known the loss of another son and a brother, is now appealing to any Good Samaritans who can lend support. Courtney Menzies spoke with him and got their story.
23-year-old Marcus Zelaya got a second chance at life two years ago after he survived a shooting incident that left him paralyzed from the waist down.
But having spent the first 2 or 3 months after he was shot in the hospital, he has racked up bills of $15,000 dollars. And since he can't work, his only means of survival is through his unemployed father who has been trying to raise funds to pay his hospital bills.
Now, Jose Zelaya Sr is appealing to the public for much needed assistance.
Jose Zelaya Sr, Father
"So right now, I'm on a campaign thing to raise funds for my son so they could move this bag from out of him because this bag is causing the most problem for him right now. So if businesses communities or so could come out and help me and my son, I'd really appreciate it, especially in this time right now. It's a real struggle, especially when it's time to go to hospital to change catheter, some days we don't go because we don't have the money to pay the transport and right now we're in debt to KHMH, over $15,000. So everything that we do we have to pay cash and it put a strain on me right now and I'm seeing that my son is healing and getting better every day, but due to the situation I see he's frustrated."
And while mounting debt and a catheter already cause enough distress on this little family, Marcus Zelaya is also suffering from bedsores. He has had them for a while and eventually got a waterbed which helped him to heal. But that waterbed has been punctured and Marcus's sponge mattress is causing the sore to fester.
Jose Zelaya Sr, Father
"Right now the most important thing that I want help for is to get a mattress for him. To try to make him heal because he caught bed sores and he still have it but it's not as bad. And right now with this heat and the mattress that he's using, it's started to bring it back."
Courtney Menzies:
"So you'd want one like what he had, like the waterbed?"
Jose Zelaya Sr, Father
"Well, if we could get the waterbed, we would appreciate it because that help us a lot. So it's whatever we could get, we appreciate, because when you need you can't choose, you just have to appreciate that someone reaches out."
Marcus has come a long way after being ambushed on Mahogany Street and shot five times - once to the head, twice to the shoulder, and twice to the back.
Jose Zelaya Sr, Father
"He went from 2% chance of living to where he is now so that's a blessing but right now with this situation the most thing right now is this bag and the bed sore that we want to get rid of."
His recovery is a miracle, and one that the family needed after Marcus' older brother, Jose Zelaya Jr was murdered in 2018 - less than a year before his younger sibling was shot.
Jose Zelaya Sr has also lost a brother who was murdered in 2002. And after all that loss, this father is fighting so hard for his son, because he can't afford to lose another loved one.
Jose Zelaya Sr, Father
"I'm not feeling what he's going through but I understand it because I've been around from day 1 and it really hurts me emotionally to see that my son is getting better and I can't come up with the right money or the right help so I could help him to do much better."
Jose Zelaya Sr can be reached at phone number 664-6642.
