Man to receive care at home after Gulf Coast Medical Center sues to have him removed

A family tries to keep their loved one alive while Gulf Coast Medical Center tells him to leave.

The hospital filed a lawsuit to remove Leon Mendoza, who had a stroke while visiting Fort Myers from out of the country. They gave him three options; go home to Ecuador, go to a home in Fort Myers, or go to hospice.

After the hospital and the family met at the Lee County courthouse on Monday, Lee Health is going to give the patient his own ventilator and set it up for him at his relatives’ home in Fort Myers. The hospital will pay for the first three months of maintenance until the family members can get back on their feet.

That’s a dramatic change in position from the lawsuit Lee Health filed, which said, in essence, there’s nothing more we can do, so the patient must leave.

In June 2022, 35-year-old Leon Mendoza came to the United States on a visitor’s visa with his wife and two daughters to visit family.

While driving, he suffered a stroke, hit a light pole, and is now paralyzed. He’s been on life support since.

His wife Jessica, through a translator, told WINK News she never considered giving up on her husband.

“She says that if she were in that condition, she knows in her heart that he would do the same thing for her. She’s hoping that her daughters get to see their father, and it breaks her heart that her daughters are so young, I believe that four and five, and they’ve already experienced so many painful moments at a young age, and it’s just very, very heavy on them,” said Jessica through her translator.

The Mendoza family attorney said that it’s hard to tell when his client will go home. That depends on how long it takes to get a ventilator. It could be a few days or a few weeks.