Enrique Cruz joins us to share his heartbreaking story about his late wife Laura Avila who tragically died after plastic surgery gone wrong in Mexico.
He starts by telling us how he met the beautiful Laura in El Paso 16 years ago at a Fashion Show.
Cruz admits to having been a big time player and womanizer before he got serious with Laura. She changed him to become a better, more respectable man.
Laura was his person and he knew instantly that he would marry her one day.
Laura was a very commanding person and the boss in their relationship and he was totally fine with that. He actually loved it.
He tells us that when you grow up in a border town like El Paso or Padre Island it is totally normal to cross the border to Mexico to go to doctors and hospitals.
Cruz takes us through the details of surgery day at the Rinocenter in Juarez, Mexico - from the normal nervousness before surgery to him getting back to the clinic early to make sure everything was going ok.
He had received no phone calls from the clinic during the duration of the surgery.
Upon arrival at the clinic he was told the surgery never took place because something went wrong with the anesthesia and they were just waiting for it to wear off which should be within the hour.
4 hours went by and Cruz kept demanding to see Laura, but they always refused. When he finally goes back to see her he found her convulsing.
Laura was left a minimum of 6 to 8 hours laying in the back of the clinic after an allergic reaction to anesthesia with no urgency to get her emergency medical help. She was not even given oxygen.
Finally an ambulance was called and it was then that Cruz learned the seriousness and grave situation Laura was in.
The anesthesiologist Dr. Ciudad Juarez made a fatal mistake and administered an epidural in the wrong place in her spine where the anesthesia went to Laura's brain instead of her spine.
This caused her brain to be without oxygen for over 1 minute, making her brain swell, her kidney's fail and she went into cardiac arrest.
Laura's mother had no idea that Laura was doing this surgery, Laura wanted to surprise everyone later.
Cruz recounts the days of the ICU stay in the hospital in Mexico, to her Mom and sister arriving and then how complicated it was for them transferring Laura to University Medical Center in El Paso.
Laura's sister caught the doctors from the Rinocenter red handed trying to change information on Laura's medical charts while she was in the hospital in Mexico. They were trying to cover up their mistake.
They had to get security involved.
The University Medical Center in El Paso had to inform the family that there was nothing more they could do for Laura and that they would have to make "THAT DECISION" as a family.
Cruz describes the days of him staying in Laura's room, while she was hooked up to so many tubes including a feeding tube. He describes the agonizing times the desensitized nurses would carelessly stick long
needles into Laura and he could see that it was painful for her and even would see tears form and run down her face.
It was so difficult for all of them to make the decision to take her off all the machines and transfer her to a hospice facility.
Cruz says that every day he could see her disintegrate more and more.
One of the catholic priests from Laura's Mom married Laura and Cruz on her death bed.
Laura passed away on November 24, 2018 peacefully surrounded by her husband and her family.
Cruz had not realized how big this story had become in the media and that it had reached international attention. He told Laura that she was famous right before she passed away.
Cruz says that there are different angles of everybody's sides in this story but it all ends the same.
Cruz and 30 family members and friends traveled to Tulum, Mexico where they spread her ashes and celebrated Laura's life.
We learn about the closing and reopening of the Rinocenter and that Dr. Ciudad Juarez is still working. We learn how political it is in Mexico and that they are still trying to file charges.
Cruz wants everyone to remember the positive things about Laura's life, not just the tragedy how her life ended.
Cruz thanks everyone that contributed to the GO FUND ME that raised over $ 80.000. This money is helping the family with the hospital bills as well as attorneys to try to get Justice for Laura.
He also thanks the entire Venegas family from El Paso because it was them that introduced Cruz to Laura and it was them that were there and helped them in so many ways through this ordeal.