Juanita Juarez: Her Laughter Is Missed Most
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Juanita Juarez couldn't walk or talk, but she knew how to laugh and she happily laughed much of the time.
Her family enjoyed the sound of her laughter, and every member looked forward to hearing it every day in their Torrance home.
Each day her father arrived home from work, he went to Juanita. In his cowboy hat and often dirt-stained clothes -- he works as a gardener---Eusebio Juarez scooped his daughter off the couch and danced with her. Holding Juanita up by the waist, he slowly moved her from side-to-side in small steps across the living room floor to music only he and Juanita could hear. She would laugh and laugh.
Each day her brother came home from school, David Juarez would lay down next to his sister on the couch and hug her. She would laugh. Sometimes he would repeat the word "Pokeman" over and over---Juanita loved the word---and she would laugh.
David misses her laugh the most, he says. "It made me happy."
Each day Juanita's mother sang her "Las Mananitas," a traditional Mexican birthday jingle Juanita loved. And she would laugh. During Juanita's almost four month hospital stay, her mother sang the song a lot, many times a day, to cheer up her daughter.
The Juarez family first drove Juanita to Harbor UCLA Medical Center after she suffered an epileptic seizure that left half her body paralyzed. She stayed in the hospital three weeks while doctors monitored her blood pressure, which would either be much too low or much too high, and helped her work out of the paralysis. During her first hospital stay she suffered from fever on-and-off but her temperature had not been extreme.
At the end of the three weeks she left the hospital only to return again eight days later because she started developing severe respiratory problems to the point "she turned purple," her brother, Eusebio Juarez Jr., said. She had suffered a heart attack. Doctors needed to shock her back to life and her mother says Juanita never fully recovered.
For the next two months Juanita would be on a ventilator to help her breathe and during her final month she would be fully intubated. She had problems with her lungs, her mother said.
Juanita also suffered again from on-and-off fever and a very dry cough. The doctors gave her a lot of different types of medicine and put her on 12 different types of machines, her mother said.
Finally, after nearly four months, it seemed Juanita's conditions might have improved enough to go home. Her blood pressure stabilized and doctors removed her tube, but they wouldn't close-up the hole in her throat in case she needed to be re-intubated. Her mother remembers feeling unsure about taking her home; she wanted to avoid doctors poking her daughter full of needles again in case Juanita needed to come back. But Juanita returned home anyway, for three days, until her fever shot up dangerously high and she needed to be rushed to the emergency room. She stayed at the Harbor UCLA Medical Center four more days.
Her death certificate says she died of the flu, multiorgan system failure, acute kidney failure and chronic kidney failure. L.A. County's Department of Public Health provided her death certificate to Neon Tommy in response to a public-records request for all H1N1 victims.
Juanita Juarez Rodriguez died at age 15 on June 30.
For the funeral the Juarez family, including all six brothers and sisters, wore matching shirts with Juanita's picture on it.
The family keeps a memorial of Juanita in their entryway that includes candles, pictures and an urn with her remains in it. Her parents hope to take the urn back to Mexico someday and bury it alongside their parents. It's where they themselves plan to eventually be laid to rest.
Her father remembers what it was like to sleep next to Juanita; she slept in between her parents to keep her safe from rolling out of bed. She would tug at his and his wife's shirts when she wanted to play. And, of course, he remembers her laugh, which he called beautiful.
Her mother still remembers giving Juanita kisses and the way Juanita would ask for them. Juanita would slowly nudge her face up and slyly stick her cheek out for a peck. Her mother says it's one of the things she misses the most.
They still light the memorial candles every night, and Juanita's mother and cousin pray together. They recite "Our Father" and "Hail Mary" in her honor. They hope Juanita will hear them and know they still remember her.
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This profile is part of a special report that includes other profiles of swine flu victims, research into the legality of withholding death certificates from the public, copies of the certificates provided to Neon Tommy, an interactive map detailing where swine flu has struck in L.A. County, and an in-depth look at how health department officials in Los Angeles and across the country are responding to this crisis.
Feature story:
L.A. County Clamps Down On Information About Swine Flu Deaths
The legal angle:
Secrecy About Swine Flu Deaths Breaks State Law, Experts Say
Swine Flu Victim Death Certificates
Victim profiles:
