The night before his fourth brain surgery, Jesús García sits outside his home — a two-car garage converted into an apartment in which he lives with his mother, three sisters, brother and niece. Jesús was told by his doctor that the surgery could leave him paralyzed or blind. He was also informed that there was a possibility that he would not wake up from the surgery at all. Either way, the tumor would not be completely removed. This would only buy Jesús some time.
PHOTOGRAPH BY: Arkasha Stevenson / Los Angeles Times
Link
Peering out the bus window, Jesús García, 19, travels home after receiving chemotherapy at Children's Hospital Los Angeles.
PHOTOGRAPH BY: Arkasha Stevenson / Los Angeles Times
Link
Valentina Gonzalez, 39, checks the stove as her granddaughter Itzel, 2, waits for her bath and the toddler's aunt, Jessica García, 21, and her mother, Claudia García, 23, wash Valentina's son, Stuart, 1, in the kitchen sink.
PHOTOGRAPH BY: Arkasha Stevenson / Los Angeles Times
Link
Still well enough to leave the house, Jesús García, reaches out to his niece Itzel as she is held by his sister Claudia García, while attending church at Iglesia Penecostes Maranatha in Los Angeles. As the tumor in the right hemisphere of Jesús' brain continued to grow, his left side became weaker and weaker, making it difficult for him to go out.
PHOTOGRAPH BY: Arkasha Stevenson / Los Angeles Times
Link
A week before his fourth brain surgery, Jesús García talks to Children's Hospital nursing care manager Barbara Britt. As Jesús' steroid intake has increased, so have tensions with his family. Britt explains to him that with the upcoming surgery, he is going to need his family around him.
PHOTOGRAPH BY: Arkasha Stevenson / Los Angeles Times
Link
Quietly lost in their anxieties, Jesús García, waits with his mother, Valentina Gonzalez, in pre-op at Children's Hospital Los Angeles before his fourth brain surgery. While the surgery could leave Jesús blind, paralyzed or worse, surgeons hoped that removing part of the tumor could afford Jesús an extra few months of life. However, only a month after the seven-hour surgery, an MRI revealed significant regrowth of the tumor.
PHOTOGRAPH BY: Arkasha Stevenson / Los Angeles Times
Link
In the last moments before surgery, Valentina Gonzales kisses her son Jesús García goodbye. Groggy from the anesthesia, Jesús is still clutching the teddy bear given to him by a nurse.
PHOTOGRAPH BY: Arkasha Stevenson / Los Angeles Times
Link
After anxiously waiting over seven hours for her son Jesús García to emerge from brain surgery safely, Valentina Gonzalez takes in a deep breath.
PHOTOGRAPH BY: Arkasha Stevenson / Los Angeles Times
Link
After his fourth brain surgery, Jesús García is left with a massive scar zig-zagging across the right side of his scalp. Jesús recalled "feeling like a monster" because of his scar from his initial surgeries. "They told me this one would be bigger."
PHOTOGRAPH BY: Arkasha Stevenson / Los Angeles Times
Link
With the help of Ricardo Ruiz, Valentina Gonzalez is able to transfer her son Jesús García to a wheelchair with a head support. Valentina and his sister Claudia try to take him outside as much as they can. However, as Jesús' body deteriorated this became harder and harder.
PHOTOGRAPH BY: Arkasha Stevenson / Los Angeles Times
Link
Two days before his death the sound of Jesús García's heavy breathing fills the room as his sister, Claudia García strokes his face at their home in South Los Angeles.
PHOTOGRAPH BY: Arkasha Stevenson / Los Angeles Times
Link
Valentina Gonzalez holds up her son Jesús García before helping him to the bathroom. After surgery, Jesús' left side began to deteriorate rapidly. Nearly two months after his return home from the hospital he was completely bed bound.
PHOTOGRAPH BY: Arkasha Stevenson / Los Angeles Times
Link
Tears stream down Valentina Gonzalez's face while she strokes the face of her dying son, Jesús García. After four brain surgeries, doctors were unable to contain a tumor growing in the right hemisphere of Jesús' brain. After he endured a seizure days earlier, Jesús condition made a turn for the worse, leaving Valentina keeping vigil at his bedside late into the night.
PHOTOGRAPH BY: Arkasha Stevenson / Los Angeles Times
Link
Jesús García is surrounded by a prayer group from Iglesia Pentecostes Maranatha. His mother weeps by his right shoulder, and his sister Claudia holds his atrophied legs as she prays.
PHOTOGRAPH BY: Arkasha Stevenson / Los Angeles Times
Link
Fatigue overcomes Valentina Gonzalez as she keeps vigil over her son Jesús García, and tends to her other son, Stuart, right, and her granddaughter, Itzel.
PHOTOGRAPH BY: Arkasha Stevenson / Los Angeles Times
Link
Valentina Gonzalez collapses beside the bed where her dead son lies. Jesús García, 19, died the night before but his mother and sisters Jessica and Claudia were not ready to part with the body.
PHOTOGRAPH BY: Arkasha Stevenson / Los Angeles Times
Link
After keeping vigil over her brother's lifeless body all night long, Claudia García breaks down as it is taken away. She is comforted by her friend Kimberly Barrios.
PHOTOGRAPH BY: Arkasha Stevenson / Los Angeles Times
Link
A bible rests on Jesús García's deathbed days after his death.
PHOTOGRAPH BY: Arkasha Stevenson / Los Angeles Times
LinkMore galleries on Framework
return to gallery
By Lee Romney EUREKA, Calif. — Carole Lewis throws herself into her work as if something big was at stake. “Pa'-ah,” she tells her Eureka High School class,... View Post»
President Reagan's shooting | March 30, 1981
Thirty years ago, on March 30, 1981, an attempt was made to assassinate President Ronald Reagan in Washington, D.C. At 2:27 p.m., as the president walked to his limousine... View Post»
Libya fighting: "A kumbaya moment" on the front line with rebels
By Luis Sinco, Los Angeles Times I was standing at the front line on the outskirts of Ajdabiya on Friday... View Post»
Pictures in the News | Nov. 15, 2010
Monday's Pictures in the News feature begins in Shanghai, where a 30-story residential building caught fire, killing at least 42 people. In other news, Rep. Charles B. Rangel... View Post»
