Marvin Ramirez
Marvin Ramirez
Sunday, June 2, 2013
Age: 18
Location:
108th and Park Ave.
New York City , NY
United States
Exerpted from Streetsblog
On a Sunday evening at around 7:40 p.m., 18-year-old Marvin Ramirez was
riding east on E. 108th when he was hit by the driver of a Dodge sedan,
traveling north on Park, according to DNAinfo. The Post blamed Marvin for the crash.
This is the same dangerous location where cyclist Shaquille Cochrane or 'Swizzy' was killed in 2012, many pedestrians and drivers have also been injured and killed along this stretch of Park Avenue.
In 2014 the City began to finally install measures to make crossing Park avenue safer.
Marvin worked with his brother at Taqueria Guadelupe in E Harlem.
From DNAinfo
Miguel Ramirez always looked out for his younger brother.
A year ago, he helped scrounge up the $6,000 to bring his only sibling, Marvin,
to New York from Guatemala. When Marvin arrived, Miguel welcomed his
brother into the crowded East Harlem two-bedroom apartment he already
shared with three cousins.
Miguel, 20, also got his brother a job as a deliveryman at the
Mexican restaurant where he worked as a cook. On a good week, the pair —
who bore a striking resemblance to one another — would send $1,000 back
to their parents and Marvin's girlfriend in their homeland.
And last week, when Marvin, 18, needed his brother the most, after a horrific traffic accident left him with brain damage and on a respirator, Miguel was there — even after the NYPD mistakenly declared him dead.
For the last 24 hours of Marvin's life, Miguel sat by his side in the
intensive care unit at Harlem Hospital, refusing to give up on his
brother.
On the night of June 2, Marvin was riding back to the East Harlem
restaurant Taqueria Guadalupe, after making a delivery on his bicycle.
According to the police, he was riding east on 108th Street at 7:40 p.m.
Sunday when he ran a red light.
A 2013 Dodge sedan driving north on Park Avenue struck Marvin,
knocking him off his bike. The driver was not charged or issued a
summons.
Marvin was rushed to Harlem Hospital, where he was treated for massive head trauma and a broken right arm.
A half-hour after the accident, a witness ran to Taqueria Guadalupe,
where Miguel was working a shift. After hearing the news, the brother
darted to the scene, but by the time he got there, Marvin had been taken
to the hospital.
Miguel rushed to the hospital on 135th Street and Lenox Avenue, where he spent Sunday night alongside his brother.
With the help of a translator, doctors told him that Marvin was in
serious condition. He was in bed unconscious with tubes sticking out of
his nose, a cast on his right arm, a fever of 104 degrees and a brain
hemorrhage.
“Please do whatever you can to help him,” Miguel told the doctor through a translator. “Don’t give up on him.”
But the next morning, the situation became more confusing for Miguel.
At 9:40 a.m., the NYPD released a statement to the press saying that Marvin had died.
On noon that day, a DNAinfo New York reporter contacted Miguel about
the statement, but Miguel said his brother was still alive and he could
see him breathing with the help of a respirator.
"Why are they saying that?” he asked. "They haven't called me."
Even though the police said Marvin's family had been notified of his death, Miguel said he was never contacted by cops.
On Thursday a spokesman for the city Health and Hospitals
Corporation, which oversees the city's public hospitals, said patient
confidentiality laws kept him from discussing the exact time of Marvin's
death but he confirmed that the 18-year-old had stayed in the hospital.
"Let's just say the NYPD sometimes makes mistakes," the spokesman, Ian Michaels, said.
The NYPD did not respond to phone and email requests for comment about the error.
Even with a bruised and swollen face, Marvin looked like a skinny
version of his older brother. Both grew to be about 5-foot-5, with black
almond-shaped eyes, dark-brown skin and straight, black hair.
The brothers grew up in a small village of about 300 people near
Quetzaltenango in western Guatemala, where the tallest building is the
Catholic church. Villagers there speak in a Mayan language called Mam,
which is used in parts of Guatemala and Mexico.
Although Ramirez enjoyed delivering food for Taqueria Guadalupe, he
wanted to be promoted like his older brother and join him in the
kitchen. Miguel had even been teaching him how to cook tacos before the
accident.
“He was a hard working young man,” a 33-year-old coworker said in the
hospital waiting room last Monday. “He never drank or smoked. He was
happy to be here working for his family.”
That afternoon, Marvin's condition worsened. Doctors said his brother
might be brain dead and they needed a specialist to confirm. Although
the specialist wouldn't arrive until the next day, Miguel never left the
hospital.
On Monday night, after a reporter showed him the police statement, Miguel asked a doctor if his brother was dead.
Doctors had run two reflex tests to see if Marvin was brain dead. In
one of them, doctors stimulated his throat to see if the brain would
tell the body to gag; in the other one they ran a cotton swab across his
cornea to see if he would blink.
Marvin failed both tests.
“He is clinically brain dead but not officially brain dead,” the doctor responded.
Legally speaking, Marvin was still alive. The only test left was a measure of electric activity in the brain.
Miguel went back into the room and sat with his brother for the rest of the night.
On Tuesday, June 4, around 9 a.m. — almost 24 hours after the NYPD’s
press release and 39 hours after he was hit by the car — Marvin was
declared dead.
An hour later, the ICU waiting room filled with about a dozen of
Marvin's friends. There were so many visitors, hospital staff wouldn't
let them all come up at once.
Miguel had spent the last two nights trying to stay strong for his
brother and fielding calls from family members asking for updates in
Guatemala. He finally broke down and cried in the waiting room.
“[My parents] are very sad; crying and praying,” he said. “They’ve been calling all night for updates every few minutes.”
Even after death, Miguel refused to leave his little brother. He sat
in the waiting room with his cousins and a lawyer, planning the funeral
arrangements and figuring out how to pay the medical bills.
"We are transporting the body back to Guatemala," he said. "It is what my parents want."
Sunday, June 2, 2013
Age: 18
Location:
108th and Park Ave.
New York City , NY
United States
Exerpted from Streetsblog
On a Sunday evening at around 7:40 p.m., 18-year-old Marvin Ramirez was
riding east on E. 108th when he was hit by the driver of a Dodge sedan,
traveling north on Park, according to DNAinfo. The Post blamed Marvin for the crash.
This is the same dangerous location where cyclist Shaquille Cochrane or 'Swizzy' was killed in 2012, many pedestrians and drivers have also been injured and killed along this stretch of Park Avenue.
In 2014 the City began to finally install measures to make crossing Park avenue safer.
Marvin worked with his brother at Taqueria Guadelupe in E Harlem.
From DNAinfo
Miguel Ramirez always looked out for his younger brother.
A year ago, he helped scrounge up the $6,000 to bring his only sibling, Marvin,
to New York from Guatemala. When Marvin arrived, Miguel welcomed his
brother into the crowded East Harlem two-bedroom apartment he already
shared with three cousins.
Miguel, 20, also got his brother a job as a deliveryman at the
Mexican restaurant where he worked as a cook. On a good week, the pair —
who bore a striking resemblance to one another — would send $1,000 back
to their parents and Marvin's girlfriend in their homeland.
And last week, when Marvin, 18, needed his brother the most, after a horrific traffic accident left him with brain damage and on a respirator, Miguel was there — even after the NYPD mistakenly declared him dead.
For the last 24 hours of Marvin's life, Miguel sat by his side in the
intensive care unit at Harlem Hospital, refusing to give up on his
brother.
On the night of June 2, Marvin was riding back to the East Harlem
restaurant Taqueria Guadalupe, after making a delivery on his bicycle.
According to the police, he was riding east on 108th Street at 7:40 p.m.
Sunday when he ran a red light.
A 2013 Dodge sedan driving north on Park Avenue struck Marvin,
knocking him off his bike. The driver was not charged or issued a
summons.
Marvin was rushed to Harlem Hospital, where he was treated for massive head trauma and a broken right arm.
A half-hour after the accident, a witness ran to Taqueria Guadalupe,
where Miguel was working a shift. After hearing the news, the brother
darted to the scene, but by the time he got there, Marvin had been taken
to the hospital.
Miguel rushed to the hospital on 135th Street and Lenox Avenue, where he spent Sunday night alongside his brother.
With the help of a translator, doctors told him that Marvin was in
serious condition. He was in bed unconscious with tubes sticking out of
his nose, a cast on his right arm, a fever of 104 degrees and a brain
hemorrhage.
“Please do whatever you can to help him,” Miguel told the doctor through a translator. “Don’t give up on him.”
But the next morning, the situation became more confusing for Miguel.
At 9:40 a.m., the NYPD released a statement to the press saying that Marvin had died.
On noon that day, a DNAinfo New York reporter contacted Miguel about
the statement, but Miguel said his brother was still alive and he could
see him breathing with the help of a respirator.
"Why are they saying that?” he asked. "They haven't called me."
Even though the police said Marvin's family had been notified of his death, Miguel said he was never contacted by cops.
On Thursday a spokesman for the city Health and Hospitals
Corporation, which oversees the city's public hospitals, said patient
confidentiality laws kept him from discussing the exact time of Marvin's
death but he confirmed that the 18-year-old had stayed in the hospital.
"Let's just say the NYPD sometimes makes mistakes," the spokesman, Ian Michaels, said.
The NYPD did not respond to phone and email requests for comment about the error.
Even with a bruised and swollen face, Marvin looked like a skinny
version of his older brother. Both grew to be about 5-foot-5, with black
almond-shaped eyes, dark-brown skin and straight, black hair.
The brothers grew up in a small village of about 300 people near
Quetzaltenango in western Guatemala, where the tallest building is the
Catholic church. Villagers there speak in a Mayan language called Mam,
which is used in parts of Guatemala and Mexico.
Although Ramirez enjoyed delivering food for Taqueria Guadalupe, he
wanted to be promoted like his older brother and join him in the
kitchen. Miguel had even been teaching him how to cook tacos before the
accident.
“He was a hard working young man,” a 33-year-old coworker said in the
hospital waiting room last Monday. “He never drank or smoked. He was
happy to be here working for his family.”
That afternoon, Marvin's condition worsened. Doctors said his brother
might be brain dead and they needed a specialist to confirm. Although
the specialist wouldn't arrive until the next day, Miguel never left the
hospital.
On Monday night, after a reporter showed him the police statement, Miguel asked a doctor if his brother was dead.
Doctors had run two reflex tests to see if Marvin was brain dead. In
one of them, doctors stimulated his throat to see if the brain would
tell the body to gag; in the other one they ran a cotton swab across his
cornea to see if he would blink.
Marvin failed both tests.
“He is clinically brain dead but not officially brain dead,” the doctor responded.
Legally speaking, Marvin was still alive. The only test left was a measure of electric activity in the brain.
Miguel went back into the room and sat with his brother for the rest of the night.
On Tuesday, June 4, around 9 a.m. — almost 24 hours after the NYPD’s
press release and 39 hours after he was hit by the car — Marvin was
declared dead.
An hour later, the ICU waiting room filled with about a dozen of
Marvin's friends. There were so many visitors, hospital staff wouldn't
let them all come up at once.
Miguel had spent the last two nights trying to stay strong for his
brother and fielding calls from family members asking for updates in
Guatemala. He finally broke down and cried in the waiting room.
“[My parents] are very sad; crying and praying,” he said. “They’ve been calling all night for updates every few minutes.”
Even after death, Miguel refused to leave his little brother. He sat
in the waiting room with his cousins and a lawyer, planning the funeral
arrangements and figuring out how to pay the medical bills.
"We are transporting the body back to Guatemala," he said. "It is what my parents want."