A group of reporters converged on Alex Gonzalez prior to Saturday's game. He had been hit on the wrist by a pitch the night before and the media was eager for an update. The shortstop was nonchalant as he explained there was no fracture and hoped to miss just one game.
Because of a situation unknown to many, such pain was inconsequential. For Gonzalez, a bruised wrist is nothing compared to the agony he has been suffering since his first stint since with the Red Sox. It was then, three years ago, doctors delivered the devastating news.
“There's no chance the baby's going to have a normal life,” they said.
Gonzalez and his wife welcomed their third son, Johan, on Sept. 26, 2006. But Johan was different than Gonzalez's other two older sons — he was born premature. Doctors detected medical concerns immediately.
“He was born with a small trachea and they had to make a big one,” Gonzalez explained. "When he was born his body wasn't completely developed, all the systems.”
Doctors watched Johan's health from Day 1. They performed surgical procedures to elongate his trachea and his parents monitored Johan's heartbeat with machines in their home. In the midst of this stress, however, they still had reason to celebrate. In November of 2006 Gonzalez signed a three-year, multimillion-dollar deal with the Cincinnati Reds. By the time the 2007 season began, he had an optimistic outlook regarding his son. That ended abruptly.
Johan stopped breathing in his sleep.
“Maybe he'd fall asleep and forgot to breathe,” Gonzalez said. This prevented oxygen from flowing to his brain and caused it to swell. The heart-monitoring devices alerted Gonzalez' wife of the medical emergency.
“The baby was moving, recognizing, eating normal,” he recalled. “We took him to Cincinnati where I was playing, and one day I had to leave for a road trip. I got to New York, I played that night, and the next day the baby stopped breathing. We got back and the doctors from Cincinnati Children's Hospital talked to us about it — there's no chance the baby's going to have a normal life.”
There was no way for Gonzalez to know just how different Johan's life would be. He had a somber tone as he explained the severity of his son's condition.
“Right now he's in a coma,” Gonzalez said. “He can't chew with his mouth, he uses a tube to eat. They give him the food through the tube. He can't talk, he can't recognize nobody.”
It has been over two years since Johan slipped into a coma in July of 2007. Even though the swelling in his brain has decreased and he is “stable” on machines, Gonzalez cannot predict his son's future. Johan is currently fighting an infection and doctors are not certain his 3-year-old body can handle another surgery.
With his child's life on the line, Gonzalez has forced himself to stay driven in the lineup. He was traded back to the Red Sox in August and returned to Boston with the same emotional hardships he had the last time he left. He brought his fighting attitude back with him, too.
“I know his condition," Gonzalez said. "2007 was a tough year for me. I never had a sick baby like that and it was a little hard to play and take care of him. My parents and friends talked to me a lot: 'You've got to be strong. You have a job. You have to be professional.' That's why I still play ball, you know?
“But I, I worry about him. But when I came here I tried to stay focused for nine innings, three hours, tried to be focused on baseball. But after that I go back to my situation. But when I came here to the ballpark I tried to forget about it. I know about the situation, but I tried to stay focused.”
Maybe Johan gained his fighting attitude from his father. Or maybe it is Alex Gonzalez who has taken his never-give-up mentality from Johan. Either way, this father and son are not about to give up on each other.
“Fight until the end,” Gonzalez said. “We've been fighting for three years. I think he's a strong kid. He's had around six or seven surgeries. He's a strong kid, he's a great fighter. I heard the doctors say, 'If there is a kid who could handle it, it's him.' "
Gonzalez finished talking about his son and looked down at his wrist packed in ice. “It's nothing,” he said. After everything he has been through in the last three years, he's right.
RSS Center
