Career may be over, but Gorres is winning fight of his life - Cebu Circle | Cebu City, Philippines

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Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Career may be over, but Gorres is winning fight of his life

2/16/10 - Z Gorres is facing the fight of his life—literally—and he is on the verge of winning.

He lift his left hand up to his chin, then both hands. He spoke barely audibly, but everyone understood.

Only three months ago, Gorres suffered severe brain injuries, falling in his corner after scoring a unanimous-decision victory over Colombia’s Juan Melendez at the House of Blues in Mandalay Bay.

The 27-year-old was diagnosed with subdural hematoma, or blood clot on the left side of the brain. The swelling was too much that part of his skull had to be removed to relieve the head of pressure.

Now that piece of bone is back in place, and he is set to get back on his feet.

“OK naman ako, ngayon nakakagalaw na,” he said, while being pushed on a wheelchair after arriving from San Francisco early morning on Monday.

Gorres has also a visible scar on the throat, the result of tracheotomy, where breathing apparatus was inserted for him to breathe and where liquid food was introduced during recovery.

It’s a life-threatening injury, but Gorres was able to fight his way to stable condition. He spent the month since the fight confined to a bed in isolation at University Medical Center in Las Vegas.

Although the fighter is out of the hospital, he left behind about $562,000 in medical bills at the University Medical Center, which his coach, Frank Slaughter is trying to raise through donations.

At present, insurance companies would only pay $50,000 thousand for boxers who are injured or paralyzed during a fight.

The case has caught the attention of students at the University Medical Center and there is now a growing movement in the city to pass a law that would compel insurance companies to pay at least $1 million to those who would be permanently injured or paralyzed for life, according to Las Vegas Internist Dr. Benito Calderon. He produced a copy of a Nevada newspaper to show that students, Filipino expatriates and members of the local community are supporting the growing movement to pass the bill to increase insurance coverage of injured boxers.

Slaughter is leading the campaign, talking to the media, the medical community, the Nevada School of Law and Pinoy residents to make the bill into law. Nevada taxpayers would eventually shoulder Gorres’s medical bills if he is not able to come up with the amount.

“When we brought him out of the hospital last Friday, he was still paralyzed, and we had to carry his body,” Calderon said. “Gorres would never be able to fight again.”

Now Gorres and his wife are excited to come home to Cebu and see their children. They plan to put up a soap- making business.

Gorres grew up in the provinces of Agusan del Norte and Cebu in the Philippines. (businessmirror)

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