Farmworker who collapsed is on respirator in Bakersfield

By Susan Ferriss

A Central Valley field laborer who fell ill last week during extreme heat remains in critical condition, and can breathe only with a respirator, the United Farm Workers Union said Wednesday.

Jorge Herrera, 37, was loading table grapes onto a truck in a vineyard July 10 when he passed out and was taken to San Joaquin Community Hospital in Bakersfield, UFW spokeswoman Vicki Adame said.

Adame said Herrera's core body temperature was 108 degrees and that he suffered brain, lung and kidney damage. Hospital staff said his condition is critical.

California's occupational safety agency, Cal-OSHA, is investigating his illness as heat-related, spokeswoman Kate McGuire said.

Herrera is the fourth heat-related casualty that Cal-OSHA is investigating this year.

Herrera became sick the same day as Abdon Felix, 42, who died after loading and transporting boxes of table grapes in the same region near Bakersfield. Temperatures rose to 108 degrees that day.

Herrera was working for Esparza Enterprises, a labor contractor, in a vineyard owned by Vignolo Vineyards, Adame said. Felix worked for a contractor employed by Delano-based Sunview Vineyards, she said.

Felix's death is the third fatality since May that Cal-OSHA is investigating as heat-related.

A fourth farmworker died at home on July 10 in Reedley, south of Fresno after complaining he felt ill while picking peaches. More autopsy results must be completed before the cause of death can be determined, according to the Fresno County Coroner's Office.

McGuire said that Cal-OSHA has conducted 659 inspections at various industry work sites this year, looking especially for heat-stress prevention violations. The agency has issued 348 citations for failure to follow laws.

In Sacramento on Tuesday, a group of activists gathered downtown at Cesar Chavez Plaza, blaming Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Cal-OSHA and the UFW for not doing more to prevent farmworker deaths.

Sacramento resident Paramo Hernandez, who directs an immigrant rights group, Primero de Mayo, said that heat-stress prevention laws "are not worth the paper they are written on" if they don't hold farm companies responsible for violations committed by the labor contractors that companies hire to supply workers.