Boxer Moved by Visit With Children at Hospital

Although undefeated in seven professional bouts, Oxnard boxer Fernando Vargas dissolved in tears Tuesday as he leaned over the hospital bed of 6-year-old cancer patient Jason Garber and gently touched the unconscious boy’s arm.

After hugging Jason’s mother, Patty, the 19-year-old former U.S. Olympic welterweight left the boy’s room and wept in the hallway of Ventura County Medical Center’s pediatric floor, where he was visiting children for the holidays.

“I just can’t imagine,” said Vargas, the parent of a 1-year-old boy. “He’s hooked up to those tubes and everything. I just feel so bad for him and his mom.”

Doctors don’t expect Jason, who was diagnosed with leukemia in May 1993, to live more than a week.

“It’s unbelievable how much we take life for granted,” Vargas said. “Everybody’s so happy during these holiday times . . . but he doesn’t even have his eyes open. How can you have Thanksgiving when you see your small son like that?”

Patty Garber, who was called to her son’s bedside Monday because doctors thought he was near death, said she was surprised by Vargas’ visit.

“He said he would like to do something if he could,” Garber said. “But there’s nothing anyone can do. It’s all in God’s hands now.”

Garber, the mother of four other children, ages 1 to 8, said she is “not giving up hope until he stops breathing.”

Vargas left autographed pictures with the 14 other children on the pediatric floor, but he left Jason a pair of his training gloves “because he needs them to fight more than I do.”

Vargas, who visited with 6-month-old to 16-year-old children hospitalized for a variety of injuries and illnesses, has been in the news recently after being charged with reckless driving and getting into a fistfight outside the ring.

“There’s been things that have happened in the past, I think, that were blown way out of proportion,” Vargas said, adding that he had planned to visit the hospital before either of the incidents occurred and that the outreach was not an attempt to polish his image.

“I’ve always said before that I would help my community. . . . I’m doing what I’ve got to do,” he said. “I’m in a position to help those less fortunate than I am. . . . I will talk to them and give them hope that they can make it through this.”

The medical center’s pediatric ward is accepting donations of toys, videotapes, VCRs and video games in an attempt to make these items available to all children on that floor.

“The county hospital funds are not always real high,” said nurse Clint Hooper, who is also arranging for a Pacific Suns baseball player to visit the children next week.

“It’s hard to be in the hospital for them,” Hooper said. “But if we can make it somewhat similar to home, it helps the kids out and we believe it helps them get well faster.”

For donation information, call 652-6224 and ask for the clinical coordinator.