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E-mail StoryThanks, A-Rod: Meeting Yankees beyond exciting for ill Bakersfield boy
| Friday, Jul 18 2008 4:26 PM
Last Updated: Monday, Jul 21 2008 7:37 AM
Omar Magaña has several silver linings behind the looming dark clouds of his life-threatening epileptic seizures: His family, doctors and the Make-A-Wish Foundation have nursed, protected him and made his wish come true.
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To learn more about Make-A-Wish Foundation of Central California, call 800-831-WISH (800-831-9474) or visit www.centralca.wish.org.
The organization needs volunteers, especially Spanish-English bilingual volunteers, throughout Kern County, particularly in outlying areas.
Photos:
Omar Magana, 17, was speechless when he met Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez and other team stars. (Photo courtesy of the Magana family)
The Magana family, from left to right: Marvin, 14; Omar, 17; Sergio, 10; Julian, 42; and Yolanda, 37. Middle brother Marvin was the one who actually contacted Make-A-Wish Foundation to try to get a trip for Omar to meet the New York Yankees. (Photo courtesy of the Magana family)
Derek Jeter, short stop and captain of the New York Yankees, was one of several stars on the team to pose with Omar Magana. (Photo courtesy of the Magana family)
Omar Magana at Yankee Stadium. (Photo courtesy of the Magana family)
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Omar, a senior at Liberty High School, got to meet his baseball idols, the New York Yankees, in June for his 17th birthday. He and his family received an all-expense-paid trip to the Big Apple from the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
“I went to makeawish.org and signed him up,” said brother Marvin, 14, who learned of the organization that grants wishes to children with life-threatening illnesses from watching a report on ESPN about a small boy who had his wish granted.
“I was speechless,” Omar said about meeting and taking pictures with Yankees third baseman Alex “A-Rod” Rodriguez; short stop and team captain Derek Jeter; outfielder Hideki Matsui; catcher Jorge Posada; starting pitcher Joba Chamberlain, and others.
Marvin never doubted that Make-A-Wish would favor his brother.
“He has a life-threatening disease and it could be fatal any day,” he said.
A PINT-SIZED HERO
Little brother, Sergio, 10, a big hero in his family’s eyes, knows this only too well. Last year, at a party in the boys’ uncle’s house, Omar had a seizure while playing in the swimming pool.
By the time the family became aware of the crisis, Omar already looked blue and lifeless underwater.
Julian Magaña, 42, is not an experienced swimmer and was unable to get his son out of the pool. Yolanda Magaña, 37, the boys’ mom, was about to jump in herself to try to save her firstborn. Her baby beat her to it.
“He was just like a boulder that weighed like a thousand pounds,” is how Sergio, who was just 9 at the time, recalled the experience of trying to get his unconscious brother to budge. He felt like “a monster truck tire,” he said.
But then, “It felt like someone was helping me,” Sergio said. He still doesn’t know where his strength came from and how he was able to hold his breath underwater for so long.
Little Sergio braced against the bottom of the pool, jumped as hard as he could and was able to break through the surface with Omar in his arms.
“Then I started asking them for help,” Sergio said.
The men in the family were able to then get Omar to safety and revive him.
“He saved his life,” Yolanda Magaña said proudly of her youngest son.
A SELFLESS, PRAYERFUL MOM
Because Omar needs her constant care, Mrs. Magaña cannot hold a job.
“I’ve gone to apply for jobs and then thought, ‘Now what am I going to do?’” the stay-at-home mom said in Spanish — the Magaña couple are originally from El Salvador and all their boys were born in the United States.
“I’ve left people with him and they get scared and distraught” upon witnessing one of Omar’s seizures, she said.
“I know him,” she said. She feels more comfortable taking care of him herself. Sometimes, however, the unpredictability of the chronic neurological disorder that plagues her son is too much.
Omar fell and broke his front teeth during a seizure in January. Sometimes he can go a whole week without a seizure, his mom said. At other times he can have seizures constantly for an entire two or three weeks, relaxing only with injections that make him sleep.
“But he still seizes in his sleep,” she said.
As if constantly having to care for Omar while raising her other boys was not enough, Yolanda Magaña has to deal with another enormous life challenge: She has thyroid cancer.
But the parishioner at St. Philip the Apostle Church is a woman of faith, and she is certain that the same God who gave Sergio the strength to get Omar out of the pool was responsible for a favorable medical outcome recently, when some of her doctors thought her cancer had spread to her lungs.
Just weeks before the Make-A-Wish trip, she got really sick because she had to be off her thyroid medication so the doctors could run more tests on her. This affected her heart, she said, and she had trouble even going up and down stairs.
But she felt a burst of healing during a prayer session at church one week before her checkup and when her examining doctor said he couldn’t explain how the test results could be so good, all she could do was look up and point to heaven and say she knew the reason why.
A FAMILY VACATION
Lori Steinman, program services manager for Central California Make-A-Wish who made all the travel arrangements for the Magañas, said her organization grants wishes not only for gravely ill children but for their families as well, as parents and siblings often need a break themselves.
And the Magañas certainly got some serious relaxation and fun out of their five-day trip to Manhattan.
Magaña, who moved the family to Bakersfield from Northern California seven years ago, got some stress relief: He used to remodel homes during the housing boom of the last few years but when the real estate market went belly up, he was forced to take a job as a cook at a local restaurant.
Mrs. Magaña said the trip was “an experience that we’ll never forget.”
“The people at Make-A-Wish, they thought of every single thing,” she said, including limousine service from the Magañas’ home to the airport, hotel accommodations in Times Square and a warm greeting at John F. Kennedy Airport that included a sign with the words, “Welcome Omar and Family.”
Sergio said he loved going to the Statue of Liberty, which the family visited on June 5, Omar’s birthday. “I liked seeing all the stuff I knew about from my teachers,” he said.
Marvin said, “I liked it because Omar had fun and the trip was for him.” But the Yankees fan admitted that he knew from the Make-A-Wish Web site that the trip was going to be for the whole family.
And Omar, in the typical one-for-all-and-all-for-one fashion that is a trademark of the selfless Magaña family, said the following about having been in the presence of his baseball heroes: “It was cool to meet them ’cause my brothers wanted to meet them, too.”