Community, family at migrant worker’s side after accident
Jesus Rosas Flores of Mexico lost both legs in accident at potato farm
For 25 years, Jesus Rosas Flores spent months working at Hamilton-area farms, leaving behind his family in Mexico where he missed births, soccer games, graduations and many things in between — all because of the hope his wages as a migrant worker gave his family.
That came to a crashing halt in the cool morning air Nov. 3 at a family-run potato farm just outside Waterdown, when the 63year-old was in an accident that cost him both legs.
“After being here for 25 years, I’m going to go back home,” he says through a translator.
“I have given my sweat and my blood into this country, working really hard, we work from sunup to sundown …”
Rosas Flores is sitting in bed, fidgeting with the white blanket that covers what’s left of his legs, which were amputated below the knee. He’s at a long-term-care home, where he recently moved from hospital and where he’s expected to stay about three months.
His recovery includes daily exercises and physiotherapy, with the plan to eventually be fitted with prosthetics.
Terry Hubbard, a local advocate with Migrant Matters who’s organizing support for Rosas Flores, says it’s often the case that once a worker is injured, there is a push to get them out of the country as quickly as possible. There is no means to apply for residency.
But Shawn Brenn, who with his brother runs Brenn-B Farms, where the accident occurred, said that if Rosas Flores wants to come back, they will advocate for him to do modified work.
It’s not clear if this will be possible, as he’d have to first pass a medical exam in Mexico, but Brenn said they’ll do whatever they can to support him.
Rosas Flores doesn’t want to talk about the accident. Instead he focuses on the present, keeping faith in God, in the community that has rallied around him and the family that came from Mexico to be by his side.
From emergency services, we know the accident happened Nov. 3 while Rosas Flores worked with a potato truck; both of his legs were caught up in the machinery.
A team of advanced-care paramedics and surgeons from the Hamilton General Hospital arrived at the scene after the 8:45 a.m. 911 call. They worked for two hours to stabilize him while firefighters and another employee from the farm dismantled the machine around him.
The surgical team had responded because of the possibility they’d have to do an amputation on site to save his life. They managed to free him after about two hours and he was whisked away to an awaiting Ornge air ambulance that flew him to Hamilton General Hospital. But in hospital, both legs had to be amputated.
His son Jorge Rosas Cisneros, a Catholic priest, was the first family member to arrive in Canada a couple of days after the accident. That’s when the family learned he had lost his legs.
He stayed for two weeks and now Rosas Flores’s wife, Teresa Cisneros de Rosas, and two of his daughters, Carmen and Maria Rosas Cisneros, are here.
None had ever left Mexico before. Two other adult children remain back home.
Rosas Flores said he wanted to thank everyone involved in his rescue and who has helped, including Brenn-B Farms’ owners and his co-workers, paramedics, firefighters and doctors, as well as other migrant workers, farm owners and community members who have come together to visit him and support his family since the accident.
The Ministry of Labour was called to investigate at the Concession 5 West farm. Spokesperson Janet Deline said one order was issued since the accident to train workers on the safe unloading of a potato truck.
That order was complied with and the ministry investigation is ongoing, she added.
The last 14 years Rosas Flores has been working, he has returned to Brenn-B. Compared to other places he’s worked, Rosas Flores said the Brenns are “… very good employers.”
The Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) covers Rosas Flores’ medical stay and flight for one family supporter.
But the community has helped the family, including a member of All Souls on Barton Street West who donated an apartment for the family to stay in while they’re here.
This week, Hubbard took the sisters to Niagara Falls — Rosas Flores says he doesn’t want them spending every moment at his bedside.
St. Charles Adult and Continuing Education centre is offering free English classes for the women.
Carmen, 20, says she likes Hamilton, but has found the language barrier difficult.
Last year, Carmen graduated from a business engineering university program in Mexico — an opportunity she says she would never have had without her dad’s sacrifices.
Maria, 25, was just a month into a new apartment and job in Mexico when she dropped everything to come here.
Before taking a family photo, the girls gather around their father, lovingly straightening his dark hair with a small black comb.
Rosas Flores has had a steady stream of visitors from the community and other farms since the accident, but none more important than having his family with him.
“It feels like I’m home, there is hope and strength because family is here,” he says.