Remember the July 29 earthquake that rocked Southern California but produced no injuries?
It turns out there were at least two broken bones after all. So says a UC Irvine Medical Center doctor who treated Jesus Rodriguez, an unlucky chap who came tumbling off the roof of a house he was working on when the temblor struck.
And that was just the beginning of Rodriguez's troubles.
"If the news media were correct and the quake . . . was a drill, I'd say health services gets an F," Dr. Michael Menchine said. "You just can't make this stuff up."
Rodriguez, 25, has no health insurance. He lost a full-time job recently when his uncle's construction business went under. So he began joining other day laborers each morning at the Home Depot on Beach Boulevard in Stanton, queuing up and hoping for work.
Three or four times a week, he lucked out. Rodriguez is a U.S. citizen and Orange County native who speaks English, all of which helps at times when contractors come trolling for crews. He's also got a lot of experience, in everything from carpeting to window installation to masonry.
It irks him, he said, that he has to compete for those jobs against illegal immigrants. When I asked how many of the guys were illegal, he chuckled.
"Like, 90%," he said.
It's not just the competition that bugs him. He believes that illegal immigrants, who are easily exploited by employers, drive down wages and put added stress on the healthcare system.
On the morning of the earthquake, a man pulled up in a white pickup and hired Rodriguez and two other guys. Rodriguez didn't know the other two. Little was said on the way to the job except that it involved roofing, and it would pay $10 an hour.
Two hours into the shingle job, Rodriguez was on the sloped roof of a one-story house when he suddenly felt like he was on a boat in rough seas. He could feel himself teetering on the edge in the quake, and he managed a quick look down.
"I saw some debris down there, so I pushed off to get over it," he said of his fall.
He landed on both feet, but was in such pain he couldn't stand.
The man who had driven him to the job helped him back into the truck and began driving.
To a hospital, you ask?
Guess again.
"He said he didn't want to deal with that," said Rodriguez.
The driver took him back to Home Depot, helped him out of the truck and left him on a grassy patch near a KFC.
Then he drove away.
