The Backstory

Man to receive a new past, and hopefully new future (public asked to help)

Who is Javier Ramirez?  This is a question that you can help answer.  What we know is that Ramirez is an approximately 25 year-old Latino male who was hit by a motorist and left for dead.  After 11 days in a coma and nearly 3 months in the hospital Ramirez was released to a rehab facility where over the past 14 months he has made incredible progress.  When he entered the facility his speech was dis-jointed and he was barely able to feed himself, let alone get up and walk around.  

"It really is a miracle,” said one of the occupational therapists who has been part of the Ramirez team for the past year, “Javier is at over 95% of his physical function and could easily care for himself now.”

However, as his physical abilities have improved, his psychological health has declined due to his continued amnesia.  It is common for traumatic brain injury patients to have some memory loss, especially after being in a coma for a significant length of time.  However, according to one of the psychiatrists on the Ramirez team it is rare for all memory prior to the incident to be lost, and for none of it to return.  But this is what has happened in Javier’s case.

It would seem that while his focus was on regaining his speech and motor function there was enough of a distraction that he was able to maintain his drive.  And drive he had – as a result of incredible willpower doctors and therapists say that he has regained 15-25% more motor function, and an even higher level of cognitive function, than was originally estimated. Such estimates were based on the severity and location of the brain and spine injuries he incurred, as well as his severely broken lower left leg that required multiple surgeries to save.  However, as his progress plateaued two months ago, his depression began to worsen, to the point that he is now in a psychologically induced state that has his physical function nearly as low as when he entered the rehab facility over a year ago. 

After lengthy discussions, both with Javier, and with experts in the field of memory and self-identity, the team has decided to honor Javier’s request to create a past for him.  This is where you come in.  Javier’s psychiatrists are looking for photographs and stories that can be made into a “biography” of Javier Ramirez.  A local community college Photoshop class will handle the photo-editing, so all photos are welcome.  Each photo must be accompanied by a story (either wholly true or one that is based in truth).

All that is known about Javier Ramirez has been gained from the few co-workers who have come forward after recognizing his photo on the news as part of the hit-and-run investigation.  According to his colleagues Ramirez sent most of his money home to his family in Mexico, but just where is unclear.  One co-worker thought they were in Guadalajara, while another said Javier was from a suburb of Mexico City.  His accent would suggest the latter says a linguist who has been brought into the case.

It is believed that he has two sons, but Javier was a bit of a loner who kept to himself, so very little has surfaced about who he really is.  It is known that Ramirez is an un-documented worker who was employed during the day on a landscape maintenance crew and at night as a dishwasher.  He had been at both jobs for roughly eight months, with no one able to remember if he had worked elsewhere in the States before.  It would appear that he was walking to the bus-stop after getting off from his dishwashing job when he was run down.  There have been no leads on who the culprit was.

The U.S. State Department has shared the details of the case with the Mexican authorities in the hopes of finding his family, but so far this has been a dead-end.  There is a possibility that the name “Javier Ramirez” may be a false identity, which although not common in the Latino community, is also not unheard of. 

With the chance that his true identity will never be known, Javier’s team of therapists and psychiatrists have decided that creating a past for him could be the only way for Javier to develop an identity such that he can function in the world again.

The public has been included in this task as his team is looking for a wide variety of stories with a mix of the mundane and the memorable.  It is the balance of the two that creates a whole and realistic “picture” of one’s past.  Please share your photos and stories on Facebook at Who is Javier Ramirez?, or on the blog created for Javier, http://whoisjavierramirez.blogspot.com.

On a happy note, an anonymous philanthropist has stepped forward to cover all of Javier’s medical expenses, which has helped him gain access to additional therapy that was previously not available.

HOME