SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico, (Reuters) – Relatives of Hector “Macho” Camacho, who has been declared brain dead after being shot in the face, are still hoping for a miracle and said they would not remove the three-time world boxing champion from life support.
Doctors at the Rio Piedras Medical Center in San Juan declared Camacho, 50, brain dead on Thursday, two days after he was struck in a drive-by shooting.
“Macho is a fighter, and he’s going to keep fighting until the last bell,” his son Hector “Machito” Camacho told reporters on Friday after visiting his father. “He’s still alive.”
Ismael Leandry, Camacho’s former manager, told El Nuevo Dia newspaper that the boxer was still “responsive” and that his mother would not take her son off life support despite several tests by doctors that showed no brain activity.
“The doctors say many things,” added Camacho’s son. “They keep saying we have to make a decision soon.”
The newspaper also said the family was planning a funeral in New York, where Camacho grew up, and possibly a public wake in Puerto Rico.
