Farmworker who labored in extreme California heat died. Family, advocates seeking answers
This story is part of the Central Valley News Collaborative — a bilingual, community journalism project funded by the Central Valley Community Foundation and with technology and training support from Microsoft Corp. The collaboration includes The Fresno Bee, Valley Public Radio, Vida en el Valle, Radio Bilingüe and the Institute for Media & Public Trust at Fresno State.
A Fresno-area farmworker who labored in triple-digit temperatures died earlier this month in what farmworker advocates believe was a heat-related workplace death.
Elidio Hernández Gomez, 59, experienced heat illness symptoms while harvesting tomatillos near Selma in 100-degree weather on Aug. 8, according to Leydy Rangel, communications director for the United Farm Worker Foundation. According to the National Weather Service Hanford, temperatures reached 100 degrees that day, following days of triple-digit heat that prompted Cal/OSHA to issue a high heat hazard alert.
The exact circumstances of his death aren’t immediately clear. It also isn’t clear yet who Hernández Gomez worked for. Farmers and agricultural businesses often hire third-party crews through farm labor contractors on a temporary basis during harvest season, which can make it hard to identify workers and their direct supervisors.
According to Rangel, workers were instructed by their supervisors to transport Hernández Gomez to Adventist Health Selma, where medical providers made attempts to resuscitate Hernández Gomez. But workers told Rangel that Hernández Gomez may have died in the fields prior to being transported to the hospital. A spokesperson for Adventist Health Selma couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.
He was later transferred to the Fresno County Coroner’s office, Rangel said. Tony Botti, spokesperson for the Fresno County Coroner’s office, confirmed in an email statement to The Bee on Friday that Hernández Gomez died as a result of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, a build-up of plaque in the arterial walls of the heart that caused an obstruction of blood flow. He said there was no evidence that heat played a role in Hernández Gomez’s death.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, extreme heat is the leading cause of weather-related injuries and death in the United States. The elderly and those with reduced cardiovascular function and pre-existing cardiovascular diseases are at a greater risk. Heat compromises the body’s ability to regulate its internal temperature, a process that is primarily mediated by the cardiovascular system, the CDC says.
Heat-related deaths are historically undercounted in California, since many heat-related deaths are recorded as heart failure, strokes or respiratory failure, according to a 2021 Los Angeles Times investigation. According to The Times, the true number of heat-related deaths could be as much as six times the state’s official count.
Rangel said said Hernández Gomez’s relatives contacted a UFW Foundation organizer seeking guidance after they learned of his death. The farmworker union and UFW Foundation are assisting the family in reporting the death to Cal/OSHA.
Cal/OSHA spokesperson Derek Moore confirmed that Hernández Gomez’s death was not reported to the agency, as is required by law. Moore said the agency is gathering facts to determine whether to conduct an inspection.
California farmworker’s family seeks answers about his death
Family members organized an online GoFundMe fundraiser to send Hernández Gomez’s body back to his home state of Guanajuato, Mexico. They wrote on the fundraiser page that he died from a heart attack caused by the heat while at work.
“He is the father of two daughters who together with his wife are waiting for him to give him a holy burial in the place where he grew up,” his niece, Christina Torres, wrote in Spanish on the fundraiser page.
Fellow farmworkers familiar with the incident are hesitant to come forward due to fear of retaliation, Rangel said.
“We just want to know what really happened,” Hernández Gomez’s sister-in-law, Ana Navarro, said in Spanish in a phone interview with The Bee on Thursday. Navarro’s sister is married to Hernández Gomez and resides in Mexico.
Other family members, such as Navarro’s sister who lives in the Fresno area, have tried to reach the company and his coworkers, but no one wants to speak out, she said.
“We have not heard anything,” Navarro said.
California was the first state in the nation to enact rules to protect outdoor workers from extreme heat.
Employers should provide shade and preventative cool down breaks to prevent overheating, according to Cal/OSHA. If an employee displays or reports heat illness symptoms, Cal/OSHA requires California employers to provide appropriate first aid or emergency response.
Additionally, employers are supposed to immediately report to Cal/OSHA any work-related death or serious injury or illness.
At a press conference Friday in Delano with U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-California), UFW President Teresa Romero called for federal heat protections for farmworkers and addressed Hernández Gomez’s death.
“Elidio deserved better. His family deserves better. Elidio had two young children, two young daughters, that now don’t have a father,” she said.
Farmworkers in California who would like to anonymously report cases of heat violations and/or report any cases of individuals who have passed due to heat illness while working outside, can call the UFW Foundation’s heat hotline at (661) 546-9020. The information shared can remain confidential.
This story was originally published August 18, 2023 at 1:43 PM.
