After being shot in Puerto Rico this past Tuesday, former welter weight champion Hector “Macho” Camacho was pronounced brain dead by doctors on Thursday. The shocking news has rocked the boxing world, and family members are reportedly waiting two more days before they will likely take him off life support.
In a news conference, Dr. Ernesto Torres explained, “We have done everything we could.”
Torres, the director of San Juan’s Centro Medico trauma center, then explained that the former boxing star’s life is all but over. “We have to tell the people of Puerto Rico and the entire world that Macho Camacho has died, he is brain dead.”
Torres added that Camacho’s father has indicated that he wants to take his son off life support and donate his organs. Family members initially disagreed with him, and his mother wanted to wait for Camacho’s oldest son to arrive before they make the decision to take him off life support.
Camacho was shot multiple times in the neck and face during a drive-by incident in Puerto Rico. After being taken to a hospital, he went into cardiac arrest.
Doctors had initially expected Camacho to survive, but according to Dr. Torres his condition worsened when his heart stopped beating briefly. A bullet lodged in his shoulder after it tore through three of four main arteries in his neck, affecting blood flow through his brain. “That lack of oxygen greatly damaged Macho Camacho’s brain,” Torres explained.
Born in Bayamon, a city within the San Juan metropolitan area, Camacho grew up mostly in New York’s Harlem neighborhood, earning the nickname “The Harlem Heckler.”
He won super lightweight, lightweight and junior welterweight world titles in the 1980s and fought high-profile bouts against Felix Trinidad, Julio Cesar Chavez and Sugar Ray Leonard. Camacho knocked out Leonard in 1997, sending him into permanent retirement. Camacho has a career record of 79-6-3.
Camacho leaves behind four children. His eldest son: Héctor Camacho, Jr. is also a boxer. His other children are Justin, Christian and Taylor.