Hector ”Macho” Camacho is Brain Dead

Famous Puerto Rican boxer Hector “Macho” Camacho is clinically brain dead, according to the doctors. The 50-year-old boxer was shot as he and a friend sat in a Ford Mustang parked outside a bar Tuesday night. His friend, identified as 49-year-old Adrian Mojica Moreno, was killed in the attack.

Dr. Ernesto Torres said doctors have finished performing all medical tests on Camacho, who was shot in the face Tuesday night.

“We have done everything we could,” said Torres, who is the director of the Centro Medico trauma center in San Juan. ”We have to tell the people of Puerto Rico and the entire world that Macho Camacho has died, he is brain dead.”

He said at a news conference that the family expects to say by Friday if Camacho should remain on life support.

Torres said Camacho’s father has already indicated that he wants the boxer taken off life support and his organs donated, but one of his sisters opposes the idea.

”This is a very difficult moment,” he said.

Ismael Leandry, a longtime friend and former manager, told reporters that Camacho’s mother also is wavering on taking her son off life support and would like more time with him. He said the family is waiting for Camacho’s oldest son to arrive Thursday night before having a family reunion and making a decision.

”Let’s remember him as a good man,” Leandry said. ”He was a good father, a good son.”

Doctors had initially said Camacho was expected to survive, but his condition worsened and his heart stopped briefly overnight Tuesday, Torres said. The bullet entered his jaw and lodged in his shoulder after tearing through three of four main arteries in his neck, affecting blood flow through his brain, doctors said.

”That lack of oxygen greatly damaged Macho Camacho’s brain,” Torres said.

Torres had said late Wednesday that Camacho was still showing irregular and intermittent brain activity.