A Cuban immigrant was rescued at sea after trying to windsurf his way to the U.S in order to receive medical treatment.
48-year-old Elian López was found stranded on a windsurfing board off the Florida Keys.
Relatives say López is in desperate need of medical treatment and that he ventured out to sea despite having a colostomy bag.
On Wednesday, a U.S. Coast Guard crew rescued Lopez about 15 miles south of Islamorada.
López, a scuba diving instructor and trained windsurfer, was wearing a life jacket, had a Global Positioning System and mobile phones.
According to Coast Guard Petty Officer Martin McAdams, Lopez “had safety equipment that is very needed for when we’re locating people.”
Dunia Rodriguez, López's cousin, wrote on a petition on Change.org that López “urgently requires medication, being one of the reasons why he risked his life desperately. The ‘totalitarian system’ in the communist island is ‘dragging Cubans through the worst misery.’”
Rodriguez says Lopez had undergone treatment for colon cancer in Cuba and needed to continue treatment with medications not available in Cuba.
“The only one that knew about it was his wife and his daughter,” Rodriguez said adding he left them behind in Cuba. “If he messaged her trying to say goodbye, that was because there was a point where he didn’t know what was going to happen with his life.”
Relatives of Lopez are making a public plea to U.S. immigration authorities to allow López to stay in the U.S. so he can get the treatment he needs.