José has just left the neurologist’s office, in Boston. Corinn Williams, of the CEDC, has volunteered to drive him there, and with Corinn translating, he tells the doctor his symptoms: his face still hurts, especially when he lies down in bed at night; he still feels depressed, afraid, not like his usual self. The doctor examines him, checks his vision, and says he is suffering from PTSD ­– post-traumatic stress disorder.

José had been in New Bedford for only two years when he was attacked, this past March, as he walked home from work. Two men approached him at around 10:00 p.m, just yards from his apartment. One struck him in the face with the butt of a pistol, then struck him again two more times. José doesn’t know how many times he was hit, because he fell unconscious after the third blow. He woke up in the hospital, frightened and disoriented. The attackers had taken his cell phone and his wallet, which contained about two hundred dollars, along with a photograph of his two little girls, in Guatemala.

The hospital informed him that he had a comminuted zygomatic fracture – his cheekbone had been crushed. They tried to transfer him immediately to specialists in Boston, but he was scared, confused, and refused to go. So they gave him a voucher for a taxi and he went home.

José shares an apartment with four of his cousins. At the time of the attack he worked at a Guatemalan restaurant, chopping vegetables. He spent two months unable to work, inside his apartment, feeling scared and depressed. He was worried about losing his job, and about his own safety (he says he felt safer in Guatemala City). He was worried about his wife and two daughters, at home in Guatemala, who rely on him for their subsistence. He had been sending them $100 every week, and paying his bills here in New Bedford, but now had to start borrowing money from his cousins. In the end he owed them about $3,500, which he is still paying off.

He’s also worried about his bills from the night of the attack: $1,568.75 to the City of New Bedford for the ambulance service; $1,962.55 to the hospital where he was seen. He did ultimately see the neurologist in Boston, and he knows there are bills from that office forthcoming. With Corinn’s help, he has submitted an application to the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Victim Compensation Fund, which is set aside to reimburse victims of violent crime in the state. He was told that decisions can take up to six months. He hasn’t heard anything yet.