Published:05/21/93
Section: LOCAL
Page: 2B
Doctors at Jackson Memorial Hospital disconnected Thursday the life-support equipment that sustained the bodily functions of Raisa Teresa Santana, a 28-year-old Cuban rafter. She was declared brain-dead Wednesday, the victim of brain swelling induced by drinking sea water.
Santana left Cuba on May 7 in a raft, with her 9-year-old son, Frank, and two friends, Fernando Martinez and Pedro Barcena.
During the four-day crossing, the raft overturned and most of the provisions were lost. The two men drowned. According to the son, Santana gave him what little bottled water she had brought; she drank sea water.
A cruise ship rescued them May 11. Frank was alive and alert, but his mother had slipped into a coma from which she did not recover.
Grisel Llopis, Santana's cousin, said from Havana that when Santana's mother, Maria Teresa Llopis, applied to Cuban immigration offices Thursday for an exit visa, an official demanded to see Santana's death certificate.
A spokeswoman for Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, R-Miami, said the congressman had forwarded to the Cuban Interests Section in Washington a certified letter from Santana's doctor, attesting to the rafter's death.
The letter, delivered Thursday evening, was in lieu of the death certificate, which was not immediately available.
Jaime Ferrer, manager of Latina Graceland, said his funeral home will absorb all burial costs. If Llopis arrives on today's flight from Havana, he said, the burial could be conducted Saturday.
© 1996 The Miami Herald.