A construction worker in Texas, initially accused of being on drugs before he died, actually died of heatstroke while working in the sun in June 2022, according to a lawsuit filed last month.
Gabriel Infante, 24, was installing fiber optic cables in San Antonio for his employer, B Comm Constructors LLC, on June 23, 2022, when he started showing signs of heat stress. He eventually succumbed to heatstroke hours later at a hospital, the lawsuit states.
His mother, Velma Infante, filed the lawsuit against the construction company on the first anniversary of the incident, claiming it neglected to protect her son from "the known hazards associated with extreme heat conditions" while on the job.
She is seeking damages of $1 million.
This lawsuit was filed days after Gov. Greg Abbott signed a bill into law eliminating mandatory water breaks for construction workers in cities where such ordinances had been in place to protect people from extreme heat.
"I need this law changed," Infante told NBC News. "How can you not let somebody break to cool down and hydrate to get back on the job? This will affect everybody -- the worker, their families, even the employer. Everybody loses here."
She says even at 6 feet, 4 inches tall, Gabriel Infante was the youngest of her five kids and her baby.
"It overwhelms me sometimes and I feel lost," Velma Infante said about losing her son. "I’m missing a part of me, my little circle isn’t complete anymore."
Her son would take the shirt off his back for others and never asked for anything in return, Infante said. He loved music and played the alto, tenor and baritone saxophones. He had aspirations to become a band teacher someday.
"His first love was The Beatles," Infante said.
Gabriel Infante was working at a site near 10451 Fork Creek with his colleague and childhood friend, Joshua Espinoza, when he began showing signs of heat stress, including "confusion, dizziness, altered mental status, and loss of consciousness," the lawsuit states. Infante fell to the ground twice, hitting his head on concrete.
It was his fifth day on the job, according to his mother.
Temperatures that day reached a high of 102 degrees in San Antonio, according to Accuweather.com.
A foreman on site initially believed Infante was under the influence of drugs and instructed Espinoza to call the police. Espinoza called emergency medical services, who advised Infante was showing signs of heatstroke. The foreman still demanded that EMS perform a drug test, according to the lawsuit.
Infante was taken to the emergency room at a local hospital, where his temperature was recorded at 109.8 F in transit.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, "heat stroke is the most serious heat-related illness" and happens when the body's temperature rapidly increases and it's unable to cool itself down. During heatstroke, the body temperature can reach 106 F or higher leading to permanent disability or death if a person doesn't receive emergency aid.
Infante died June 24, 2022, at 2:25 a.m. His autopsy revealed that he died of heatstroke, the lawsuit alleges.
Velma Infante says she never heard from B Comm Constructors LLC following the incident.
"To this day I’ve never gotten a call from the owner, from anybody to tell me 'I’m sorry this happened' or 'We offer our condolences,' nothing," Velma said.
The lawsuit accuses B Comm Constructors LLC of gross negligence for instructing Infante and other employees to work in the heat, not having a heat-related illness program and "failing to develop a work/rest cycle based on validated measures of heat stress," among other things.
“Workers are not and should not be expendable commodities to be used and abused in this extreme Texas heat with no reasonable protections from the very real dangers of severe injury or death,” said attorney Bob Hilliard, who is representing Velma in the case. “No project and no deadline should take precedence over assuring that every worker goes home safely to his family at the end of a day’s work.”
B Comm Constructors LLC did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
