Family of window washer who fell struggling

Maricela Perez, 39, of San Leandro, center, speaks about her husband Pedro Perez while sitting next to translator Colin O'Leary and her daughter Gaby Perez, 11, during a press conference at the SEIU-United Service Workers West office in Oakland, Calif., on Monday, Dec. 22, 2014. Window washer Pedro Perez, 58, survived falling 11 stories from a building onto a moving car in the financial district in San Francisco last month. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group) ( JOSE CARLOS FAJARDO )

OAKLAND -- The wife of a San Leandro window washer who survived an 11-story fall from a San Francisco building in November is asking for donations to support her three daughters, who are facing a meager holiday season.

Maricela Perez, 38, and her 11-year-old daughter, Gaby, appeared at an Oakland news conference Monday morning to ask for help in replacing the wages her husband has lost since he landed on a car Nov. 21.

Perez said her 58-year-old husband, Pedro Perez, broke his right arm, fractured his pelvis, ruptured an artery in his arm and suffered severe brain trauma. He still can't move his right arm or his right leg. He's had "surgery after surgery," his wife said through an interpreter and was in an induced coma for an entire week because the pain was so great.

Maricela Perez, 39, of San Leandro, center, smiles while answering a question about her husband while sitting with translator Colin O'Leary and her daughter Gaby Perez, 11, during a press conference at the SEIU-United Service Workers West office in Oakland, Calif., on Monday, Dec. 22, 2014. Window washer Pedro Perez, 58, survived falling 11 stories from a building onto a moving car in the financial district in San Francisco last month. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group) ( JOSE CARLOS FAJARDO )

"His eyes were shut for an entire week," Perez said. "At first when he woke up, he could only say a few words and couldn't remember familiar faces, and his memory would fail him. But now he is calling us by our names and has conversations."

When she got the first phone call, Perez was told her husband was dead. It was only in the car on her way to San Francisco that she received a second call telling her he was alive.

Perez said her husband has left a hospital intensive care unit and is preparing to enter a rehabilitation facility in Pleasanton, a stay that could last months.

"But now Pedro is not working, and the family has encountered very difficult times," said Colin O'Leary, a translator at the news conference and organizer for Perez's union, Service Workers International Union. "Maricela works in a plastic factory at night and has had to take on extra hours. Her 19-year-old daughter had to quit college to start working and make ends meet."

O'Leary said Perez has health insurance and that his hospital bills and rehabilitation are going to be covered by workers' compensation insurance. He also is receiving disability payments, but it won't be enough.

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Family of window washer who fell struggling