Updates on Jon Hammar, the marine detained and finally released from a Mexican jail, are beginning to emerge. Hammer, from Miami-Dade, Florida, is finally feeling better and is revealing what he experienced while locked up in the Mexican prison.
Hammer and his friend were heading to Costa Rica in a Winnebago packed with surfboards when they ran into some problems. Although they checked with several US Customs and Border Protection agents, none of the officials seemed concerned that the young man also had in his possession an antique shotgun. The agents’ only request was that Jon Hammar fill out a registration for the family heirloom, which he did.
Unfortunately, although he thought everything was taken care of, he was subsequently detained by the Mexican border patrol and sent to prison for possession of the firearm.
In an interview with The Miami Herald , Hammar discusses the horrors he encountered while detained in the Mexican prison:
“They threw every threat in the book at me. They’d cut my head off, they told my family.”
In the interview, Hammar also expressed that gangsters in the prison demanded money to protect him from being beheaded. This threat was especially frightening to Hammar as he was still in recovery for post-traumatic stress disorder.
The surfing trip was supposed to be a relaxing getaway for the marine after spending nine months in a treatment program for PTSD. Hammar served four years on a battlefield tour, which led to the eventual diagnosis.
Public outcry and threatened boycotts on travel to Mexico led to the Marine’s release to his family just days before Christmas.
Unfortunately, Hammar’s ordeal was not quite over. In an interview with Bill O’Reilly, released by Fox News , Thomas Villanueva, D.O., details Hammar’s medical condition upon his release:
“As a matter of fact, actually his symptoms started between seven or 10 days prior to being let go, started having copious amounts of diarrhea, having more than five bowel movements a day. Not tolerating taking anything orally as well. And then the fevers and the headaches started actually occurring once he was let go in Texas itself. He just could not tolerate the drive to Miami and it was around Lafayette, Louisiana is where they decided to stop in the emergency room.”
The doctor continued to detail the conditions that may have led to the illness:
“He did not have access to enough food or water. When we did the examination we also found multiple mosquito bites throughout his entire body. He lost a lot of muscle tone. He lost over maybe 15 pounds as well.”
The doctor concluded his observations by pointing out that Jon Hammar was very fortunate to have been released when he was. He could not have survived much longer in the Mexican prison in those conditions.