Comparisons invalid, agency says

 BY ELAINE DE VALLE

 It was the same Coast Guard vessel with most of the same crew, but the fate of
 14 Cuban rafters caught off shore about seven miles off Miami earlier this month
 was significantly different from that of another group found in February.

 The 12 men and two women found May 5 were all immediately brought to shore
 for emergency medical treatment and released from hospitals within hours. Most
 were reunited with their families the next day.

 Three months earlier, four survivors of a group of six were kept for hours on board
 the same cutter, the Matagorda, then stayed at South Shore Hospital for three
 days.

 One of them left in a casket.

 Some in the Cuban-American community believe the Coast Guard has changed
 the way it handles severely dehydrated rafters because of criticism after the
 earlier incident. But the Coast Guard says the two cases just illustrate how
 difference circumstances lead to different outcomes.

 In the February incident, Ernesto Molina Ramos was the first to be ``med-evaced''
 more than four hours after the Coast Guard reached the group. An emergency
 medical technician on board the Matagorda couldn't even get an IV into him. But
 before making the decision, he had to consult with a flight surgeon who then gave
 the OK to bring Molina ashore.

 After Molina died at the hospital, the Coast Guard was criticized by family
 members and the Cuban community for having taken so long. Critics believe he
 had a better chance of living had he been transported sooner.

 Molina's official cause of death was listed as ``complications of environmental
 exposure'' by the Medical Examiner. His lower legs and buttocks had skin ulcers,
 he had blisters on his feet and severe green discoloration on his calves.

 ``The time they lost in that case was the cause of the death of that human being,''
 said Ninoska Perez-Castellon, a spokeswoman for the Cuban American National
 Foundation.

 She and others say the dual responsibilities of saving lives and repatriating Cuban
 migrants caught at sea often clash. But Coast Guard Petty Officer Gibran Soto
 said there is no conflict of interest.

 ``Our No. 1 mission is still to rescue lives at sea. We also have to enforce U.S.
 laws, but these people needed medical attention immediately, so that outweighed
 the law enforcement part of interdicting refugees at sea,'' he said about the May
 incident.

 The agency handled that one differently -- bringing the rafters to shore and
 sending the first eight who were worst off to area hospitals in little more than an
 hour after reaching them at sea.

 ``If they had left us a few hours more, at least one of us would be dead for sure,''
 said Jose Antonio Zamora Diaz, 39, one of the 14 from the May 5 rescue. He now
 lives in Hialeah with his mother and has recovered from all but one salt-water
 wound on his hand.

 ``We were on our last breaths. We couldn't hang on any more. I don't know how
 many, but some of us would have died if they had waited even an hour or two.''

 The different treatment has been seen by some Cuban exiles as a change in the
 Coast Guard's policy. One exile leader, Brothers to the Rescue founder Jose
 Basulto, said he was relieved by what he perceived as a change of heart.

 ``I'm very glad that the seriousness of the situation and the health the refugees
 find themselves in have become the first priority over whether or not they are sent
 back to Cuba,'' Basulto said.

 But Coast Guard Petty Officer Silvia Olvera said there is no official change in
 procedure at the agency's Miami Beach station, which handled both rescue calls.
 Instead, she cited stark differences between the two situations that warranted the
 disparate handling.

 ``These people needed immediate medical attention,'' Olvera said of the new
 group. ``Eight of the 12 were unconscious when we arrived.''

 Although two of the six in the first group were already dead when found, the other
 four, she said, were conscious and alert, and crew members initially believed they
 could be treated on board the cutter.

 There were other factors, too, Olvera said:

 The weather was a ``big factor'' during the first rescue. Rougher seas made it
 more difficult to get to the rafters.

 The first group was in a makeshift raft, while the second group came in a small
 boat constructed of aluminum. ``The cutter was not able to pull directly up to the
 raft,'' Olvera said. The Coast Guard had to dispatch a smaller boat.

 The May group was closer to the shore and therefore could be brought in faster
 than the group in February.

 ``The Coast Guard was criticized so much for the time frame [in February's
 rescue]. It's not that we're trying to avoid that,'' Olvera said. ``It's just that the EMT
 on the cutter said they were going to need to be med-evaced now, not later.''

 The survivors from the first group and the latest refugees do have something in
 common, however. While they would have been sent back to Cuba if they hadn't
 been found near death, now they get to stay in the United States.

 Because they were brought ashore for medical treatment, according to the
 Cuba-U.S. immigration accord of 1995 -- often called the ``wet foot/dry foot'' policy
 -- they get to stay.

 ``When they're what we call `med-evaced,' or transported to a local area hospital,
 that would be the same thing as if they had reached shore, thereby making them
 eligible to apply for residency under the Cuban Adjustment Act,'' Immigration and
 Naturalization Service spokeswoman Maria Elena Garcia said.

 She also said the agency does not keep statistics on how many Cubans enter
 the United States this way.

 But a search of past Herald stories turned up several instances when medical
 needs have allowed Cubans to stay. Among them:

 One man was taken to Aventura Hospital after he complained of chest pains when
 the Coast Guard intercepted five Cubans on a rubber and wood raft about four
 miles east of Miami Beach on April 1. The others were placed on board a Coast
 Guard cutter.

 A woman whose 18-foot boat with seven others aboard was intercepted was taken
 to a hospital after going into labor July 17 about eight miles south of Islamorada.
 A mother and her 3-month-old infant having an asthma attack were also flown to a
 hospital.

 Two women in a group of six caught 28 miles south of Alligator Reef on July 15
 were brought to a hospital. Their husbands were later brought ashore for
 ``humanitarian reasons.''

 A 60-year-old woman suffering from dehydration was airlifted to Mariners Hospital
 in Tavarnier Key after her boat, with four other Cubans on board, was intercepted
 July 9 off Islamorada.

 A group of 11 Cubans, including two young children and a pregnant woman, made
 it within sight of Key West on July 3, and when authorities approached, some
 jumped into the water.

 All were eventually picked up by the Coast Guard. The pregnant woman and her
 husband were later brought to shore for medical attention. The rest remained
 aboard.

 Another group of 17 was picked up by the Coast Guard on June 24 in a
 suspected smuggling trip about 20 miles south of Big Pine Key. One woman was
 taken to a Keys hospital after she said she had severe abdominal pains.

 Another woman was brought to a hospital after she went into labor shortly after
 the 24-foot boat she was on with 22 other would-be refugees was intercepted at
 sea in early January of 1999. Some of her family members were also allowed to
 come to shore.

 A 7-year-old boy with a fever and his mother were the only two brought to shore
 from a group of 34 Cubans caught in a suspected smuggling operation June 23,
 1998. In all of the cases, those not brought to shore were interviewed by an INS
 official on board a Coast Guard vessel and sent back to Cuba if not found to have
 credible political asylum claims.