page_title: Pedro Zamora
section_title: 1994: After The Real World and death
hierarchical_section_title: Pedro Zamora / Biography / 1994: After The Real World and death
caption_attribution_description: English: Last photo taken of Pedro Zamora less than 7 days before his death. I believe it is the only picture taken of Pedro with all of his siblings. I happen to have my camera that day.
context_page_description: Pedro Pablo Zamora was a Cuban-American AIDS educator and television personality. As one of the first openly gay men with AIDS to be portrayed in popular media, Zamora brought international attention to HIV/AIDS and LGBTQ issues and prejudices through his appearance on MTV's reality television series, The Real World: San Francisco.
  Zamora's romantic relationship with Sean Sasser was also documented on the show; their relationship was later nominated by MTV viewers for "Favorite Love Story" award, and the broadcast of their commitment ceremony in 1994, in which they exchanged vows, was the first such same-sex ceremony in television history, and is considered a landmark in the history of the medium.
  U.S. President Bill Clinton credited Zamora with personalizing and humanizing those living with HIV—especially to Latino communities—with his activism, including his testimony before Congress. Zamora's personal struggle with AIDS, and his conflict with housemate David "Puck" Rainey is credited with helping to make The Real World a hit show, for which Time ranked it #7 on its list of "32 Epic Moments in Reality-TV History".
context_section_description: The cast vacated the Real World house on June 19, 1994, and the first episodes of The Real World: San Francisco began airing a week later. Zamora visited his family in Miami before returning to San Francisco to live with Sasser.
  When Winick, Zamora, Murphy, and Ling met in August for a reunion party, Zamora was visibly ill. Once talkative, he was often silent, having difficulty following conversations, and forgetting familiar places. He went to the MTV offices in New York, and could not recognize where he was. On August 17, Zamora checked into St. Vincent's Hospital and was diagnosed with toxoplasmosis, a condition that causes brain lesions, fatigue, headaches and confusion. Further tests revealed he had progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML), a very rare and usually fatal viral inflammation of the brain that disrupts the electrical impulses of the nervous system. PML can dissipate on its own in patients with T-cell counts higher than 300–400. At the time, Zamora's T-cell count was 32. The inflammation was attacking the frontal lobe of his brain, causing his short-term memory loss. Zamora was given three to four months to live.
  On September 3, about three weeks after checking into St. Vincent's, Zamora was flown to Mercy Hospital in Miami, and his family gathered around him. Then-President Bill Clinton called Zamora to thank him for his work. Zamora is said to have expressed elation and was able to respond, though Mily Zamora stated that whether he understood who was calling is unclear, given the severity of his PML.
  As a gesture of gratitude for his work, Clinton asked if there was anything he could do for the Zamora family. They replied that they wanted Zamora's remaining siblings in Cuba to be with him in his final days. This resulted in Alonso R. del Portillo, Attorney General Janet Reno, Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna Shalala, and Florida Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen forming an agreement with Cuba that would admit 20,000 Cubans per year to the United States. Zamora's three brothers and their families arrived in the next couple of weeks, reuniting the family for the first time in 14 years.
  On October 21, Winick announced that MTV had set up a trust fund in order to pay for Zamora's medical costs, as Zamora had no medical insurance. He had received Medicaid, but was rejected for any private company coverage due his pre-existing condition of HIV.
  Before his hospitalization, Zamora told his family to not keep him alive by artificial means—his mother had a prolonged death, and he wanted to spare his family that pain. Zamora developed a high fever.  Once he became unresponsive, his family honored his wishes and withdrew life support. Surrounded by his family, longtime friend Alex Escarano, Sasser, Winick, and Ling, Zamora died at 4:40 a.m. EST on November 11, 1994, hours after the final episode of The Real World: San Francisco aired. He was buried on November 13.
caption: Pedro Zamora a few days before his death with his father and most of his siblings.
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