{"id":40767,"date":"2022-05-06T18:10:44","date_gmt":"2022-05-07T00:10:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/tortilleria-la-flor-owner-hospitalized-after-getting-hand-caught-in-machine\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T02:57:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:57:17","slug":"tortilleria-la-flor-owner-hospitalized-after-getting-hand-caught-in-machine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/tortilleria-la-flor-owner-hospitalized-after-getting-hand-caught-in-machine\/","title":{"rendered":"Tortilleria La Flor owner hospitalized after getting hand caught in machine"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Flor
Flor Rodriguez, who opened up her dream business, Tortilleria La Flor, in November, crushed her hand in an accident involving one of her tortilla-making machines that she imported from Chihuahua, Mexico. (Courtesy of GoFundMe)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Flor Rodriguez, co-owner of the fresh tortilla business Tortilleria La Flor, was hospitalized on Monday after her hand was crushed when she was preparing dough with a specialized tortilla-making machine.<\/p>\n

Rodriguez was feeding portions of dough through one of her machines when her hand became stuck in the machine, her sister, Cristina Rodriguez, said in a phone interview Friday. Flor Rodriguez\u2019s hand was stuck in the machine for about 45 minutes before paramedics were able to set her free. When she was released, two fingers on the injured hand were only \u201cloosely\u201d hanging on, her sister said.<\/p>\n

Rodriguez ultimately lost those fingers, her sister said.<\/p>\n

After she was freed from the machine, Rodriguez was taken to Mercy Hospital before being transferred to Denver Health Medical Center, where she was treated in an intensive-care unit, her sister said. She underwent surgery for six hours, according to a GoFundMe page prepared by Rodriguez\u2019s other sister, Susana Rodriguez.<\/p>\n

On the ambulance ride to Mercy, Rodriguez told her husband, Joel Jacuez, who co-owns Tortilleria La Flor, she was worried about business because she had a busy schedule planned for Tuesday and Cinco de Mayo was on Thursday, her sister said.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s always been a really strong person,\u201d Cristina said. \u201cShe\u2019s been through so many things and she\u2019s never complaining about it. \u2026 She can handle the 45 minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"It
It had been Flor Rodriguez\u2019s dream to begin her own business, which she finally accomplished in November when she and her husband, Joel Jacuez, opened Tortilleria La Flor. It took her over a year to import tortilla-making machines from Chihuahua, Mexico, a process she started just as the COVID-19 pandemic had emerged. (Durango Herald file)<\/span>Nicholas A. Johnson<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Susana referenced her sister\u2019s \u201cresilient and strong character.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, Rodriguez continues to experience pain and numbness in her injured hand, Cristina said. She is supposed to be discharged from Denver Health soon but doesn\u2019t think she is ready.<\/p>\n

Rodriguez has wanted to run her own business for years, Cristina said. She said it has been Rodriguez\u2019s dream since at least 2014, and even longer than that, she has enjoyed preparing food.<\/p>\n

Cristina said when she and Rodriguez lived in Denver, Rodriguez would always talk about having her own business. When Rodriguez moved to Durango, she saw an opportunity because there weren\u2019t other fresh tortilla shops.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe wanted to have her business a lot because she likes to serve people, you know?\u201d Cristina said. \u201cAnd make people happy. Because she knows a lot of people like Mexican food and tortillas and things. So she\u2019s been working really hard with her husband in different jobs.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe used to clean houses, offices. She used to work for CJ\u2019s restaurant for a really long time,\u201d she said. \u201cHer husband works (in) concrete. So they can put the money together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rodriguez opened Tortilleria La Flor in November. For her business at 444 E. College Drive, she purchased flour and corn tortilla-making machines she imported from Chihuahua, Mexico. She bought the machines just as the COVID-19 pandemic emerged and it took her a year to get them, she told The Durango Herald<\/em> in January.<\/p>\n

Rodriguez said then that her business had received a steady stream of customers<\/a>. She was working with restaurants to supply them with fresh corn and flour tortillas.<\/p>\n

\"Joel
Joel Jacuez, co-owner of Tortilleria La Flor, puts flour tortilla dough into a tortilla-making machine that he and his wife brought to Durango from Chihuahua, Mexico. Flor Rodriguez, co-owner, injured her hand in a similar machine on Monday. (Courtesy of Torterilla La Flor)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Cristina said her sister is concerned about the machine that injured her because first responders had to take it apart, at least partially, to free her hand. The machine cost around $25,000, Cristina said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think she\u2019s really worried about everything like the hospital payment,\u201d Cristina said. \u201cShe\u2019s going to stop working for a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n

The GoFundMe for Rodriguez can be accessed at https:\/\/bit.ly\/3Fn2qC1<\/a><\/p>\n

The fundraiser has a goal of $50,000 and almost $10,000 had been raised as of Friday morning.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe in God and are praying that the hand works again like it used to (work). But she says she doesn\u2019t feel it,\u201d Cristina said.<\/p>\n

Cristina said she doesn\u2019t think Rodriguez wants to close her business but she will need to stop working for \u201ca long time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause she loves her people, you know?\u201d Cristina said. \u201cShe loves the customers and I don\u2019t think she wants to close it just like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

She is worried about hospital payments, rent, car insurance and her children, Cristina said.<\/p>\n

cburney@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

raising money after big investment into business<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40768,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[431,1152,28,1531],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-40767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-business-general","tag-emergency-incident","tag-headlines","tag-injury"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40767"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40767\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84752,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40767\/revisions\/84752"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40767"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=40767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}