‘She was a leader.’ Coral Gables to rename street after hospital CEO killed in murder-suicide
When Vince Lago drives around Coral Gables in the future, he hopes his daughters will look at the sign on Cristina Jimenez Way and ask who she was.
Mayor Lago and the City Commission voted Tuesday to rename a stretch of Santander Avenue, between University Drive and Malaga Avenue, after Jimenez, the hospital CEO killed by her husband in a murder-suicide a day before Thanksgiving.
Jimenez, 61, worked at Coral Gables Hospital for more than 35 years, joining the team as a phlebotomist and climbing the ladder to CEO in 2017. She was previously chief operating officer, during which she helped the hospital become the first in Miami-Dade to earn the Joint Commission’s Gold Seal of Approval for total hip and knee replacements, according to South Florida Hospital News.
While Jimenez’s family representatives didn’t speak at Tuesday’s meeting, Lago shared memories of Jimenez. He said he often thinks about her — and how she greeted everyone with a smile.
“She was a leader,” Lago said. “Imagine starting at the bottom of the hospital and becoming the president.”
Lago served on the board of the hospital and witnessed Jimenez’s career blossom. Before he met her, his father, a gastroenterologist, sung praises about the hospital executive.
After years working with Jimenez, Lago remembers her as a hardworking and thoughtful person devoted to her profession..
“To say she was an exceptional woman falls very short,” he said.
Questions still unanswered
Jimenez was killed on Nov. 23 by her husband, Antonio Mazzorana, 62, who then killed himself. According to Miami-Dade police, the couple died in their home just outside Coral Gables in the Schenley Park neighborhood, near Southwest 57th Avenue and 34th Street.
A motive for the killing isn’t publicly known, but law enforcement sources told the Miami Herald that Mazzorana left a suicide note on the kitchen counter detailing a motive. Mazzorana faced unemployment after December, and had been making worrying remarks to family members, sources said.
READ MORE: Clues emerge in murder-suicide that claimed the life of Coral Gables Hospital CEO
