Things appear to be looking up for former Prime Minister Manuel Esquivel after a marathon 10-hour surgery to reconstruct his face on Monday in Miami.
Mr. Esquivel, joined by his wife and son, is under sedation and recovering. According to daughter Laura Esquivel, the family expects that he will be moved from the Intensive Care Unit of the Ryder Trauma Center, Jackson Memorial Hospital, Miami, to its regular ward as early as next week.
The lengthy surgery had been complicated by the discovery of three breaks in Mr. Esquivel’s jaw. However, he is not expected to need surgery for the remainder of his injuries, including three broken ribs and a broken left shoulder and arm. Esquivel is also said to have three fractures in the spine and one in the skull, leaving him needing a neck brace.
Laura Esquivel told Amandala that her father was “responding well” and before his surgery was communicating with Belize officials about some leftover work from prior to the accident on the Western Highway that put him in his current position.
The timeline for the former P.M.’s recovery has been slightly extended to about 4-7 weeks due to the jaw break discovery.
Esquivel and his driver, William Schnarr, had been involved in a one-car accident near Mile 31 on the Western Highway on March 30. The Nissan Pathfinder SUV the men had been traveling in skidded on the wet road and spun off the highway, landing wheels up. Schnarr was cut on the right side of the head and escaped with no other major injuries.
The pileup had taken place no more than 2 miles away from the site of another accident Esquivel had been involved in, in 1996. At that time, then-Prime Minister Esquivel’s driver, Sgt. Leslie Staine, died after sustaining major injuries, but Esquivel went largely unhurt.