Nineteen-year-old Sacred Heart College science student, Luisa Carrillo, who had been making slow but measurable progress in her recovery took a sudden turn for the worse, and finally succumbed to her injuries around 1:10 this morning.
Carrillo had been suffering from two skull fractures sustained when she jumped out of a moving D&E westbound bus attacked by two robbers late on the evening of Sunday, April 11,
It is a tragic footnote to the story of heroism and courage in the face of terror experienced by the 30 passengers who were initially forced to give up their valuables to two thugs, one with a handgun and the other carrying a hand grenade, only to turn the tables and beat one robber into submission and chase off the other.
Towards the end of the struggle, Carrillo, of San Jose Succotz, got up and ran to the back of the bus and jumped off, hitting the highway head-first.
Admitted in critical condition at Belize Healthcare Partners Limited (BHPL) in West Landivar, she was put on selective life support as a team led by neurosurgeon Dr. Joel Cervantes worked hard to reduce the swelling on her brain and remove developing blood clots.
By the time Amandala visited BHPL last Wednesday for an update, Dr. Cervantes was able to report that Luisa had recovered enough to be taken off the life support machine, was eating, making brief statements, and moving her limbs.
That was on Friday and Luisa continued to improve through the weekend. As late as Sunday morning around 7:00 when Dr. Cervantes checked in on her, Luisa said she was feeling “fine,” though appearing slightly tired and with a bit of a headache.
Unfortunately, the decline set in soon after.
This afternoon at his office, Dr. Cervantes told us that about an hour later, he received a phone call asking him to come back to the hospital because Luisa was unresponsive and apparently unconscious, having fallen back into a coma. An emergency CT scan of the brain showed that the swelling on the brain had grown (even more than when she was first admitted) as a result of blood getting into the water canals near the brain stem, causing blood supply to the brain to shut down and pressure on the brain to build.
An emergency surgery called a craniectomy was performed to open the bone surrounding the affected area, to ease and create “escape routes” for the pressure, but unfortunately Carrillo could not recover.
According to Dr. Cervantes, the hospital’s doctors had tried their best and everything seemed to be going well until the weekend’s dramatic events. He told us that he was saddened to lose her, especially given how well she had been improving, but said that doctors use the experience of losing their patients as incentive to work even harder to save as many as they can.
A post-mortem examination to certify cause of death was scheduled for sometime this afternoon.
Even as police are having no luck finding the second culprit, students of Carrillo’s school are today in mourning for their classmate.
Principal of Sacred Heart, Eve Aird, told our colleagues at KREM News that fourth-form students had been raising funds to help Carrillo’s family with medical expenses, and had already held a barbecue on the weekend. Those fundraising efforts will continue.
As soon as news was received of Carrillo’s passing, Sacred Heart organized its counseling and pastoral ministry departments to offer grief counseling to fourth-form students taking their Spanish oral examinations today and tomorrow.
The students are “devastated” by the sudden loss, and the principal said efforts at healing the wounds would continue.
Funeral arrangements have not yet been finalized.