Hit and run leaves 7-year-old on life support
Hit and run: the name of the crime says it all. Tonight a child lies in intensive care at the K.H.M.H. while the coward who knocked her to the pavement is a free man or woman… who may even be watching this newscast. Today I visited the hospital and discovered a family focussed on one thing: saving the life of a loved one.
Janelle Chanona, Reporting
Tonight emotional family members of seven-year-old Skylar Sanchez are keeping vigil at the child?s bedside at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital as she recovers from severe head injuries sustained in a hit and run accident on the Western Highway.
According to eyewitnesses, around five-thirty on Sunday evening, the little girl was riding her bicycle in the direction of Belize City on the right hand side of the highway, but as she neared the Colonel English Bridge in Hattieville, a two-door green pick-up truck, travelling in the same direction, hit her from behind and did not stop. The impact broke off the truck?s right side view mirror and sent Skylar plunging head first to the ground. Within minutes, the unconscious child was rushed to the K.H.M.H. emergency room by ambulance.
Dr. Fernando Cuellar, Attending Physician
?A CAT scan revealed that she had multiple skull fractures, exposure of brain matter from admission. And because of that had to be taken to the operating room where an operation was done on the skull, on the brain, to hopefully assist in the cleaning and the repairing of much of the damage that was done to the skull and to that part of the brain.?
As a result of her injuries, the entire left side of the child?s body is paralyzed and she remains in a coma.
Family member
??Queenie, Queenie… squeeze mi hand. Alright mama…shhh.?
While we were at the paediatric ward, desperate relatives tried to coax the child to respond to their calls.
Dr. Fernando Cuellar
?In layman terms, we would probably say it?s fifty-fifty, she has a fifty percent chance of surviving, and even more saddening that even if she survives this acute phase, she more than likely will have permanent brain injury.?
This afternoon, the child?s mother, Floreth Requeña, told News Five that she wants the driver who hurt her daughter to come forward and help the family with Skylar?s mounting medical expenses.
Floreth Requeña
?I noh the press no charges, I noh the do nothing. I just want my baby alright. I just want she come back to me normal. She noh wah be one hundred percent normal, but I just wah she come out ah that cause she deh inna wah coma from Sunday.?
?She da wah really playful person, a loving person… She no mek you talk like my smalla one. I won?t lash she or nothing cause she slim, really slim. I mean fu seh she noh deserve this. You neva know weh could happen, but at least the man coulda mi stop and render assistance.?
Up to news time, no arrests had been made in connection with this case. If you have any information that might identify the driver of the pick-up truck that hit Skylar Sanchez you are asked to please call the nearest police station. If you would like to assist the family, call Floreth Requeña at 602-1342 or 205-6049.
