10yr old survives life threatening injuries from accident

The family of a ten year old boy from the St Martin’s DePorres School in Belize City feels fortunate that he is alive following a traffic ordeal. The young boy was hit by a vehicle in the area of Partridge Street at lunch time last Tuesday when he ran across the street. The child bounced off the vehicle and fell backwards, suffering major injuries to the head. He was rushed to the K.H.M.H., but according to the family, due to the lack of cooperation from doctors, he had to be transferred to a private hospital. Delahnie Bain has the story.

Delahnie Bain, Reporting
It is nothing less than a miracle that Ernesto Flores Jr. is alive today, after he was hit by a car on May twenty-sixth. But the accident was traumatic for the entire family, particularly Ernesto’s sister, Keila, who was at the scene.

Keila Flores, Sister of Accident Victim
“Foam mi di come out ah ih mouth and ih nose and I mi di try grab ah but dehn seh no, lef ah deh cause yoh neva know weh happen. But ih look like my bredda—when I holla ih name ih only move ih hand wah lee bit den dat dah wen ih just put down ih head and ih neva do no movements afta Miss Casey gone get ah. I felt nervous and I was so scared because I thought my brother was gonna die because they didn’t want to do anything and then the driver just hurry took him to the K.H.M.H.”

Ernesto Flores Sr., Father of Accident Victim
“He had a bruise on the left part of his head and while he was at the K.H.M.H., they told me that he was to be released and he told me daddy my head hurts so much and he started throwing up.”

According to Ernesto Senior, his son spent about an hour undergoing chest and skull x-rays before he was taken in for a CT Scan. And that was when the real damage was discovered. But time was running out for little Ernesto, who had to be transferred to Belize Healthcare Partners for Surgery.

Ernesto Flores
“They noticed that there was a bleeding to the left side of his brain, pressuring the brain and not long after that I noticed my son’s mouth started twisting and he grabbed to me sweating and not long after that I know he stopped breathing. I opened and blew in his eye to see exactly and said son, son and he stopped responding.”

Dr. Joel Cervantes, Neurosurgeon
“If he fell backwards, at some point the left side of the head had to have hit—I would presume, the pavement or some very hard structure and that caused a very big bleed on a bag that covers the brain. We have a blood vessel and that blood vessel was practically cut in half, it was ruptured and we had about two litres of blood on the left hand side which was mashing in the brain and because of the severe type of lesion and this that was bleeding, by the time we controlled it and everything he probably bled out about another litre. So most people who have this—in fact in adults, with this magnitude of injury most adults die.”

And while little Ernesto has survived thus far, Dr. Cervantes says that the length of time that he was bleeding may cause some physical difficulties.

Dr. Joel Cervantes
“We have a couple problems with some brain tissues that have suffered a little bit. This is like a stroke tissue because there was pressing for a long period of time.”

Marion Ali
“What would be the effects of that?”

Dr. Joel Cervantes
“We’re thinking that there could be some difficulties that might have to do with movement in the opposite side of the body; perhaps on the right hand side.”

Ernesto Senior is grateful that his son’s life was saved, but says he believes the outcome would have been just the opposite, had he stayed at the K.H.M.H.

Ernesto Flores
“The doctor says we have to do a surgery and what frustrated me most is when the nurse started arguing with the doctor over my son. The doctor would ask him, get me this and the nurse said why you di tell me. Go get it yourself doc. He seh you know you have to get this thing from the pharmacy. I think they have good doctors but they don’t have good team work. So I am making that allegation that due to that, nothing more, my son could have died at the hospital.”

Dr. Cervantes says, Ernesto Junior is not home safe just yet. He has been taken off life support, but has not woken up. Meanwhile, the driver of the vehicle has offered to assist the family in any way possible. Delahnie Bain for News Five.

We contacted Dr. Khalid Ghazy at the K.H.M.H for a response to Ernesto Senior’s claim, but he told us, he needed time to look into the matter.