Shooting victim Collin Lord may soon be on his way home

Colin Lord had a close brush with death after he was shot to the head on June eighteenth. He underwent emergency surgery at the K.H.M.H. and was transferred to the Belize Healthcare Partners Limited where he was placed in an induced coma and doctors worked on a severe swelling on his brain. Today News Five got an update from neurosurgeon at BHPL, Dr. Joel Cervantes and found out that Lord’s prognosis is good. Cervantes says the improvement is impressive and Lord may soon be on his way home.

Dr. Joel Cervantes, Neurosurgeon

Dr. joel cervantes

“He’s been taken out of the induced coma and he has woken up. I can tell you that the improvement is quite dramatic at this point. He understands when you speak to him. With his right hand he would squeeze to let you know he is understanding. In fact I have a system that I would ask him to blink once if the answer is yes and twice if it’s no and we realize that he understands perfectly well. He recognizes all his family members. He is starting to mouth with his lips trying to spell out a couple of words. For the first time today he was able to sip a little bit of liquids so we’re pretty happy because this means he won’t have to spend too much more days in the hospital. Of course he is no longer in the ICU. He was moved out of intensive care yesterday and if he continues like this I think that by the end of the week he should be going home.”

Delahnie Bain

“You had said that we’d have to wait until he came out of the coma to know whether or not he would be able to make a full recovery. What’s that looking like now?”

Dr. Joel Cervantes

“I note that he needs a lot of physical therapy and rehabilitation therapy. We have seen an indication of movement on the right side of his body; both the arm and the leg and we’ve also seen an inkling of a movement in the left leg. We haven’t really seen any response in the left arm as yet but he hasn’t received any physical therapy as yet. We think he is going to be in conditions to start the physical rehabilitation therapy tomorrow. And the way he has progressed I think that he could have a positive result. Maybe not to be a hundred percent but I am very hopeful eh can come back to be a productive citizen again. He’s been having a bit of what we call a low grade fever. We’re trying to identify what the source of it is. It’s not something major. He has had from the start the secretions in his wind pipe; have been a little bit on the ugly side. Those are just starting to clear up but we’re pretty happy with him not having any major complications.”

While he may soon be released from the hospital, Cervantes says it will be at least another six months before he is able to return to any kind of employment.