Updates on Tara's Condition
I visited Tara in the ICU earlier this morning. There were a lot of patients, mostly old people with their grown-up children tearfully watching from outside the glass doors. Then I saw Joeee and a girl whose name escapes me but who always hangs out with Tara.
I peered through the glass window and saw my friend as I've never seen before. Her head was swollen and her skin was so pale. The top of her head was covered with bandages. Her eyelids were enlarged and pale red. She had a tube inside her mouth and a tube above her nostrils and she was hooked up on some kind of machine sensor, the kind you see in movies with graphs and numbers.
She was breathing in slow, heaving gulps. Her cuticles were bleeding. She had to pee into a bag. Her body convulsed and the sensor emitted high-pitched beeps when the nurses did extractions.
The doctor soon came and Joeee asked him about Tara's condition. He said she was not doing so well. She'd been in a coma since yesterday, and the brain injury was such that even if he did surgery, the improvements would only be minor. The shot did massive damage. And he said he was not expecting her to survive.
I was breaking down against the wall as I listened, fighting back tears. To think I had brought a science fiction book, knowing she liked sci-fi, thinking she could read it while recovering. But according to the doctor's prediction, it seemed he didn't think she'd ever be reading anything again, although God knows we who love her choose to believe otherwise.
I got to talk to Joeee about what happened. If my memory serves me well, they were coming home from a birthday bash, as it was Tara's birthday yesterday. It was early morning, they were in a Marikina-bound jeepney in Cainta, along with a few other people. Then a balding, potbellied man held up the jeep, pointing a gun at them.
Tara and Joeee, who were sitting near the entrance/exit of the jeep, fought back. Joeee even got to touch the gun. Then the bastard fired a shot. Joeee was right in front of him. It was only when she turned that she saw that Tara had been hit. The man shot Tara in the middle of her forehead, point blank, close range. Then the man left.
I don't know how accurate the news report is. According to the GMA news, Tara tried to get her bag which contained a laptop. However, when I mentioned that news report to Joeee, she looked a bit confused. Now I'm wondering if it's true that there was indeed a laptop in the bag, and if that was the reason she fought, which is the way the news reporter interpreted the situation.
The jeep took them to a clinic, but the clinic lacked the necessary facilities so Joeee had to hail a cab to the nearest hospital. The police questioned her, but she said "they were not helpful." A comrade of mine who used to be in med school was aghast when she learned that Tara had to be transported in a taxi, not an ambulance.
Joeee said that the guy behaved "like an ex-cop", although I wasn't able to dig deeper into this statement because she was crying at the time. She suspects that he is actually in cahoots with the local police.
Right now, I'm praying for her recovery, and I'm also trying to come up with a timeline and specific details to get a clearer picture of what really happened. The twisted crook is still out there, armed and apparently ready and willing to open fire on unarmed civilians. And if Joeee's fears are true, he might even be in cahoots with the local police. So to those living or traveling within the Cainta, Rizal area, please be very, very careful.
And if you want to visit Tara, you may drop by the Medical City ICU unit. Visiting hours are 9am - 11am and 5pm - 7pm. There can only be two visitors at a time, per patient.
Please pray for her recovery, and please pray that her brain heals fully if she does recover from her critical state.
To those who've sent in their well-wishes, thanks so much.
--
BTW, Tara drew the lj icon I'm using now. It's an image from a birthday card she gave me in 2003, our fourthclass year.
I peered through the glass window and saw my friend as I've never seen before. Her head was swollen and her skin was so pale. The top of her head was covered with bandages. Her eyelids were enlarged and pale red. She had a tube inside her mouth and a tube above her nostrils and she was hooked up on some kind of machine sensor, the kind you see in movies with graphs and numbers.
She was breathing in slow, heaving gulps. Her cuticles were bleeding. She had to pee into a bag. Her body convulsed and the sensor emitted high-pitched beeps when the nurses did extractions.
The doctor soon came and Joeee asked him about Tara's condition. He said she was not doing so well. She'd been in a coma since yesterday, and the brain injury was such that even if he did surgery, the improvements would only be minor. The shot did massive damage. And he said he was not expecting her to survive.
I was breaking down against the wall as I listened, fighting back tears. To think I had brought a science fiction book, knowing she liked sci-fi, thinking she could read it while recovering. But according to the doctor's prediction, it seemed he didn't think she'd ever be reading anything again, although God knows we who love her choose to believe otherwise.
I got to talk to Joeee about what happened. If my memory serves me well, they were coming home from a birthday bash, as it was Tara's birthday yesterday. It was early morning, they were in a Marikina-bound jeepney in Cainta, along with a few other people. Then a balding, potbellied man held up the jeep, pointing a gun at them.
Tara and Joeee, who were sitting near the entrance/exit of the jeep, fought back. Joeee even got to touch the gun. Then the bastard fired a shot. Joeee was right in front of him. It was only when she turned that she saw that Tara had been hit. The man shot Tara in the middle of her forehead, point blank, close range. Then the man left.
I don't know how accurate the news report is. According to the GMA news, Tara tried to get her bag which contained a laptop. However, when I mentioned that news report to Joeee, she looked a bit confused. Now I'm wondering if it's true that there was indeed a laptop in the bag, and if that was the reason she fought, which is the way the news reporter interpreted the situation.
The jeep took them to a clinic, but the clinic lacked the necessary facilities so Joeee had to hail a cab to the nearest hospital. The police questioned her, but she said "they were not helpful." A comrade of mine who used to be in med school was aghast when she learned that Tara had to be transported in a taxi, not an ambulance.
Joeee said that the guy behaved "like an ex-cop", although I wasn't able to dig deeper into this statement because she was crying at the time. She suspects that he is actually in cahoots with the local police.
Right now, I'm praying for her recovery, and I'm also trying to come up with a timeline and specific details to get a clearer picture of what really happened. The twisted crook is still out there, armed and apparently ready and willing to open fire on unarmed civilians. And if Joeee's fears are true, he might even be in cahoots with the local police. So to those living or traveling within the Cainta, Rizal area, please be very, very careful.
And if you want to visit Tara, you may drop by the Medical City ICU unit. Visiting hours are 9am - 11am and 5pm - 7pm. There can only be two visitors at a time, per patient.
Please pray for her recovery, and please pray that her brain heals fully if she does recover from her critical state.
To those who've sent in their well-wishes, thanks so much.
--
BTW, Tara drew the lj icon I'm using now. It's an image from a birthday card she gave me in 2003, our fourthclass year.