Filipina Still Fights for her Life
19th November 2008
(Tinig Pinoy Headline – October 2008)
By Ester Beatty
While Cypriots were celebrating their Independence Day on 1st October 2008, a Filipina was found laying unconscious on the road after the motor vehicle she was driving hit a pavement somewhere in Strovolos area. Desiree Lopez, known as Daisy to her friends, is still fighting for her life after an accident that happened on the night of 1st October 2008, while going home after her day off. Apparently she was found laying on the road by some motorist and was rushed to the Nicosia General Hospital at around 11 in the evening. Daisy was not wearing a helmet when found on the road. According to initial Police report, nobody was involved in the accident.
Information gathered that earlier that day, her sister relayed the bad news that their brother had passed away, which made her feel so depressed and lonely as she did not even know how it happened. To try to forget momentarily, she joined other Pinays later for a drinking spree and then decided to go home late at night.
Daisy was put in a medically induced coma for almost two weeks, as the doctors would not want her to move at all because of the severity of her head injury. Daisy has no immediate family here in Cyprus, though she has some friends and flat mates who know her quite well and they took the responsibility of informing her family in the Philippines about what happened and subsequently her condition. It was not an easy task to do considering that they have just lost one of the members of their family.
In the early days of her very critical condition, the doctors faced a blank wall as they have no idea how old she is, if she is suffering from any other medical condition or allergic to any medicines, etc. In order to help the doctors in this area, a phone call was made to the daughter of her previous employer (she used to work for an elder person) to find out any medical condition that Daisy might have suffered while she was still working for them. The sad thing is that Daisy has been illegal (no visa) since last year. So when the call to the employer’s daughter was made, the answer was all denial. Daisy was said to be working illegally at the shop of the employer’s daughter until the time of the accident, but for obvious reasons this was also being denied by the daughter.
Speaking to Dr. Pavlides, her attending doctor at the ICU Department of the Nicosia General Hospital, her injury was so severe that she will probably be permanently brain damaged. This means that life will never be the same for her again, that she will need a lot of therapy and medication for the rest of her life.
Last week, Daisy was removed from the ICU and transferred to the Neurological Department. There seem to be a slight improvement of her condition as she was removed from the medically induced coma, was able to wake up, and opened her eyes on her own.