Lucia Ruiz, 11, was visiting family in Spain, traveling on the train with her younger sister, her aunt, and her uncle, when the train flew off the track, killing 79 and injuring dozens of others in Sanitago de Compostela.
Ruiz came out of the accident worse off than her family members—she had damage to her legs, hip, pelvis, tail bone, a cranial fracture, and internal bleeding. She has been recovering in intensive care close to the site of the accident since it occurred on July 24.
With her medical expenses, a crowdfunding effort is being made to bring Ruiz back to her home in Deerfield, Ill. The giveforward.com crowdfunding campaign had raised about $10,900 of its $20,000 goal as of Sunday afternoon.
Her father, Ismael Ruiz, told CBS last week, “She is starting to wonder about what are the implications, school, sports, friends.” He was grateful his daughter was one of the first rescued from the train.
Her parents gave an update on her condition Sunday, posted on the Give Forward webpage:
Dear all
Lucia is progressing. She is still on oral antibiotics but a bit better. She is still having some trouble sleeping. The skin necrosis on her left leg is getting better and Doctors believe she might not need an implant. One of the biggest concerns is that she cannot feel her left toes and she is getting constant spasms on the left foot that prevent her from sleeping. Her right leg seems to be doing fine although she took an MRI yesterday to control the surgery results. She has some pain on the hip but she is mobilizing that area a bit more than before
We expect that Monday will be a day with more tests. We are trying to figure out what are the next steps and looking for specialists that can help with her condition. We are in the process of compiling all of the documentation and contacting different hospitals to manage her transfer
Again, thanks to everybody for their support.
Regards
Ismael and Paloma
