Teen hit by New Year stray bullet awakes after surgery

The girl hit by a stray bullet in her head in Caloocan City during the New Year’s Eve revelry awakened and appeared to be out of danger Friday morning following surgery at a Quezon City hospital.

Maybelle Lou “Mikmik” Juanitas, 13, was “coherent (and showed) no signs of neurological deficits” after Thursday’s operation that removed the bullet, said Doctor Alfonso Nuñez III, head of East Avenue Medical Center’s (EAMC) trauma section.

“But it is too early to make a conclusion. We are hoping for a complete recovery,” Nuñez said, adding that the patient would remain under observation at EAMC for two to three days.

Relieved, Juanitas’ father Johnny said “she can talk a little. But we were advised to let her rest. We don’t even allow her to use her cell phone.”

Juanitas, a resident of Batasan Hills, Quezon City, was hit in head at around 10 p.m. Wednesday night while walking with two cousins in Barrio San Jose in Tala, Caloocan, where she was spending the holidays.

The girl’s case added to the grim statistics of New Year injuries that continue to mount despite government campaigns against indiscriminate or celebratory gunfire.

In 2013, a bullet fired in the air to “welcome” the New Year claimed the life of another minor in Caloocan City, 7-year-old Stephanie Nicole Ella.

The police have yet to solve Ella’s case and have formed another task force, this time to to track down the person responsible for Juanitas’ injury. With a report from Radyo Inquirer

RELATED STORIES

PNP records six stray bullet victims days before New Year’s Eve

Child hit by stray bullet in Laguna