11-Year-Old Uvalde Survivor Suffers Cardiac Arrest While Visiting Grave Of Friend Who Saved Her From Bullies
There is no end to the grief the Uvalde community feels.
Facebook / GoFundMe A fourth-grade survivor of the Uvalde school shooting went into cardiac arrest after visiting her best friend’s memorial and suffering from a “broken heart.”
11-year-old Illiana Treviño was rushed to the Children’s Methodist Hospital in San Antonio last Thursday after her heart rate spiked sharply, and doctors fear she might go into another state of cardiac arrest.
Illiana Treviño went to her best friend, Amerie Jo Garza’s, memorial to drop off a teddy bear and flowers.
“Amerie would protect Illiana from bullies and always came to her aid,” Jessica Treviño, Illiana’s mother, shared on a GoFundMe page to raise funds for medical bills.
“Her heart can't take the stress and trauma of this past week.”
The United States continues to feel the effects of some of the deadliest weeks of gun violence the country has ever seen as Democrats push to pass the “Protecting Our Kids Act” — a sweeping gun reform package that would set some heavy restrictions on the purchasing of deadly weapons.
“We are barely seeing the ripple side effects of what this tragic incident has brought to our community,” wrote Jessica.
Illiana remains at the Children’s Methodist Hospital in San Antonio, where she is being treated.
Her parents, Jessica and David, will remain in San Antonio for the time being until their child returns to a more stable condition.
"I think it's just from a broken heart that we need to work on healing," Jessica told People Magazine. “Everything just broke her in half, and she feels the fear of being bullied again.”
According to the family, the medication that the doctors prescribed for her isn’t working anymore, and Illiana is showing symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder and acute stress from the trauma she experienced.
"Her body was basically shutting down completely. It couldn't take it," Jessica says. "Her body was basically reacting to the shock."
After the Uvalde shooting at Robb Elementary School, Illiana came out unharmed as the shooter, Salvador Ramos, never entered her classroom.
However, he had unfortunately entered Garza’s class and killed the 10-year-old girl, who was trying to contact the police, according to her grandmother Berlinda Arreola.
When Illiana discovered the news, she just started screaming and crying while her mother tried to console her.
"I told her, 'I'm sorry, baby. There's just some ugly people in the world,'" Jessica said.
"Amerie's parents did an amazing job raising such a beautiful little love,” she added. “It's so sad how things work out in life, because it's not fair. It really isn't fair that any of these children lost their lives, but it just really breaks me more because I know how much this child did for my child."
Illiana isn’t the only one who has suffered from physical maladies following the Uvalde shooting.
50-year-old Joe Garcia suffered from a heart attack just days after finding out that his wife of 24 years, Irma Garcia, had been one of the 21 people who were killed in the shooting.
“I truly believe Joe died of a broken heart and losing the love of his life of more than 30 years was too much to bear,” Irma's cousin, Debra Austin, said.
The Uvalde shooting is a tragedy that will long be remembered as it was the deadliest school shooting since Sandy Hook in 2012.
Isaac Serna-Diez is an Assistant Editor who focuses on entertainment and news, social justice, and politics. He is a graduate of Rutgers University. Keep up with his rants about current events on Twitter.