Elizabeth de la Rosa, the woman severely burned in a bus fire set by cartel members in the wake of the May 21 attempted assassination of a former Jalisco attorney general, has returned to Guadalajara from Texas despite her still serious condition.
According to several reports, De la Rosa and close family members insisted on ending the treatment at the University of Texas in Galveston against the recommendations of doctors attending her there.
The Jalisco government has paid for all medical expenses during her month-long stay in the United States, which has totaled around $US1.7 million. State Health Department Director Alfonso Petersen has stressed that there has been no issue with the cost and that the government would have continued to fund her treatment in the United States had she wished.
A press release from the hospital explained that De la Rosa did not want any more surgeries because of the pain and anxiety they provoked.
Talking to Guadalajara Spanish-language daily Mural, De la Rosa’s aunt, Noemi Herrera, said her niece was not improving in Galveston. “We didn’t want them to hurt her any more. Nothing was working, so there was no reason for her to be there.”
De la Rosa, who received first-degree burns to 90 percent of her body, has undergone nine operations in the past month.
The University of Texas in Galveston is considered one of the top specialist hospitals for burn victims in the United States.
De la Rosa was mother to eight-month-old Tadeo, who tragically died in the bus fire. The violence in metro-area Guadalajara erupted in the wake of the failed attempted assassination of former Attorney General Luis Carlos Najera outside an Avenida Chapultepec restaurant.
Jalisco Government Secretary General Roberto Lopez Lara said the decision to bring De la Rosa back to Guadalajara was taken by the patient and her family alone.
On her arrival in Guadalajara, on Saturday, August 11, De la Rosa was whisked to the city’s Hospital de Cirugia Reconstructiva (Reconstructive Surgery).
Petersen said De la Rosa’s condition was “delicate but stable.” He said all her medical needs would continue to be funded by the state, even after she is released from the hospital.
Doctors at the University of Texas reckoned she would require specialized hospitalization for at least another 50 days.