Kathy Pinna
Fresno man dies 2 1/2 months after pulling out
. . of a 16-week coma.
The following article appeared in The Fresno Bee (Fresno, California) on Friday, November 2, 2001, by Louis Galvan:
For several weeks after he came out of a 16 - week coma, Donio Robert Sanchez of Fresno was known as the "miracle child" as he appeared to be recovering well from a bullet wound in the head. The miracle, however, ended Monday when Sanchez died at Kaweah Delta Hospital in Visalia from complications associated with the shooting, making him the city of Fresno's 33rd homicide victim this year, authorities reported Thursday.
And today, on what would've been his 22nd birthday, Sanchez will be buried in Odd Fellows Cemetery in Fresno after funeral services are held at Cornerstone Church, beginning at 2 p.m.
Sanchez was not given much of a chance to live after he was shot. He was wounded on the right side of his head just above his ear during an argument April 17 with another man outside a home in the 200 block of U Street. A few hours after he was admitted to University Medical Center, he started having seizures, slipped into a coma and underwent more than six hours of surgery to remove a blood clot in his brain, his mother, Donna Casillas of Reedley, recalled Thursday. She was with family members and friends at Lisle Funeral Home to view her son's body.
The hospital drama and the family's ordeal were captured that evening on film by a television crew working for The Learning Channel series "Trauma: Life in the ER," a documentary program that puts cameras in emergency rooms. The episode featuring UMC was aired Oct. 22. Dyanna Hernandez, 29, Sanchez's sister, said her brother remained in a coma after the surgery, hooked up to a life-support system, and that doctors really didn't expect him to survive. But, Casillas said, family members and friends prayed day and night, and no one gave up hope.
On June 1, Sanchez was transferred to Exeter Memorial Hospital, where he stayed hooked up to a life-support system and the staff couldn't do much more than monitor his vital signs, move his limbs and make him as comfortable as possible, his family said. Little by little, however, Sanchez appeared to be improving, and he was taken off life support after he started breathing on his on. "On Aug. 7, he woke up," Hernandez said, checking her notes. After that, said the family, Sanchez continued to make progress. He started rehabilitation treatment and soon was able to communicate by shaking or nodding his had to ye-or-no questions. "He was aware of everything and remembered everyone and everything from the past," Hernandez said of her brother.
That's when the staff at Exeter Memorial started calling him "the miracle child." The family made him an "ABC board," and he was able to put words and sentences together by pointing at the letters, his mother, Casillas said. "He told me that when he was in a coma he knew who I was and that he could hear me,' Casillas said. "He talked about his dreams and about wanting to go home."
By late September and early October, she said, the family had made plans to take him home. He was even allowed to leave the hospital with his family on three Sundays to visit Cornerstone Church, wher he had bene an active member before the shooting. In mid-October, however, Sanchez's condition started to turn around. He developed pneumonias and spent about a week at Kaweah Delta Hospital. And then on Oct.25, his family said, he started having seizures again, stopped breathing and was again admitted to Kaweah Delta. He was declared brain-dead Mondayk and taken off his life-support system, his mother said.
"God wanted him," said a brother, Derrick Sanchez, 19. Casillas, 45, said she is grateful to God for the extra time she was given to spend with her son. And, she said, she also is convinced God had a good reason for finally taking her son from her. "My son was a very caring and loving person," she said. And that is why, in his memory, the family donated his heart, liver, kidneys and pancreas, she said. "His dying saved other lives," she said.
The killing remains under investigation. Police, confirming information provided by the family, said a suspect is in custody on other charges, the Fresno County District Attorney's Office is reviewing the case and murder charges are pending. The name of the suspect was not released. Investigators said the shooting happened after Sanchez went to U Street to visit a friend. There, police said, he encountered a man with whom he had had an altercation about two years earlier. Words were reportedly exchanged, and other man pulled out a gun, shot Sanchez, and fled.
The following article appeared in The Fresno Bee (Fresno, California) on Friday, November 2, 2001, by Louis Galvan:
For several weeks after he came out of a 16 - week coma, Donio Robert Sanchez of Fresno was known as the "miracle child" as he appeared to be recovering well from a bullet wound in the head. The miracle, however, ended Monday when Sanchez died at Kaweah Delta Hospital in Visalia from complications associated with the shooting, making him the city of Fresno's 33rd homicide victim this year, authorities reported Thursday.
And today, on what would've been his 22nd birthday, Sanchez will be buried in Odd Fellows Cemetery in Fresno after funeral services are held at Cornerstone Church, beginning at 2 p.m.
Sanchez was not given much of a chance to live after he was shot. He was wounded on the right side of his head just above his ear during an argument April 17 with another man outside a home in the 200 block of U Street. A few hours after he was admitted to University Medical Center, he started having seizures, slipped into a coma and underwent more than six hours of surgery to remove a blood clot in his brain, his mother, Donna Casillas of Reedley, recalled Thursday. She was with family members and friends at Lisle Funeral Home to view her son's body.
The hospital drama and the family's ordeal were captured that evening on film by a television crew working for The Learning Channel series "Trauma: Life in the ER," a documentary program that puts cameras in emergency rooms. The episode featuring UMC was aired Oct. 22. Dyanna Hernandez, 29, Sanchez's sister, said her brother remained in a coma after the surgery, hooked up to a life-support system, and that doctors really didn't expect him to survive. But, Casillas said, family members and friends prayed day and night, and no one gave up hope.
On June 1, Sanchez was transferred to Exeter Memorial Hospital, where he stayed hooked up to a life-support system and the staff couldn't do much more than monitor his vital signs, move his limbs and make him as comfortable as possible, his family said. Little by little, however, Sanchez appeared to be improving, and he was taken off life support after he started breathing on his on. "On Aug. 7, he woke up," Hernandez said, checking her notes. After that, said the family, Sanchez continued to make progress. He started rehabilitation treatment and soon was able to communicate by shaking or nodding his had to ye-or-no questions. "He was aware of everything and remembered everyone and everything from the past," Hernandez said of her brother.
That's when the staff at Exeter Memorial started calling him "the miracle child." The family made him an "ABC board," and he was able to put words and sentences together by pointing at the letters, his mother, Casillas said. "He told me that when he was in a coma he knew who I was and that he could hear me,' Casillas said. "He talked about his dreams and about wanting to go home."
By late September and early October, she said, the family had made plans to take him home. He was even allowed to leave the hospital with his family on three Sundays to visit Cornerstone Church, wher he had bene an active member before the shooting. In mid-October, however, Sanchez's condition started to turn around. He developed pneumonias and spent about a week at Kaweah Delta Hospital. And then on Oct.25, his family said, he started having seizures again, stopped breathing and was again admitted to Kaweah Delta. He was declared brain-dead Mondayk and taken off his life-support system, his mother said.
"God wanted him," said a brother, Derrick Sanchez, 19. Casillas, 45, said she is grateful to God for the extra time she was given to spend with her son. And, she said, she also is convinced God had a good reason for finally taking her son from her. "My son was a very caring and loving person," she said. And that is why, in his memory, the family donated his heart, liver, kidneys and pancreas, she said. "His dying saved other lives," she said.
The killing remains under investigation. Police, confirming information provided by the family, said a suspect is in custody on other charges, the Fresno County District Attorney's Office is reviewing the case and murder charges are pending. The name of the suspect was not released. Investigators said the shooting happened after Sanchez went to U Street to visit a friend. There, police said, he encountered a man with whom he had had an altercation about two years earlier. Words were reportedly exchanged, and other man pulled out a gun, shot Sanchez, and fled.
