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Lady In The Bus “Knocked” Awake

February 14, 2007

The poor little old lady didn’t even know what hit her.

She may look like someone’s grandma peacefully sleeping in the hospital ward now. But the 11 stitches on her head tells that she may be sleeping a dreamless sleep of the ill-fated. Thanks to a bunch of reckless, troubled souls who find hurling rocks at innocent, unsuspecting travellers amusing.

The 55-year old lady was seated comfortably sleeping on a bus bound to Cabanatuan. She was with her children and her grandchildren, who were resting too. It was the time of the day when people sleep their deepest. Little did this lady know she’d be literally knocked awake.


As it was passing under the bridge crossing over the NLEX, the front glass window of the bus was hit by a huge rock, allegedly hurled by some reckles people on the bridge.

The hurled rock landed smack on top of the lady’s head, bouncing off the child beside her and then, to the side of the startled bus driver. Her head began bleeding profusely from the cut that it stained the leatherette seats.

At 5:30 a.m., she arrived at the hospital emergency room, conscious but confused, strapped on the NLEX EMS stretcher. She looked like what Carrie White must have looked like in Stephen King’s novel, when she was drenched with pig’s blood. She kept on asking where she is and kept calling on her daughter, who was standing beside the stretcher. Skull x-ray showed a linear fracture over the left parieto-occipital area. Cranial CT scan revealed epidural bleeding over the same area of the skull fracture. She needed to undergo a craniotomy to control the bleeding inside her skull and to prevent further neurologic deterioration that could lead to death.

It was good that the representative of the bus company came soon after at the hospital to settle emergency room bills and admission arrangements. The poor lady’s family just wouldn’t be able to afford the treatment that will be needed to save her life and from permanent disability.

And all that trouble just because some idiots, who hadn’t anything worthy to do felt like throwing rocks at passing vehicles under the bridge? For amusement? It’s sick. I wouldn’t be surprised if they were a bunch of drunks or a gang “high” on illegal drugs.

It’s just so unfair that she should suffer because of their stupidity.

For the criminals, it was just so and nothing “personal”. The victim was just collateral damage in their fight to against their loneliness and helplessness and to convince themselves they have power. By their actions they seem to want to tell the world they’ve become so because they are poor and the government won’t do anything about it, etcetera. It was a manifestation of lost of control by which they ask for redemption.

Or maybe not. Maybe they just like throwing rocks.

It’s still unfair. Nothing could ever justify violence.

As for the poor lady in the hospital ward, her relatives and the bus company were still arguing as to where the operation should be done. Last I heard, they’re going to transfer her to a government hospital so there would be less expenses. And the criminals? No one knows who they are, though the police were combing through the nearby squatters’ area as for the possible culprits. But you know how it is in our country.

I hope and pray that when she awakes, she’d find justice there for her and for the ones who shattered her peaceful slumber in the bus.

Written by Prudence · Filed Under Health, Medicine 

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