An 11-year-old girl who survived the Texas school shooting has been hospitalized after nearly having a heart attack while visiting a memorial for her best friend, who was one of 21 people in the massacre.
Illiana Treviño lost her best friend, Amerie Jo Garza, during last month’s mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.
‘I think it’s just from a broken heart that we need to work on healing,’ Iliana’s mother, Jessica, told
Illiana’s heart rate spiked last week when she went to place flowers and a teddy bear at the memorial for Amerie, her best friend who would protect her from bullies.
Her mother rushed the 11-year-old to the hospital, where doctors told her Illiana had been on the verge of having a heart attack. The young girl, who had no previous medical issues, has remained in the hospital ever since.
‘Everything just broke her in half, and she feels the fear of being bullied again,’ her mother told the magazine.
While Illiana survived the massacre, which took the lives of 19 of her classmates and her two teachers, Amerie was fatally shot while trying to dial 911, her grandmother Berlinda Arreola said.
When the fourth grade student saw her best friend’s face on the news, confirming her death, ‘she just started screaming and crying,’ according to her mother.
‘I told her, “I’m sorry, baby. There’s just some ugly people in the world.”‘
Last Tuesday, the mother and daughter went to visit Amerie’s memorial in downtown Uvalde. Afterward, however, Illiana alerted her mother that she didn’t feel well, and had never felt the way she did before.
Her mother then rushed her to the hospital, where doctors told her Illiana was going into cardiac arrest.
‘Her heart (rate) skyrocketed because she couldn’t take the trauma…all the trauma and pain from it,’ her mother said.
Illiana was later transferred to a hospital in San Antonio, where she remains over a week later. According to her mother, the doctors have said that she is showing signs of post-traumatic stress disorder and acute stress from the trauma she suffered.
The fourth grader remains in the hospital, where her heart is being monitored. She also remains hesitant to return to school, in part because her friend won’t be there to protect her from the bullies.
‘Amerie mad her feel safe and made her feel okay to go to school,’ her mother said.
Illiana’s mother added: ‘Amerie’s parents did an amazing job raising such a beautiful little love. 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.’
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