The seriously injured parents of the little German boy rescued from the wreckage of the funicular horror almost two weeks ago have been discharged from hospitals here, and transferred to Germany.
Reading between the lines, the mother may well not be requiring hospitalisation in her home country, but the father – who initially was thought to have died – still does. Reports say he has been “transferred to a hospital in his native country”, his condition now being “clinically stabilised”, after the initial days in intensive care at São José hospital.
This little family stood out among the many victims of the tragedy, for the fact that the child – the only child on the fated funicular as it careered backwards to complete destruction – would almost certainly have died had a PSP agent not been almost instantly on the scene, and able to clear the three-year-old’s nose and mouth of dust and debris so that he could breathe.
Footage from the scene showed the little boy clinging to the policeman, crying, covered in blood, but definitely alive.
At the time, the father who cushioned his son from what could have been much more harm, was thought to have died. It much later transpired (after his parents came to identify his body) that he was one of the critically-injured, lying in intensive care.
The mother too was very badly hurt, but little by way of details has been emerging.
SIC has reported that of the eight seriously-injured passengers admitted to Santa Maria hospital on September 3, only one (woman) remains, in intensive care still but “stable, with a favourable evolution”.
Hospital São José also still has one victim interned, again in a “stable situation”, while hospital São Francisco Xavier has two women still in intensive care (a South Korean and a young Portuguese), while another woman has already been moved to a general ward, and continues to recover.
Hospital Amadora Sintra also has one victim (again a woman), interned in the orthopedic ward – having been transferred from São José some days after the funicular crash. This victim is expected to be discharged “in the next few days”, a hospital source has said.
A total of 16 people died when the Glória funicular came off its rails in an incident that is still under intense investigation. Twenty two people were injured, some critically.
Source: Observador/ SIC Notícias
