2012 story: Local woman paralyzed by C-section infection

Carla Luna gave birth to a baby girl November 28th, but just a few days later she noticed her C-section scar wasn’t healing and her stomach was in pain.

Her doctors soon found the incision was infected, her body now septic. Carla mysteriously developed a hematoma, or a bruise in her brain that was filling with up blood. This blew her pupil and left her paralyzed on the left side. The doctors performed brain surgery, having to remove apart of her skull. But after coming up from morphine, she went into respiratory failure. When they couldn’t get her off the ventilator, they decided an open tracheotomy was the only way to keep her breathing. Carla, who hasn’t been able to care for her baby, was devastated.

“When you hear stories like this young lady’s, situation, where she needed some more help and she needed some more care how could you say know,” said Vice President of El Paso Long Term Acute Care Hospital Leon Metz.

LTAC heard of her case, and decided to care for her for free.They’re expecting she’ll be there for a month before she’s well enough to go home, and her bills could be as high as $100,000.

“You can’t help but be attached to the people who come here,” Metz said.

EP LTAC will provide therapy for Carla, who tells me, she doesn’t blame anyone, and is looking forward to getting home to her daughter and husband.