Even the cafeteria workers at the Shriners Children’s Hospital in Philadelphia were in tears Saturday after learning that a young pediatric patient who was headed home after a grueling four-month course of treatment there had died in a fiery medevac jet crash Friday night.
The girl’s doctors, nurses, therapists and her fellow pediatric patients at Shriners were also “in mourning” after learning that just a few hours after they gave her a farewell party, she and her mother were killed in the crash, hospital spokesman Mel Bower told The Post.
The child, who has not yet been identified for privacy reasons, was from Mexico and her life-saving treatment at Shriners had just ended, Bower said.
“She’d been with us four months and had formed some deep bonds with a lot of people here,” he said. “In addition to her caregivers, she also had close relationships with other patients.
“It’s a loss that’s being deeply felt by everyone who knew her. I was there (at the hospital) today, and it was very clear how deeply everyone felt about her. What happened was unthinkable.”
Ruben Ryan, a professional athlete strongman, visited Shriners Philadelphia about 10 days ago, when the child was still there, to perform a demonstration for patients and families.
He folded pans, split phone books and bent steel rods and showed both patients and their families videos of him lifting a car, pulling a semi-truck, and pulling a firetruck. Ruben taught patients his motto of “Never Quit!”
The hospital is “checking on everyone” and providing counseling services in the wake of the devastating plane crash, Bower told the Philadelphia Inquirer.
“We will take her with us as we go forward,” he said of the young victim.
Medical transports are near-daily occurrences for Shriners Philadelphia, which serves patients from 170 countries, Bower told the outlet.
The girl was one of six Mexican nationals — four passengers and two crew members — onboard the Learjet 55 that plummeted out of the sky shortly after 6 p.m., less than a minute after taking off from Northeast Philadelphia Airport en route to Missouri’s Springfield-Branson National Airport.
She was returning to Tijuana with her mother, a doctor, paramedic, pilot and copilot aboard the medevac jet owned by the Mexico-based Jet Rescue Air Ambulance, officials said Friday.
Pilot Alan Montoya and co-pilot Jesús Juárez were identified Saturday by a local Mexican media outlet. Dr. Raul Meza was also on board, according to the Mexican emergency service XE Medica Ambulancias.
Neither Philadelphia officials nor Jet Rescue have publicly confirmed any of the names of the victims of the crash.
A seventh victim was killed in a car on the street when the plane went down on Cottman Avenue near Roosevelt Mall, Mayor Cherelle Parker confirmed Saturday. The crash, which set several homes and cars ablaze, is about three miles from the airport.
Neighbors witnessed “carnage in their communities, saw fuselage, saw destruction and saw things that no one should ever have to experience in their neighborhoods,” Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro added.
One local compared the aftermath to “a horror movie,” telling The Post, “It looked like the Hulk had ran through and had a whole fight.”
At least 19 people on the ground were injured, and one man was hit with a piece of metal debris from the plane while sitting in a booth at the nearby Four Seasons diner. He was taken to the hospital in an ambulance, and his status is unknown.
Miraculously, no one else in the diner was harmed, manager Ayhan Tiryaki told The Post.
