Telangana Student Suffers Fall, Goes Into Coma, In US
Lagishetti Spandana, 22, a student at Elmhurst University in Illinois, was getting down from the elevated transit system known as the “L” on May 30 when she accidentally fell from a 25‑foot-high staircase.
HYDERABAD: A Mancherial‑based woman pursuing higher education in the United States accidentally fell off a staircase at an elevated train station in Chicago and is currently in a comatose condition, with her parents requesting government assistance.
Lagishetti Spandana, 22, a student at Elmhurst University in Illinois, was getting down from the elevated transit system known as the “L” on May 30 when she accidentally fell from a 25‑foot-high staircase.
She was transported to Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Chicago’s Park Ridge area, where she remains in a coma under intensive care. Doctors said her injuries include multiple haemorrhages, blunt injuries, fractures, bone dislocations, liver lacerations and other complications.
Her parents, Lagishetti Srinivas and Sunitha, said her education was due to be completed in five months. “She went to the United States in the first week of January 2025 and was set to complete her education in five months. We are shocked and in deep pain,” Srinivas said.
Srinivas requested the government to help both him and his wife secure passports and visas, provide financial assistance and enable them to visit their daughter. Rebeca Rico, trauma surgeon at Advocate Lutheran General Hospital, also wrote a letter asking authorities to consider visa approval for the family.
Family members of Spandana have started a GoFundMe fundraiser page, which had raised more than $44,000 by Friday night.