On March thirteenth former Prime Minister of Belize Rt. Hon. Manuel Esquivel suffered serious injuries after the vehicle he and his driver William Schnarr were travelling in flipped multiple times around mile thirty one on the Western Highway. Sixty eight year old Esquivel was hospitalized at Belize Medical Associates where several examinations revealed that he had multiple fractures from his face, to his shoulder, to his ribs, and two bones in his foot. Two days later Esquivel was medi-vac-ed to Ryder Trauma Centre at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami where he has been for the past month undergoing facial reconstructive surgery.

Today his daughter Laura Esquivel told 7News that while the news has been encouraging and there has been some progress made in her dad’s recovery there is still a lot of work that needs to be done to get him back on his feet, but they are optimistic.

Laura Esquivel, Daughter
“Actually the news is pretty good nowadays. He was moved out of ICU last week Friday and he is now over in the general ward. On Monday he began receiving some rehab, a little bit of physical therapy just so he can get himself moving again and up to yesterday my mom told me that he was reaching for things on his own and picking up things on his own and able to be drinking juices and water and things like that.”

Jacqueline Godwin,
It is going to be a long road to recovery, I mean considering his age and the injuries that he received?

Laura Esquivel,
“Right it is a little longer than we had expected but in the last week or so there has been real, real improvement. You could see a good improvement. The surgeons that had done the facial reconstruction had come in to see him and they are very, very pleased with the outcome.

The face is looking is very good and the only thing that is taking a bit longer is that they had to wire his jaw shut so we are hoping that they will be removing those wires not this Monday coming but the following Monday. Then after that it should be a much easier process to get him out of the hospital because he will be able to eat better that will help move him along.”

Jacqueline Godwin,
What is his long term prognosis? I mean, I would imagine there would be some effects from the injuries he received?

Laura Esquivel,
“Right, well it is mainly just getting him back up and moving again because he has been lying down for so long. It has been over a month now so the main thing is to get him active and moving again but in terms of everything else they expect a full recovery.”

Jacqueline Godwin,
So when should we expect to see Mr. Esquivel back in Belize?

Laura Esquivel,
“Well that is really hard to tell. You know everything is still kind of day to day but we are hoping that in the next two to three weeks we will have him back in Belize.”

Because it had been raining it is believed that wet conditions on the road may have caused the driver William Schnarr to lose control of the Nissan Pathfinder. From all accounts the SUV was not travelling at high speeds but it is believed that loose gravel in the area caused the SUV to skid down the embankment, flip into the air and land in the bushes some two hundred feet away.