An immigrant grandmother was left suffering severe memory loss and is forced to breathe through a hole in her neck following a savage beatdown at a Queens nightclub, her son told the Daily News.
Josephine Estrella, 54, was at Suit 36 located on 36th St. near 37th Ave. in Astoria when a man and woman struck her multiple times around 4:14 a.m. on Oct. 19, cops said.
Luis Jimenez, 33, said his family was celebrating his wife’s 33rd birthday at the Astoria nightclub when his brother-in-law was somehow drawn into a dispute between the wait staff and another party of about 10 people.
The victim’s family had rushed to their relative’s aid when Estrella was attacked and fell to the floor, striking her head, her son said.
“They turned on my brother-in-law, but he doesn’t speak English,” said Jimenez. “When they started hitting him. My family went to help him.
“I was fighting with somebody, and my brother-in-law said, ‘Oh my god, your mother is on the floor’.”
Medics rushed the victim to NYC Health + Hospitals/Elmhurst in critical condition, where she lay in a coma until late last month, when she awoke with no memory of the day of the attack, her son said.
“She doesn’t remember anything from that day,” said Jimenez. “Nothing at all.
“When she woke up, she couldn’t even remember my name.”
Doctors were forced to perform a tracheotomy on Estrella, carving a hole through her neck to her windpipe so she could breathe, said Jimenez.
“She can’t really speak,” said the victim’s son. “It’s been very difficult for our family. She has long months of therapy ahead.”
An immigrant from the Dominican Republic, Estrella works as a home health attendant and has six grandchildren, her son said.
“Thank god she’s still alive. She could have passed away,” her son said.
“We want them to catch these people. My mother didn’t deserve this. We want those people in jail. We want justice.
“This whole thing has stopped her life.”
Cops are looking for a woman last seen wearing a brown sweater, shorts with stripes and black-and-white sneakers, and a man wearing blue jeans and a black T-shirt with white flowers on it.
The public can phone confidential tips to the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477).
