An immigrant grandmother is now grappling with severe memory loss and relies on a tracheostomy to breathe after enduring a brutal assault at a nightclub in Queens, as revealed by her son to the Daily News.
The incident took place at Suit 36, a nightclub situated on 36th St. near 37th Ave. in Astoria. Josephine Estrella, aged 54, was attacked by a man and a woman at approximately 4:14 a.m. on October 19, according to police reports.
That night, Luis Jimenez, 33, was celebrating his wife’s 33rd birthday at the same venue. A dispute erupted between the wait staff and another group of around ten people, inadvertently involving Jimenez’s brother-in-law.
In the chaos that ensued, Estrella’s family rushed to defend their relative. Unfortunately, Estrella was assaulted, causing her to collapse and hit her head, as her son recounted.
“They turned on my brother-in-law, who doesn’t speak English,” Jimenez explained. “When they started attacking him, my family intervened to help.”
Jimenez described the moment he realized the gravity of the situation: “I was fighting with someone, and my brother-in-law suddenly exclaimed, ‘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).
