Woman, 86, dies of injuries from Panama earthquake
Panama's social security agency announced the death three weeks after the magnitude 7.7 quake. She had been hospitalized since Oct. 14.
Panama's social security agency, the Caja de Seguro Social (CSS), said Friday that an 86-year-old patient had died of the serious injuries she suffered in the Oct. 9 earthquake. She died at 10:45 a.m. at the Ciudad de la Salud, the agency's hospital complex in Ancón, where she had been admitted on Oct. 14.
The agency said she received specialized care from a multidisciplinary team and offered condolences to her family. It did not give her name or a medical cause of death.
It is the second death the CSS has linked to the quake in its statements. On Oct. 14, the agency confirmed that Elena Barría, 68, had died. She, too, was seriously hurt the day of the quake.
The early counts were different. When the Pan American Health Organization published its first situation report on Oct. 11, Panama's civil protection agency, Sinaproc, reported no deaths, 27 people with minor or moderate injuries and about 300 evacuated from Isla Cañas as the sea rose.
The U.S. Geological Survey measured the quake at magnitude 7.7, at a depth of 12.6 km (7.8 miles) and 12 km (7.5 miles) west-southwest of Pitaloza Arriba. It struck at 12:56 p.m. local time, and the USGS estimated a maximum Mercalli intensity near 8. The University of Panama's Geosciences Institute put the magnitude at 7.5.
