Victim in police-involved crash declared brain dead

MIAMI (WSVN) -- The victim in a police-involved car crash is reportedly brain dead. She is expected to be taken off life support Tuesday.

Twenty-one-year-old Andrea Castillo was transported to Jackson Memorial Hospital late Friday night after the sport utility vehicle she was in collided with a car driven by an on-duty Hialeah Police Officer.

Castillo and the person inside the SUV with her, as well as the officer, were all injured in the accident.

Now, the accident is being carefully looked at because the officer was airlifted to the hospital while Castillo and the other passenger were transported by ground. The Castillo family is reportedly extremely upset by this.

Castillo was the daughter of newly elected Miami-Dade School Board member Susie Castillo. Jorge Silva, the family's attorney, said, the loss of her daughter will make her job all the more difficult, as her daughter had been studying to follow in her mother's and grandmother's footsteps. "She is in this plight to help students to help the education system. Her daughter, Andrea, who was studying to become an educator just like her mother, Susie's mother. This is just absolutely devastating."

According to the Castillo family's attorney, though her heart still beats, Castillo is brain dead. "She passed away, and she has been declared irreversibly brain dead," said Silva, as family members behind him broke down in tears at a press conference. "She is still on life support until they harvest the organs that have been donated by the family."

The Castillo family's attorney said he is waiting to conduct his own investigation to see whether or not they will pursue the case against the Hialeah Police Department. "They don't know why it is that someone who was visibly far less injured than their daughter," said Silva, "was airlifted while their daughter that was unquestionably, critically injured was not airlifted to Ryder Trauma."

With no hope for her child surviving, Andrea's mother asked for prayers. "I just need people's prayers for her," said Susie Castillo. "For God to keep her, and to take care of her."

Hialeah Police will not comment on the incident. The officer involved in the accident remains in the hospital with a fractured leg. He also suffered head injuries in the crash.

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