A California ER nurse faced one of a mother’s and daughter’s worst horrors this week
Memorial Medical Center emergency department nurse Amanda Howells this week faced one of a caregiver’s biggest terrors.
“As an emergency department staff member, one of our greatest fears is that our family would be brought in as a trauma or medical emergency,” wrote one of Howells’ colleagues in a GoFundMe post. “While at work on Tuesday 4/9/24, one of our coworkers/friend experienced such a tragedy.
“Amanda’s mother was brought in as a trauma from a motor vehicle accident while her one-year-old daughter who was also in the vehicle was taken to Doctors Medical Center, our other local trauma hospital. Both of them tragically lost their lives.”
Howells’ mother, Patricia Marie Lopez, was driving south on McHenry Avenue near Del Rio with her granddaughter Clara when a northbound car for unknown reasons drove into Lopez’s lane and hit her Toyota SUV head-on, according to the California Highway Patrol. The accident remains under investigation.
The car’s driver, 19-year-old Angeles Lisset Escoto, and her boyfriend, 22-year-old Francis Joe Catano, were pronounced dead at the scene. The CHP said the two were Merced residents.
Lopez, 60, was pronounced dead at Memorial, and Clara was pronounced dead at Doctors.
“She’s doing OK,” said Peggy La Rossa on Thursday about her niece, Amanda Howells. “She’s just really ... I think it’s still just a dream for everybody. She’s doing the funeral arrangements for her daughter.”
La Rossa said Clara would have turned 2 on July 12. “This was her first child,” La Rossa said about Howells, who is 36. “She waited so long for her.”
“Our hearts are incredibly heavy for our friend and coworker,” states the GoFundMe post. “Please help us support her and her family while they navigate this horrible tragedy and grieve the loss of Amanda’s wonderful mother, Patricia, and their precious baby, Clara.
“If you are unable to donate, we would appreciate you sharing this post and more than anything Amanda would love for people to know and remember how wonderful her mother and daughter were.”
La Rossa said that while her niece was working in the emergency department Tuesday, she was not part of the team that worked on her mother. La Rossa said her niece has been a nurse for six years, with all of her work in Memorial’s emergency department.
Lopez looked after Clara two or three times a week while Amanda Howells was at work. Lopez and her husband, Carlos, had lived in Turlock but moved to Linden in November to help care for La Rossa and Lopez’s 84-year-old mother.
Lopez was driving to Modesto on Tuesday afternoon to drop Clara off with her son-in-law, Michael Howells, when her Toyota SUV was hit by the oncoming car.
Lopez was retired after working for the state as an agriculture inspector. Her survivors include daughters Crystal Marshall of San Andreas and Amanda Howells and her husband, Michael, of Turlock, as well as Marshall’s three children.
“My mom tells you like it was even if you didn’t want to hear it,” Amanda Howells said. “But she cared for people. Case in point, she was watching Clara for us. Clara was always happy with her. ... My mom was my best friend, and Clara was my future best friend. She was just the happiest baby. She was just the best baby. Everyone who interacted with her loved her.”
