The Queens single mom clinging to life after being savagely beaten and robbed of her e-bike on Randalls Island was left unconscious on the ground for nearly six hours before she was discovered by a passerby the next morning, the Daily News has learned.
Diana Agudelo was biking home from her job as a janitor at an East Harlem museum, taking her usual short cut through Randalls Island to get to her Astoria apartment, when she was attacked about 11:30 p.m. Friday.
One or more assailants struck her multiple times in the head and face before apparently stealing her e-bike and belongings.
A passerby didn’t spot her unconscious near the bike path until about 5:15 a.m. the next day as the sky began to lighten on the sparsely populated island, which is home to sports fields and institutions including shelters, a psychiatric hospital and an FDNY training facility.
Agudelo made it through surgery Wednesday to relieve pressure on her brain but only has a 1% chance of ultimately surviving, her heartbroken daughter told the Daily News Thursday.
“The doctor said there’s a 99% chance mortality rate with her injuries,” said Stephanie Rodas, 21. “We still have faith. I know she’s fighting and there are times where she applied pressure on my hands when I held her hands.”
“This morning they performed a CT scan on her brain,” she added. “They said it looks the same and a little better with the blood/swelling being stable.”
Agudelo’s 22-year-old son fell asleep Friday night before his mom was expected home from her job at the Museum of the City of New York. Rodas wasn’t home that night but had FaceTimed with her mom hours earlier.
After Agudelo was finally discovered by a passerby near a bike path by E. 125th St. and Rivers Edge Road, medics rushed her to Elmhurst Hospital, where she remains in critical condition in a medically induced coma.
Meanwhile, when Agudelo didn’t show up back at work Saturday morning her worried colleagues called her phone, a source told the News. A stranger answered the phone and agreed to meet up with Agudelo’s coworkers to give it to them. The stranger is believed to have stumbled upon the phone after the attack.
Worried coworkers went to the victim’s apartment in Astoria after receiving her phone.
“She just never made it home and we didn’t know anything until the next morning when someone turned in my mom’s phone,” Rodas explained. “That’s when her coworkers knew something was wrong and they came to my house and they were knocking on the door for my brother to come out.”
Along with her e-bike being apparently stolen, Rodas said her mother’s jacket, backpack with her wallet inside and glasses were all missing after the beatdown. One of her black Skechers sneakers was found in a trash can near the scene, cops told the family.
Since Saturday, Rodas and her older brother have been at their mother’s hospital bedside around the clock.
“She was so swollen you couldn’t even recognize her. I didn’t even recognize my own mother when I saw her,” Rodas said Wednesday. “Her eye was black, pitch-black. When you opened her eye, it was bloodshot red. She couldn’t even move. She couldn’t talk. She was on life support. She was a bloody mess.”
If Agudelo survives, she will lose all or most of her ability to move the right side of her body and will be blind in the top of her right eye, doctors have told the family. She may also have memory issues, the extent of which is uncertain.
Agudelo’s coworkers have created a GoFundMe that has quickly raised more than $19,000 for her continued medical care.
“The whole museum is shaken,“ one of Agudelo‘s coworkers, who asked that their name not be used, told the Daily News. “Diane is a good worker and a wonderful person.”
“We couldn’t believe it when we heard,“ the coworker added. “We have to leave here at late hours when there are (special) events. It’s not safe.“
The attack occurred in a dead zone on the island where there are no surveillance cameras and no arrests have been made.
Anyone with information is asked to call NYPD Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS. All calls will be kept confidential.
With Thomas Tracy
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