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Mother of teen who fell from Hotel Colorado balcony still unsure how it happened

Randy Essex | Glenwood Springs Post Independent

Lilly Lawrence Benallou and daughter, Amber, snapped this photo after they arrived in Glenwood Springs on Monday.

The mother of the teen who was gravely injured in a fall last week from a balcony at the Hotel Colorado doesn’t know how the incident occurred, she said by Facebook message.

“I still don’t know how it happened,” wrote Lily Lawrence Benallou, whose 16-year-old daughter Amber underwent a six-hour surgery Monday in Denver, the girl’s sixth surgery since the incident.

The Montrose residents had taken Amtrak’s California Zephyr to Glenwood Springs on Oct. 9 and were staying at the historic hotel for a leaf peeping getaway.

“We were having an awesome time, right up to within a moment of it happening,” Benallou said in her message to the Post Independent.

Meanwhile, friends of the Benallous have created a fundraising site to assist with her medical bills.

Amber Benallou has defied doctors’ expectations since the fall. Suffering serious internal injuries and broken bones from head to toe, her mother was told it was unlikely the girl would live 24 hours.

After four surgeries, she regained consciousness Saturday and, according to a post by her mother on the Montrose Message Board Facebook group, appeared at times to be responsive to doctors.

She then had to have a tooth removed from a lung on Sunday and had developed an infection caused by pneumonia. Earlier this week she had a lengthy surgery to rebuild her crushed sacrum, according to a Facebook post by Benallou on the Montrose Message Board group page. Benallou said additional surgeries on Thursday, Oct. 19 would focus on reconstructing both of her daughters’ ankles.

The girl remains in critical condition.


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