Photojournalist Pablo Grillo, who was severely injured after being shot in the head during a pensioner protest in March, was discharged from the intensive care unit of the Ramos Mejías Hospital after almost three months. He will now be transferred to Rocca Hospital to undergo rehab.

“He is very happy,” Fabián Grillo, Pablo’s father, told the press outside the hospital while waiting for his son to come out. “This was like birth labor. He was born again,” he said, visibly moved.

Fabián said the hospital’s director told him the news on Monday. “It was a bit surprising. To avoid creating false hope, we had told [Pablo] he would be getting out any time, but not precisely when. Today, we told him ‘get dressed, you’re leaving.’”

According to Fabián, his son can “walk slowly.” He is talking and has good memory as well as fine motricity skills. “He is very calm, not like himself, but he is still in therapy.”

He also thanked the hospital workers. “We must defend public hospitals to death. They save lives, and my son is proof of that. Hatred and chainsaws are the opposite of that,” he said, referring to the critical situation of the Garrahan children’s hospital and other public institutions.

Pablo Grillo will now undergo multi-disciplinary rehab, including kinesiology and psychological treatment. He will remain hospitalized but will be able to leave during weekends or special occasions. He will also have to return to the Ramos Mejías Hospital to get a prosthesis placed on his skull in a few months.

The injury

On March 12, Pablo was taking pictures during a pensioners protest when he was hit in the head by a tear gas canister fired by a military police officer. Evidence showed that the injury happened because the officer, who has been identified as Héctor Jesús Guerrero, did not follow protocol for the weapon, angling the gun to the front instead of upward.

The blow caused severe skull fracture and loss of brain matter. Grillo was hospitalized and underwent surgery. He emerged from a coma 8 days later and has begun writing, talking, moving, and even walking again.

He was initially scheduled to leave the ICU around two weeks ago, but it was postponed after doctors detected hydrocephaly caused by the blow — which means he had fluid inside his cranium. Doctors were able to stop the leakage and drain the water with a valve. In total, he was operated on six times.

According to his father, the protographer didn’t remember what had happened to him when he awoke. 

“He remembers where he was when it happened, but not what happened. He said it was like having ‘his TV turned off.’”

The investigation of the case is ongoing. The Grillo family is being represented by the Center for Legal and Social Studies (CELS, by its Spanish initials) and human rights lawyer Claudia Cesaroni, who have demanded the judiciary accuse Guerrero of attempted murder aggravated for authority abuse.