{"id":147312,"date":"2026-05-20T00:15:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T00:15:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/2026\/05\/20\/girl-dies-due-to-head-injury-in-school-death-is-considered-natural\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T00:16:56","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T00:16:56","slug":"girl-dies-due-to-head-injury-in-school-death-is-considered-natural","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/2026\/05\/20\/girl-dies-due-to-head-injury-in-school-death-is-considered-natural\/","title":{"rendered":"Girl dies due to head injury in school. death is considered natural"},"content":{"rendered":"

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An update from the LA County Medical Examiner raises new questions about the sudden death of 12-year-old Khimberly Zavaleta Chuquipa. <\/p>\n

According to her family, Khimberly was a healthy student at Reseda Charter High when she was hit in the head with a metal water bottle during a fight with bullies on campus on Feb. 17. A few days later, he was taken to the hospital for emergency brain surgery, placed in a medically induced coma, and died. <\/p>\n

In April, the Los Angeles Police Department arrested a teenage suspect on suspicion of murder in connection with Khimberly’s death. Khimberly’s family has filed a lawsuit against the Los Angeles Unified School District, alleging that their daughter was repeatedly harassed on campus and that staff failed to take bullying reports seriously. <\/p>\n

However, on Tuesday LA County Medical Examiner ruled<\/a> That Khimberly’s death was not a murder but the result of natural causes. The medical examiner cited “spontaneous bursting” of blood vessels in the brain as the cause of an underlying medical condition.<\/p>\n

Khimberly had cerebral arteriovenous malformation<\/a>According to ME, it is a rare condition present at birth where the arteries in the brain stick together tightly, making them more prone to rupture. <\/p>\n

\u201cArteriovenous malformations (AVMs) are an assemblage of fragile, tangled, high-pressure blood vessels that are prone to spontaneously rupturing, especially when located in an area of \u200b\u200bthe brain as was discovered in Khimberly,\u201d Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Ode Ukpo said in a statement. \u201cCatastrophic bleeding due to rupture develops rapidly \u2013 \u200b\u200bwithin seconds to minutes \u2013 and is immediately life-threatening.\u201d<\/p>\n

The news release said Khimberly was allegedly hit in the back of the head four days before he was hospitalized, but did not cite any connection between that incident and the subsequent brain hemorrhage.<\/p>\n

The family’s attorney, Robert Glassman, said the medical examiner’s determination “ignores the undisputed reality” of what happened to Khimberly. <\/p>\n

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A medical examiner’s report cites an underlying medical condition in the death of Khimberly Zavaleta Chuquipa.<\/p>\n

(Photo courtesy of Guy David Ghazzi)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n

\u201cPrior to this incident, Khimberly was a healthy, vibrant 12-year-old girl with no symptoms, no medical distress, and no indication that her AVM was in any danger to her life,\u201d Glassman said. Panish Shia Ravipudi LLP<\/a>. \u201cThen at school he was hit on the head with an aluminum water bottle, complained of severe headache and within days suffered a massive hemorrhage in the brain that took his life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Glassman said the medical examiner’s update does not affect the civil case, which is about the district’s inaction to protect a child in crisis. <\/p>\n

“If Khimberly had an underlying condition that made him more vulnerable to injury,” he said, “it does not excuse the conduct that led to his death.”<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the Los Angeles Unified School District did not comment directly on the medical examiner’s update Tuesday, but said the district is deeply saddened by Khimberly’s death and “our thoughts and condolences are with the student’s family, friends, and the entire school community.” The district does not comment on pending litigation, the spokeswoman said. <\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the Los Angeles Police Department said there were no updates on the investigation into Khimberly’s death. <\/p>\n

A similar controversy unfolded in 2024, when 16-year-old LAUSD student Shaylee Mejia suffered a fatal brain hemorrhage days after a fight on campus. <\/p>\n

Her mother believed the death was the result of bullying at Manual Arts High School in South LA and also blamed school administrators for failing to respond to prior reports of campus harassment. <\/p>\n

A video of the fight, which took place on March 5, 2024, shows Shale hitting his head on a bathroom stall. However, a final autopsy report determined that there was no connection between the fight and the brain hemorrhage that occurred afterward, instead citing injuries Shelley suffered after falling down some stairs a few days after the fight. <\/p>\n

The cause of Shailey’s death was ruled an accident and the Los Angeles Police Department closed its investigation of the incident.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An update from the LA County Medical Examiner raises new questions about the sudden death of 12-year-old Khimberly Zavaleta Chuquipa. According to her family, Khimberly was a healthy student at Reseda Charter High when she was hit in the head with a metal water bottle during a fight with bullies on campus on Feb. 17.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":147316,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[672,1726,1499,1051,2749,5059,1397,1560],"class_list":["post-147312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bible-verse","tag-considered","tag-death","tag-dies","tag-due","tag-girl","tag-injury","tag-natural","tag-school"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147312"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147312\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":147317,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147312\/revisions\/147317"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}