RACINE — A 21-year-old Racine woman who was left in a coma following a house fire earlier this week has died, according to her family.
Watch: ‘She was a hero’: Racine woman left in coma after house fire dies
"She was a hero and did everything she could for her family,” said Sandra Aranda’s stepmother, Shekina. “She will be remembered just as that."
Sandra, who goes by Nana, was flown to Aurora St. Luke’s Medical Center in Milwaukee for treatment after the early morning fire in her family’s second-story apartment on Tuesday, Feb. 3.
According to Sandra’s family, the smoke inhalation was so severe it caused swelling in her brain.
"She's in a coma. She's been in one since the fire happened. She hasn't moved. She hasn't woken up or anything," said her 18-year-old sister, Giselle Aranda.
On Friday, her family reached out to TMJ4 to share that she had “passed away” and that they would be “pulling the plug. There is nothing they can do for her. She is brain dead.”
Along with the family’s devastating loss of Sandra, they also lost everything in the
fire. There is now a GoFundMe to help with housing, clothing and other immediate needs.
Meanwhile, the family told TMJ4 they believe the fire was electrical in nature. Racine Fire Department officials said Thursday the cause remains undetermined but appears to be accidental.
Her family held a memorial for her at their home on Saturday evening, where TMJ4 spoke to Sandra's father, Marco Morales.
Morales said it was Sandra who helped her siblings out of the house.
"She didn't think about nobody else but her family," Morales told TMJ4. "She stayed behind her family while they squeezed their head out that window right there."
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