Green Country Family Struggles To Bring Home Teen Who Died In Mexico

A Green Country family is working to bring 17-year-old Gianna Nuckolls home to Sapulpa after she died in Mexico.

The family said the process to get Gianna medical care was a nightmare, and it's gotten worse as they try to get her body released from a Mexican Funeral Home.

Family members of Gianna Nuckolls say the hardest part is knowing she was getting on the bus to go home when she had a medical emergency, and if this incident had happened in the United States, Gianna might still be alive.

Gianna was spending the summer in Mexico and was about to go home to Sapulpa when she got sick. 

“She was at the bus stop, her mom was on the first step, and she said come on baby and she said I can't, I can't, I can't move my leg," said Gianna's cousin Sabina Correa.

Shannon Ramsey is Gianna's aunt and says doctors in Mexico told Gianna's mother she had a brain aneurysm and Gianna needed surgery.

Then a Mexican doctor told Gianna's mom she needed to pay upfront and get approval from Mexican police before they operated. But once her mother had everything ready, the hospital said it was not equipped to perform the surgery and Gianna needed to go to another hospital.

“During the whole process of her having to run back and forth multiple times, having multiple different papers signed and stamped, they said then at that point, she went into cardiac arrest and had two strokes," Ramsey said.

All of that was too much for Gianna's body and she died. 

Now her family is working to get Gianna's body home to be laid to rest. 

“We want to give her a proper burial, she deserves that,” said Ramsey. 

So, they can figure out how exactly Gianna died. They want an autopsy here in the U.S. because they aren't satisfied with Mexican officials. Gianna's family said an investigation here would bring them peace. 

“We're confused because one says that she had a brain aneurysm, and then the medical examiner who did do the autopsy said that she had a heart attack, so there is no clarification of what really happened to her,” said Ramsey. 

Gianna's family says they are waiting on funding to pay the Mexican Funeral home to release Gianna's body, then find an American funeral home to bring her body from Mexico.

You can help bring Gianna home HERE.