A San Diego family is trying to figure out what happened to their loved one after he sustained a head injury riding his e-scooter leaving him with lasting effects.
“On Oct. 17, he got home around 6 a.m. and his face was all bloody and he kept saying he didn’t know what happened to him and I kept asking him, but he kept saying he didn’t know,” Marlene Sanchez said.
Marlene is trying to solve the puzzle of what happened to her husband, Carlos Mercado. Marlene says all she knows is that the accident happened somewhere near the intersection of 40th and Landis St. in City Heights.
Marlene said her husband then shortly took a nap after refusing to go to the hospital.
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“When he woke up, I asked him, 'What happened to you?' And he said, 'I don’t know,' so I said, 'Did someone hit you?' And he started crying," Sanchez said. "So, I said 'You really don’t remember, do you?' He said 'No' and went back to sleep. I woke him up and asked him when we got married and he said 'Nov. 15' which is wrong because we got married on Sept. 5. Then I asked when our son was born, and he couldn’t tell me. So that’s when I realized something was wrong."
E-bikes and e-scooters in the news
Marlene then took Carlos to Scripps Mercy Hospital where he stayed for days after being diagnosed with a head injury. Marlene says he is still suffering from the effects of the accident.
"Nothing – he doesn’t remember anything from before the accident. He doesn’t remember anything from after the accident – he doesn’t remember how he fell – where he was going," Marlene said. "All he remembers is a few hours before the accident, he went downtown and he came back on the scooter."
According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, e-scooter and e-bike injuries increased nearly 22% in 2022. E-scooter and e-bike-related injuries have also been trending upwards since 2017, increasing an estimated 23% annually, the agency said.
Mercado is now at home recovering from his injuries. His family is asking anyone with any information related to the accident to come forward so they can find out more details about what happened to Mercado.
