Half a year in comatose and robbery victim Antonia Marina Santelices can leave The Medical City but the family of the Ateneo de Manila University graduate is saddled by P1.8 million in hospital payables, excluding doctors? fees and medicine costs.

Her father, Larry Santelices, 56, told Standard Today in an interview that they are in a bind, piling up bills after she came out of a five-month comatose when she was shot in the head by a holdup man on her 23rd birthday on Aug. 26.

?Now is the time that Tara needs all the friends that she can have,? he said, adding that the family was thankful to kindhearted souls who have extended assistance to them.

She was on a jeepney bound for home along Imelda Avenue in Cainta, Rizal, when a suspect declared a holdup and was shot when she held on to her bag containing personal belongings.

Medical City doctors?neurologist Louie Racelis and pulmonologist Lisa Garcia?have given Tara the thumbs up for her discharge.

?We still have to buy medical equipment she will need at home,? the elder Santelices said, noting that the respirator has been removed but food intake was still by tube. ?She can now breathe alone but sometimes with the help of oxygen. She is unable to communicate.? Gigi Mu?oz David