Happy Esquivias-Dos Santos, the mother of singer-actress Tippy Dos Santos, has died in a vehicular accident while on vacation in Seoul, South Korea with her husband, their family confirmed on December 31.
In an Instagram post, their family shared that Happy suffered injuries from the accident and fought for her life but "in the end, the Lord decided to bring [her] home."
"Happy was bright and full of energy, she knew how to light up every room she was in. Happy was caring and generous, she would provide you with any assistance you needed from her — no questions asked," the post read. "Happy was so loving and she devoted much of her energy to making sure people she loved knew and felt her love."
"We will never forget the love and happiness that she brought into our lives, and we know that she has touched many others the same way. Please continue to keep all the wonderful memories she shared with each one of you in your hearts."
Tippy, for her part, thanked their family and friends for reaching out to them during this time.
"There are really no words to express the devastation and heartbreak the loss of my mom has caused us. Please bear with us as we try to figure our how to live without mama physically in our lives," she wrote in her caption.
A nightmare
In an interview with another media outlet, Tippy detailed the devastating incident that took the life of her mother in what supposed-to-be a fun vacation with her husband.
Last December 26, her parents Happy and John arrived in Incheon, South Korea around 4 in the morning. It was past 5 AM when they started traveling to their hotel when their vehicle got hit by a construction vehicle.
Tippy said she immediately received a phone call from her dad, telling her that they got into an acident.
"They were just waiting for an ambulance and I remember he told me that he was not sure that my mom was breathing. And to tell our family members what’s going on," she said.
She went on taking the earliest flight and arrived in South Korea around 7 PM together with her aunt, her mom’s sister, and her aunt’s husband.
Tippy said she was able to see her mom in the ICU, who, according to the doctors, suffered from brain edema, describing it as "everything was just so swollen (in her head)." Her dad, meanwhile, suffered five to six fractured ribs and minor abdominal injury/trauma, while her mom suffered rib bleeding, fractures and a head injury.
"She was unconscious and 'yung katawan niya, you can see that it was badly injured but what was most heartbreaking the first time I saw her was how she’s not responsive and her tongue was just out and she was on a ventilator. That was just the most heartbreaking thing to see and the doctors told us that she had a respiratory arrest and that’s why she was unable to breath for a time, that’s why she was in a coma," Tippy recalled.
On December 29, the doctors told the family that Happy needs to be sedated again because of the continued swelling. However, the day after, they received a call from the doctors saying that her mom's pulse have gone down and that she stopped breathing for nine seconds.
"They told us that there was really no hope for her because after that they had taken a scan and there was no brain stem activity. And that there was no hope. That she was not gonna recover from the injury. And that’s when they asked us to prepare and to really just wait," Tippy said.
For the singer-actress, what happened to her mom was just simply unfair.
"My mom was full of life and none of us are ready to lose my mom. Not just our family you know, my dad was married to my mom for almost 37 years, my sister just had a baby. I just moved to a house near her house, and not just her immediate family but so many people love my mom. So many people know how great of a person she is, she is so much light, joy and happiness," she said.
"She is an incredible wife, mother and friend, and a sister and she loved everyone around her, everyone she met. She deserved better. She deserved better than to be in a coma and to possibly die that way. How I wish we had just more time para makapagpasalamat at makapagsabi na mahal namin siya."
Tippy's mom passed away at exactly 11:47 AM of December 30 due to traumatic brain injury.
Their family are currently working on the documents needed to bring her remains home.
