Edmonton man brain-injured in Caribbean bar attack back home but missing skull piece

An Edmonton teen is back on Canadian soil after being seriously injured in the Dominican Republic.

EDMONTON — An Edmonton man who suffered a traumatic brain injury in a bar room attack at a Caribbean island resort has returned to Canada, but without part of his skull, his mother says.

Cindy Rowan said she flew home from the Dominican Republic on Sunday with her comatose son, Chase Delorme-Rowan, only to learn that a section of his skull removed in surgery was not with him.

“I was like, ‘What?’” she said Tuesday from her Edmonton home. “I assumed they put it back in because they closed up his skull. I didn’t even think that it wasn’t there at all.”

She said doctors at the University of Alberta Hospital told her they might have to 3D print the missing section of the skull. Dominican doctors removed it to allow Delorme-Rowan’s swollen brain room to recover. She thinks it has been thrown out.

Rowan said the family also learned Delorme-Rowan caught pneumonia in the Caribbean, which doctors there hadn’t told her.

“They kept saying his lungs were healthy, and they’re not,” she said.

Delorme-Rowan was at a resort bar in Punta Cana with his family two weeks ago to celebrate his 18th birthday when he was lifted by the collar of his shirt and slammed headfirst onto a tile floor at a resort bar.

It cracked his skull from top to bottom, and a blood clot the size of a grapefruit displaced his brain. A Canadian man who was also a guest at the resort has been charged with assault causing bodily harm.

Rowan said her son is in isolation and still under sedation, but doctors are slowly weaning him off of it. He’s expected to have his breathing tube moved from his mouth to his neck by week’s end.

Rowan said doctors who flew with them over the weekend told her the Dominican Republic is “one of the worst” when it comes to health care. She said her son was also in the care of a private hospital.

“That’s where they send all tourists — to this hospital so they can make more money,” she said, adding that the bill now totals roughly US$113,000.

The Edmonton mother says she expects most of the bill to be paid for by insurance. To cover the balance, she’s crowdfunded C$55,000 through a GoFundMe campaign. Her travel agent will also submit receipts to Rowan’s travel company for reimbursement.

Rowan said it’s been a rough two weeks for her family, especially her other kids.

‘They blame themselves, but we told them, ‘It has nothing to do with you guys,’" she said. “Now it’s time to heal and move forward.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 28, 2025.

Aaron Sousa, The Canadian Press