Family members have congregated at the hospital where Marlen Ochoa-Lopez's baby boy is on life support after being rushed there in late April.
The father of the victim said that the boy appears to be progressing.
Family members, including Ochoa-Lopez's grandparents, who recently traveled from Mexico on humanitarian visas, have been singing hymns to the boy and speaking with him.
The positive energy is helping, the boy's grandfather said.
“We want him to know we love him," Ochoa said. "That positivity is helping him. He is a miracle of God.”
The hospital hasn't officially commented on the boy's condition, but relatives said doctors informed them he does not have brain activity and can't breathe without life support.
Even as family members held out hope for a miracle recovery, they criticized the hospital, which admitted the baby despite an exam of Clarisa Figueroa, the older woman accused of killing Ochoa-Lopez, showing she had not given birth.
The hospital alerted detectives two weeks after the birth, only after Chicago police detectives went there and inquired about what happened.
“Everyone in our family is hurt," said Raquel Uriostegui, Ochoa-Lopez's mother. "We think the hospital made a lot of mistakes. The hospital didn’t do anything. They didn’t investigate. I don’t know. All of that needs to be cleared up. My daughter needs justice. We have questions that haven’t been answered, but God will give us justice. My daughter deserves it.”
In court on May 17, Assistant State’s Attorney James Murphy told Cook County Judge Susana Ortiz that Ochoa was being shown a photo album of the late son of the older woman when she was suddenly set upon by the elder Figueroa.
Ochoa managed to get her fingers under the cord around her neck before Clarisa Figueroa, yelled at her daughter, “You’re not doing your [expletive] job!” according to Murphy.
That’s when Desiree Figueroa, 24, pried Ochoa-Lopez’s fingers from the cord while her mother continued to strangle the teen.
After hearing the testimony, Ortiz denied bond to the Figueroas, who are charged with murder, saying she felt “the presumption is great” that they committed a “heinous and brutal murder” and that they pose “a real and present” danger to the community. They were charged with first-degree murder and aggravated battery to a child under 13 resulting in a permanent disability.