A 12-year-old girl who was critically injured after being shot in the temple during the mass shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis this summer left the hospital Thursday following a recovery that her family described as “miraculous.”
Sophia Forchas, who spent 57 days in the hospital or rehabilitation after suffering what could have been a fatal wound, was greeted outside Hennepin Healthcare in St. Paul by dozens of supporters, including some of the doctors who treated her. She had earlier been released from Gillette Children’s Hospital, where she had been in rehabilitation.
Forchas was the most seriously injured of the survivors who were shot on Aug. 27 by gunman Robert “Robin” Westman, who identified as transgender and wrote about demonic oppression before he opened fire on children celebrating mass. The shooting killed Fletcher Merkel, 8, and Harper Moyski, 10, and left more than a dozen other students injured.
Forchas’ brother, who was also a student at the school, witnessed the attack but escaped unharmed.
“It’s only been two months or so since this terrible event,” Dr. Walt Galicich, a Hennepin Healthcare neurosurgeon who treated Forchas, told CBS News. “And to see her walking around wanting to go home and go back to school is pretty amazing.”
During a Sept. 5 press conference after the shooting, Galicich had warned that Forchas could become “the third fatality of this event,” but held out hope for her recovery. Images posted to Hennepin Healthcare’s Facebook page showed Galicich embracing Forchas as she left the hospital.
A video posted to social media by Democratic Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey showed Forchas being driven through Minneapolis in a white limousine, escorted by a police motorcade. “Welcome home, Sophia,” Frey wrote. “Minneapolis loves you.”
Forchas’ condition prompted an outpouring of prayer from Christians, and her family posted a statement of gratitude Thursday to a GoFundMe page for their daughter, which has raised nearly $1.2 million as of Friday. They attributed her recovery to divine intervention.
“Your prayers have been powerful,” the family said. “Sophia surviving this horrific attack is a miracle. Her healing progress is nothing short of miraculous; an undeniable testament to the mercy and intervention of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Each day we uncover new revelations of moments and circumstances that kept her alive and made her recovery possible. There are simply too many to be dismissed as coincidence. God has heard our prayers and wrapped Sophia in His healing embrace. It is by God’s will that she has come this far. We are eternally grateful to our loving Father, who hears and answers prayers,” they added.
https://www.christianpost.com/news/12-year-old-girl-shot-in-catholic-school-shooting-goes-home.html