MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A 12-year-old girl shot in the head in August during a deadly attack on a Catholic church in Minneapolis was released from the hospital Thursday and greeted with cheers as the police chief paraded her through the city in a stretch limousine, according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
Sophia Forchas was the most seriously injured child among those who survived the Church of the Annunciation shooting. A gunman opened fire with a rifle through the windows of the church on August 27, striking some of the nearly 200 children celebrating Mass during the first week of school, killing two people and wounding 17. The children who died were 8 and 10 years old.
Forchas was rushed into surgery. Her neurosurgeon, Dr. Walt Galicich, said a bullet entered her brain and caused serious damage, including to a major blood vessel. Surgeons had to remove the left half of her skull to relieve pressure in her head. At a September 5 press conference, Galicich had described his concerns that Forchas could become “the third fatality in this event.”
He hugged her as she left Hennepin County Medical Center, the Star Tribune reported, as many others held and waved banners outside.
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara, who escorted Forchas around the city, described her return home as “nothing short of a miracle.”
She was greeted again with thunderous applause and lots of hugs as they pulled into her school's parking lot.
Her parents, Amy and Tom Forchas, said in a statement that they were overwhelmed with gratitude for the medical professionals who saved their daughter's life. They described her return home Thursday as “one of the most special days of our lives.”
Her healing journey will continue with outpatient therapy, and she still has a long road to recovery ahead of her, her parents said, adding that they were excited to witness the daily improvements in her speech, her ability to walk and “her personality emerging again.”
Another child who suffered a traumatic brain injury from the shooting, Lydia Kaiser, 12, was similarly celebrated when she returned to school last week, according to an online fundraising page started to support her family. Kaiser also underwent surgery to remove a bullet fragment and relieve pressure in her head.
