Sophia Forchas, the 12-year-old Annunciation Catholic Church and School shooting victim who doctors feared wouldn’t survive her brain injuries, was released from Gillette Children’s hospital in St. Paul on Thursday.
Sophia is the last of the 30 victims who were injured in the Aug. 27 shooting in Minneapolis to be released from the hospital.
Two children — 8-year-old Fletcher Merkel and 10-year-old Harper Moyski — were killed. On Sept. 5, Sophia’s neurosurgeon, Dr. Walt Galicich, said there was a chance that Sophia would be the third fatality in the shooting, which was committed by a 23-year-old former Annunciation student who died by suicide. Authorities haven’t publicly identified a motive.
Forty-eight days after the shooting, Sophia was seen walking to a limousine while wearing a blue sweatsuit and a backward baseball cap, hugging and greeting supporters, including Galicich. She was escorted from the hospital by Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara.
Sophia’s parents, Tom and Amy Forchas, said in a statement that Sophia’s road to recovery is still a long one but that Thursday marked “one of the most extraordinary” days of their lives.
“Our beloved daughter, Sophia, is coming home!!” they wrote. “We are overwhelmed with gratitude for the remarkable medical professionals whose skill, compassion, and unwavering dedication brought us to this moment.”
Sophia was shot in her brain’s left temporal lobe, and important blood vessels were damaged in the bullet’s path, Galicich said in September. He explained that part of Sophia’s skull was removed to help with swelling and pressure in the brain.
“I noticed her blue nail polish and her curly hair, and I opened her eyes, and she was bilaterally fixed and dilated, which means that her pressure in her brain was very high,” he said at the time. “And if you had told me at this juncture, 10 days later, that we’d be standing here with any ray of hope, I would have said it would take a miracle.”
Sophia was in critical condition for some two weeks before her condition improved on Sept. 11. Then on Sept. 23, her family said she was preparing to move from Hennepin County Medical Center to inpatient rehabilitation at Gillette Children’s, where she was released Thursday.
“Sophia’s healing journey continues with outpatient therapy and the road to full recovery remains long,” Sophia’s parents wrote Thursday after her release. “Yet, our hearts are filled with indescribable joy as we witness her speech improving daily, her personality shining through once more, and her ability to walk, swim, and even dribble a basketball. Each step she takes is a living testament to the boundless grace of God and the miraculous power of prayer.”
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