Girl shot in Minneapolis church returns home from the hospital

MINNEAPOLIS — A 12 year old girl who was wounded in the head during fatal attack at a Minneapolis Catholic church in August was released from the hospital Thursday and greeted with applause as the police chief drove her around the city in a stretch limousine, according to the report Minneapolis Star Tribune.

Sophia Forchas was the most seriously injured child among those survived the shooting V Church of the Annunciation. On Aug. 27, a gunman opened fire with a rifle through the church windows and wounded some of the nearly 200 children celebrating Mass during the first week of school, killing two and wounding 17 others. The dead children were 8 and 10 years old.

Forchas was rushed into surgery. Her neurosurgeon, Dr. Walt Galicic, said the bullet lodged in her brain, causing severe damage, including to a major blood vessel. Surgeons had to remove the left half of her skull to relieve pressure inside her head. At a press conference on September 5, Galicic expressed concern that Forchas could become “the third fatality in this case.”

He hugged her as she left the Hennepin County Medical Center while many others outside held signs and waved, the Star Tribune reported.

Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara, who escorted Forchas around the city, called her return home “nothing short of a miracle.”

She was again greeted 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 are overwhelmed with gratitude to the medical workers who saved their daughter's life. They described her return home on Thursday as “one of the most extraordinary days of our lives.”

Her path to healing will continue with outpatient therapy, and she still has a long road to recovery, her parents said, adding that they were pleased to see daily improvements in her speech, her ability to walk and “her personality shining again.”

Another child who suffered a traumatic brain injury in the shooting, 12-year-old Lydia Kaiser, was similarly honored when she returned to school last week, according to a post on an online fundraising page started to support her family. Kaiser also underwent surgery to remove a bullet fragment and relieve pressure in her head.