12-year-old girl on the road to MIRACLE recovery after Minneapolis Catholic school massacre: report

A 12-year-old girl who was critically injured in last month’s deadly shooting at the Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis has shown remarkable progress, with doctors upgrading her condition from critical to serious—a development her medical team is calling a “miracle.”

Now, Sophia is opening her eyes, moving her right leg, and showing awareness of her surroundings, according to her care team.

Sophia Forchas was shot in the head during the September attack at Annunciation Catholic School’s church, where 23-year-old trans killer Robert "Robin" Westman opened fire on children attending Mass. It was the first school Mass of the year.

The shooter killed two students and wounded 17 before turning the gun on himself.

Forchas was among the most severely injured, struck in the temporal lobe and suffering extensive brain damage, Daily Mail reports. She spent 15 days in the intensive care unit at Hennepin Healthcare Trauma Center, with doctors initially fearing she might not survive. Surgeons removed part of her skull to relieve swelling, but left the bullet lodged in her brain, explaining its removal would not improve her recovery chances.

Last week, neurosurgeon Dr. Walt Galicich described her prognosis as uncertain. “I’m going to be blunt, Sophia is still in critical condition in the intensive care unit. There’s a chance that she’s maybe the third fatality of this event,” he said.

“But the door has been opened a little bit and there’s some rays of hope shining through," he said at the time.

Her father, Tom Forchas, praised the doctors, nurses, and community support. “Sophia is kind. She is brilliant. She is full of life. She is an innocent child who was attacked while in prayer,” he said, adding that prayers for her recovery have poured in from around the world.