Phxt SOPHIA STRONG — Just eight weeks ago, 12-year-old Sophia Forchas lay fighting for her life after a bullet tore through her head during the horrifying Minneapolis church shooting. ,”
Sophia Forchas left the hospital surrounded by a cheering crowd, marking a miraculous recovery after surviving the Annunciation Catholic Church shooting.
MINNEAPOLIS — A crowd gathered to see Sophia Forchas leave the hospital on Thursday. They were clapping and cheering for the 12-year-old who doctors weren’t sure would survive.
Forchas was one of the students attending a back-to-school Mass at Annunciation Catholic Church, right next to her school. On Aug. 27, a 23-year-old opened fire and shot more than 20 people. Two children, Harper Moyski and Fletcher Merkel, were killed.
Nine days after the shooting, Forchas’ doctor told media she had been shot in the head and the bullet at the time was still lodged in her brain. The left half of her skull was removed to give her brain the room it needed to swell.
In a statement on Sept. 22, her family called her healing progress “nothing short of miraculous.”
“Sophia is strong, brave, and unwavering in her fight toward healing. We ask that you continue to pray for her as she walks this road to recovery,” her family said.
Forchas was recovering at Gillette Children’s Hospital in St. Paul, but on Thursday, she visited HCMC to thank the staff for the critical care she received in the aftermath of the shooting. She was immediately embraced by the doctors and nurses who cared for her as people held a banner that read “Sophia Strong” and another that said “Happy Birthday.”
