Tina Frost, 27, of Maryland was injured in the deadly Las Vegas mass shooting incident and has been in a coma ever since. However, she has finally come around and has responded to relatives with a “thumbs up” and has also taken her first steps since the October 1 attack by Stephen Paddock at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas. Paddock shot and killed 58 people and injured at least 500 before turning the gun on himself.
Mandalay Bay shooting victim comes round from coma
According to relatives, Frost has come around from the coma following the deadly mass shooting. On Friday Frost managed to take three steps, aided by nurses, to a chair in her hospital room and a further three steps back to her bed. In a statement on a GoFundMe fundraising page, her mother, Mary Watson Moreland, said Tina can open her left eye a little and look at them. She added that Frost also taps her feet when music is playing in her room.
Injury suffered during Las Vegas shooting massacre
During Paddock’s deadly attack on the Route 91 Harvest Festival from his hotel suite, Frost received a single bullet to her forehead, losing her right eye and going into a coma.
She is one of around 45 victims who are still in four hospitals in Las Vegas following the shooting, but she is starting to recover and can now breath without a ventilator.
Outpouring of support for Las Vegas shooting victim
As reported by the Las Vegas Review-Journal, there has been an outpouring of support for Frost, with one Florida medical supply company planning to donate the skull implants required for Frost’s forehead to be reconstructed. That report also said some of the hospitals in the Las Vegas area have promised to waive all medical costs of victims injured in the mass shooting.
The newspaper also quoted Moreland as saying Frost will have pieces of Paddock’s bullet in her brain for the rest of her life.
Dr. Keith Blum, the surgeon who worked on Frost, said he had carefully removed as many of the fragments and shrapnel from the bullet as he could but was forced to remove her badly injured right eye.
At the time of writing, the GoFundMe page set up for Frost has already raised $539,847, way over the initial goal of $50,000, donated by 9,223 generous people. Her mother wrote on the page that Frost’s doctors are talking about the next step in Frost’s recovery and are discussing hospitals with the necessary specialists to aid in her road to recovery.