The Missouri teenager who fell into a coma after her head was mercilessly slammed into the pavement during a twisted after-school brawl has slowly begun the road to recovery – but has no memory of the beating.
Kaylee Gain, 16, was “able to engage in limited verbal conversations” in the week after she was removed from the intensive care unit, her family said Friday.
“Kaylee also recently started speech therapy and has taken a few short walks with the help of hospital staff because she is still unable to get around on her own,” lawyer Bryan Kaemmerer, a spokesperson for Gains, said. in a press release.
“However, Kaylee has no memory of the altercation that led to her hospitalization.”
These small steps mark significant progress for the teenager, whose family initially thought she would never recover from the fight that led to a brain hemorrhage and skull fracture.
Chilling footage from the March 8 attack showed an unidentified girl pinning Gains down before repeatedly hitting her head on the concrete a few blocks from Hazelwood East High School in Spanish Lake.
The 15-year-old bully was taken into custody and charged with assault.
The Gains family on Friday also accused the attacker of sharing a series of social media posts touting the violent attack – including jokes that the beating would qualify her to “join MMA or WWE” .
The alleged messages have since been deleted, they said.
“Given that Kaylee visibly began convulsing within seconds of the attack, the severity of Kaylee’s injuries should have been immediately apparent to the defendant,” Kaemmerer said, adding that the messages indicate a “complete disregard for the well-being of another human being. being and serves as further evidence that the defendant poses a continuing threat to the community.
Gain’s family — along with Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey — have pushed for the unnamed girl to be tried as an adult for this heinous crime.
The girl’s family defended the honor roll student, who they said had been “harassed and intimidated” before the beating – a detail the Gains family cited as further evidence that she knew the seriousness of his actions.
“To the contrary, the defendant’s reported level of intelligence suggests that she was fully capable of understanding that violence of this nature would result in the devastating injuries that Kaylee suffered, and therefore provides further reason why it is appropriate for it to be judged as such. an adult,” Kaemmerer said.
The scale of the attack and its motive still remain unclear.
Gain and another student were suspended the day before for another altercation that resulted in no injuries, according to his family, who suggested the violent attack may have been in retaliation.
New York Post
