Nurse Mom Was Working in ICU When Her Critically Wounded Daughter Arrived After Minneapolis School Shooting

NEED TO KNOW

• Two children were killed, an 8-year-old and a 10-year-old in the shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis on Wednesday, Aug. 27

• Eighteen people were injured, the majority of them children

• Sophia Forchas, 12, is among the 15 children who were injured

The mother of a 12-year-old girl who was injured in a shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church in South Minneapolis on Wednesday morning, was working in the intensive care unit of the hospital where her daughter was rushed, according to a GoFundMe campaign.

According to the fundraiser and an official at her parish, Sophia Forchas is among the 18 people who were injured at the church where an attacker, identified by authorities as Robin Westman, 23, opened fire through the windows of the church during morning Mass on Aug. 27, killing an 8-year-old and a 10-year-old.

Fifteen of the people who were injured are children. All are expected to survive, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said. Three parishioners in their 80s were also wounded. Westman was armed with a rifle, a shotgun and a pistol, police said.

The church has a school for children in pre-kindergarten through eighth grade that Sophia and her younger brother attended, according to the GoFundMe campaign, which also says Sophia was shot during the attack and was critically injured.

The fundraiser says Sophia’s mother is a pediatric critical care nurse and had arrived to work “before knowing it was her children’s school that was attacked, and that her daughter was critically injured.”

Sophia underwent emergency surgery, according to the GoFundMe, and is recovering in the ICU.

“Her road ahead will be long, uncertain, and incredibly difficult — but she is strong, and she is not alone,” the campaign says.

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Sophia’s brother was also inside the school during the shooting, the fundraiser says.

“Though he was physically unharmed, the trauma of witnessing such a terrifying event — and knowing his sister was critically injured — is something no child should ever experience,” it says.

Father Timothy Sas of St. Mary’s Greek Orthodox Church in Minneapolis confirmed Sophia, a seventh grader, had been treated at Hennepin County Medical Center in a statement posted to the church’s Facebook page on Wednesday. He said he had spent “a good portion of the day” at the hospital with Sophia and her family.

“Sophia was born and raised in our St. Mary’s parish, immersed in the life of the Church together with her extended family of several generations who are devoted members of our congregation,” Sas wrote in the statement.

Hennepin Healthcare said in response to an inquiry that Sophia’s mother is an employee in the pediatric intensive care unit where the girl is in critical condition. The campaign lists Sophia’s father, Thomas Forchas, as a co-organizer. He did not immediately return a request for an interview. The husband of the organizer of the GoFundMe campaign declined to comment when reached by PEOPLE on Thursday and said Sophia’s parents also did not wish to speak publicly.

The GoFundMe has raised more than $200,000 as of early Thursday afternoon. The fundraiser says the money will go toward Sophia’s medical care and recovery, as well as trauma counseling for her and her brother, along with other expenses.

Read the original article on People