A four-year-old victim of the Christchurch mosque shootings has awoken from a coma, and she can’t see anyone — though she can recognize her mother’s voice.
Alen Daraghmih suffered brain damage after she and her father Waseeim Alsati were shot at the Al Noor mosque on March 15, Stuff reported.
In a video uploaded to Facebook on Wednesday, Alsati appeared emotional as he lay on a bed, describing the long journey his daughter has ahead of her.
“My daughter Alen woke up five days ago, and she’s had a lot of surgeries,” he said, adding that there were as many as eight operations.
“She has brain damage at the moment, and the doctors have been telling us they need four to six months to know how bad the damage is.”
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Daraghmih “woke up and she doesn’t know us, and she cannot see us and she cannot hear us at all,” he said.
She is making progress, according to a fundraising page on Givealittle.
That page said she can’t see people or speak, though she has started to “say the odd word” and she “recognizes her mother’s voice.”
READ MORE: New Zealand’s inquiry into mosque shootings will look at social media, spy agencies and guns
Daraghmih is being treated at the Starship Hospital in Auckland — across the street from Auckland City Hospital, where Alsati is recovering.
Shot three times during the Christchurch incident, Alsati can’t currently walk but he expects he’ll do so again.
“On Monday they took half a bullet from my tummy, it was about a big nail size. They did that surgery while I was awake,” he told Stuff.
“I am really tired [and] I’m crying all the time. My wife, she’s really been strong. She’s got her power from our family here.”
In his video, Alsati thanked people for their support, and asked them to keep praying.
“I cannot wait until we all feel better and come back home to Christchurch,” he said.
The Givealittle page, which is aimed at helping the Alsati family’s financial stability, has raised nearly NZ$15,000 (C$13,400).
The suspect in the shootings has been charged with 50 counts of murder and 39 counts of attempted murder.
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