The young girl who was shot in the Oct. 15 attack at Silver Rail Elementary but survived is continuing to recover, her family announced Monday. Meanwhile, a teaching assistant whose arms and hand were badly wounded from gunshots went into surgery to restore their function.
Seven-year-old Saylor Graham-Poarch was taken to St. Charles Medical Center and then Oregon Health & Science University Hospital in critical condition following the shooting. Her family said she’s now stable and has moved out of the intensive care unit.
“She has a long recovery ahead, and right now all we want is to be with her through it,” the family’s statement said.
Graham-Poarch lives with a gene mutation affecting her development and bodily functions. Two Go Fund Me websites had raised more than $1 million for Graham-Poarch as of Tuesday.
“Even as we’re grateful for Saylor’s progress, our hearts are broken for the families of the three children and the teacher who were killed,” the statement said. “We are holding them close, and we grieve with them.”
On Saturday, hundreds of people attended the memorial service for Megan Lambert, the 25-year-old teacher killed in the shooting in the special education classroom. Others killed include five-year-old Rhoam Summer and two other boys, ages eight and 11, who haven’t been named.
(Warning: Graphic detail to follow.)
Survivor Becky Drury, 54, went through a string of surgeries last week to restore connections between her arm and hand, which was nearly severed from a gunshot wound in the attack. As of press time on Tuesday, Drury was in a surgery aiming to “save Becky’s functioning in her left hand,” according to organizers of a Go Fund Me webpage.
In an earlier statement, Drury said she fell to the ground and played dead after being shot.
The online fundraiser had raised nearly $200,000 for Drury as of Tuesday.
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