A four-year-old girl shot in the Christchurch terror attacks has awoken from a coma and she cannot see anyone or recognize her parents, Global News reported.
“My daughter Alen woke up five days ago, and she’s had a lot of surgeries,” her father Waseeim Daraghmih said in a video uploaded to Facebook, 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.”
Alen Daraghmih suffered brain damage after she and her father were shot at the Al Noor mosque on March 15.
Alen “woke up and she doesn’t know us, and she cannot see us and she cannot hear us at all,” the injured father said.
A picture from Auckland’s Starship Hospital came online on Friday showing recovering Alen surrounded by family.
Her critical injuries include brain damage – but it could be up to six months before doctors can determine what this will mean for Alen in the long term.
A Givealittle page has been set up for the family as Daraghmih is hospital-bound, recovering from gunshot wounds to his hip.
The page has raised more than $46,000 since it was set up by a friend of Daraghmih’s on April 11.
Despite suffering brain damage, the Givealittle page states that Alen is making daily progress, but cannot currently speak or see people.
“She has begun to say the odd word and recognizes her mother’s voice,” he said.
The father himself is recovering from gunshot wounds in his hip area. He cannot walk currently but expects to walk again when fully recovered.
“It’s going to be a long time for me to walk, but eventually I will walk,” he said.
“I’m up here in Auckland, thanking everybody, the doctors in the hospital, everybody, and of course our prime minister … for all the help and support you have provided for me and for my family and for keeping my family here for support.
“I love you all guys and respect you all guys, thank you very much.”
50 Muslim worshippers were killed in March 15 attacks targeting Al Noor and Linwood mosques in Christchurch.
The terrorist attack shook New Zealand and prompted the government to tighten gun laws and launch a powerful national inquiry into the Pacific country’s worst peacetime massacre.
The suspect in the shootings has been charged with 50 counts of murder and 39 counts of attempted murder.