A girl who suffered a brain injury while protecting a younger student during the mass shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church said she is “doing ok” and enjoying being back at school.
Lydia Kaiser, 12, was one of the 30 people injured in the Annunciation Catholic Church and School shooting in August. In an update posted on her family’s GoFundMe page on Thursday, she said she gets “tired more than usual” but no longer has headaches.
“Sometimes I think I’m going to wake up from a dream even though I know what happened is real,” Lydia said. “It’s so hard to believe I actually got shot, and other kids did too. It makes me angry, but I don’t want to let the shooter win.”
Lydia had two surgeries after the shooting: one to remove a bullet fragment and another to alleviate swelling and pressure on her brain. She was the last of the seven children who were injured in the shooting to be discharged from Children’s Minnesota.
This school year is Lydia’s last at Annunciation. She said the school was “like my home and my family.” Lydia still cannot play sports, but she said she is enjoying cheering her friends on and running the scoreboard.
“I’m going to do everything I can to enjoy my 8th grade year,” she said.
In her update, Lydia said she was sad for the family of Harper Moyski, 10, and Fletcher Merkel, 8, who were killed in the shooting.
Lydia’s family has raised more than $423,000 to help pay for her medical expenses and ongoing care. Lydia’s father, Harry Kaiser, is the school’s gym teacher and was there when a shooter fired a spray of bullets into the church.
