Just hours before daughter Josie Lou Ratley was scheduled to undergo yet another brain surgery, the mother of the Deerfield Beach teen beating victim said she's staying positive that her daughter will get back to normal.
Hilda Gotay Ratley, mother of 15-year-old Josie, appeared on the "Today Show" Monday morning, accompanied by a new video that shows her daughter awake and moving.
"It was fantastic, it just took my breath away when she was able to actually look at me and took her left hand to reach me to hug me," Hilda Ratley said, talking about the moment Josie awoke from her medically induced coma last week. "It was a great, great feeling."
The brain surgery, scheduled for later Monday, is just the latest for the teen who has been in the intensive care unit of Broward General Medical Center since the brutal March 17 attack that nearly killed her.
Doctors said last week that Josie Ratley had suffered extensive and traumatic injury to her brain, and that they have no idea how much she'll improve long term.
"They say she's a good candidate, that it's going to take a long haul," Hilda Ratley said. "Little by little, we don't really know what she's going to be capable of yet.
"It's all been positive thinking."
Hilda Ratley said Josie still can't walk or speak and she's been crying a lot in the hospital and may not remember the attack.
"She's confused and she does not know why she's there, that's why the crying comes in," Hilda Gotay said. "She has a lot of headaches, too."
On Friday, 15-year-old Wayne Treacy, accused of beating Josie Ratley, appeared in court where he was charged with attempted murder as an adult.
Treacy, who had spent the days since the attack at a juvenile detention center was transferred to a Broward County jail.
Treacy is accused of attacking Ratley at a bus stop outside of Deerfield Beach Middle School, slamming her head on a concrete sidewalk and repeatedly stomping and kicking her while wearing steel-toed boots. He became enraged, police said, after Ratley sent him a text message.
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Ratley's friend, 13-year-old Kayla Manson, was charged as an accomplice in the attack, but she will be tried as a juvenile. She allegedly pointed Ratley out to Treacy, who had never met the girl before.
Ratley attorney Rick Freedman, who also appeared on "Today" Monday morning, said he agrees with the prosecutors' decision to charge Treacy as an adult.
"So far, I think they've made the right decisions in terms of charging," Freedman said. "We're sure that they're gonna make the right decisions and ultimately that Wayne Treacy gets what he deserves."
Hilda Ratley said she's focused on her daughter's recovery.
"It's in God's hands, and so far, so good," she said.
