Beaten Girl's Survival a Coin Flip: Doctors
Josie Ratley is in a coma
Josie Ratley sleeps calmly in a medically induced coma, but doctors say her injuries tell just how brutal the attack on the 15-year-old girl was.
Her face is swollen and the internal bleeding inside her head was so severe, doctors had to remove a piece of her skull to relieve the pressure.
Now, it's touch and go.
"We have to wait and see how she's going to respond. It's very severe," Dr. Mayra Dominguez said at a press conference on Friday.
Dominguez was joined by several of Ratley relatives, who spoke for the first time since she was attacked at Deerfield Middle School by Wayne Treacy.
Doctors think it is a coin flip whether the girl lives or dies. The family still can't believe Ratley was the victim of school violence.
"We're all going through a traumatic time," said Linda Sarmiento, Josie's aunt. "We're still beside ourselves. She's not with us. She's battered. She's hooked up by machines. She cannot respond to us."
Ratley's mom was too distraught to speak to the media and did not show up to the press conference.
Dominguez said she has only seen injuries like the one's Ratley has suffered in serious car accidents.
Police said Ratley was punched, knocked to the ground and had her head repeatedly slammed on the concrete. Then, Treacy stomped on the girl with his steel-toe boots. It took a teacher to pull the high school student off the girl.
Police think the attack was sparked by text messages about Treacy's dead brother.
Prosecutors are discussing whether to charge Treacy with attempted murder. A 13-year-old classmate of Ratley's has been arrested as an accomplice in the attack.
Posted Friday, Mar 19, 2010 - 2:21 PM EST
