Josie Lou Ratley appears to have awakened from her medically induced coma, according to a Facebook.com message posted by the girl's aunt early Tuesday.
"Josie was able to sit up in a chair today for about an hour," Yvonne Sanders wrote. "Still can't speak or swallow, and is having bad headaches. Very frustrated because she doesn't know what is happening to her. Progress is slow but steady. Keep up the prayers."
The message appeared on the Facebook page "Pray For Josie Lou Ratley."
Ratley, 15, has been in a coma at Broward General Medical Center since being beaten nearly to death by 15-year-old Wayne Treacy outside of Deerfield Beach Middle School on March 17. Hospital officials have not confirmed she is awake, but they have scheduled a press conference for Wednesday.
If the Facebook report is true, it would be the first bit of good news in an otherwise tragic story that still is hard to understand.
Treacy, who sits in a Broward juvenile detention center, attacked Ratley while she was at a bus stop after school allegedly over some text messages about his brother who died after committing suicide. Treacy stomped on Ratley's head with his steel-toe boots and repeatedly bashed her head onto the concrete sidewalk. It took a teacher to pull the boy off the girl.
Doctors had said Ratley suffered severe swelling in her brain and was battling pneumonia.
Treacy's parents were on the Today Show Monday to apologize for the violent attack.
Treacy could face attempted murder charges as an adult. Prosecutors have until next week to make that decision.
