Girl, 12, May Always Be Paralyzed After Being Shot In Neck
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- A 12-year-old girl may be paralyzed for life after being shot in the neck Friday night.
The shooting happened Friday night at East 34th Street and Chicago Avenue South in south Minneapolis. Guadalupe Galeno-Hernandez was walking with her brother and their cousins to their aunt's home.
The girl's brother said just as the group knocked on the front door, a car pulled up in front of the home. Someone stuck their gun out the window and fired one shot, which hit Guadalupe Galeno-Hernandez.
The bullet hit her spinal cord. She was bleeding from her mouth.
Neighbor Maria Bernal was getting ready to go to work when Minneapolis police and paramedics showed up at the scene.
"I just saw the people take her out and put her inside the ambulance," recalled Bernal.
"That's her baby. She's little. That's her baby," said a translator on behalf of the girl's mother, Hilda Galeno-Hernandez.
She spoke about the tremendous pain she feels in seeing her daughter with tubes in her throat and suffering terribly after being shot.
"Her daughter didn't do anything to those criminals," said Hilda Galeno-Hernandez.
Guadalupe Galeno-Hernandez was taken to Hennepin County Medical Center's Pediatric Intensive Care unit and doctors operated on her.
"It stayed on the spinal cord, so they were not able to take it out," said Hilda Galeno-Hernandez about the operation Saturday.
Knowing her daughter may never walk again is the toughest news for her to take. Even if Guadalupe Galeno-Hernandez regains the ability to walk, it's no guarantee she'll be able to dance again.
"She's caring. She always cares about others. She always likes doing things for others," said Hilda Galeno-Hernandez.
She is praying her daughter pulls through and hopes her prayers will be powerful enough to change the painful prognosis from doctors.
Guadalupe Galeno-Hernandez is in critical condition Saturday night.
