The Missouri teenager whose head was brutally bashed into the pavement in a widely circulated after-school beatdown is showing " signs of significant cognitive impairment" and is repeating herself after emerging from a coma. Kaylee Gain, 16, appears to be aware that she is in the hospital but lacks understanding of why she is there.
Moreover, she has no recollection of the brawl with another teenage girl, a lawyer representing her family said in a recent update on Monday. Although the teenager can walk, with help and is gradually improving, her speech is still limited, according to her attorney Bryan Kaemmerer. She is out of danger but not fully recovered.
Forgot Everything
According to the lawyer representing her family, Kaylee has managed to engage in "limited verbal conversations" and has taken a few short walks with the help of hospital staff.
"Kaylee's ability to walk has slightly improved but she is still unable to do so without the assistance of hospital staff," Kaemmerer said in the update.
"However, Kaylee is still showing signs of significant cognitive impairment during the limited conversations that she is able to have, and she tends to reiterate the same short sentences over and over."
Gain sustained a skull fracture and brain bleed as a result of the attack on March 8, during which an unidentified 15-year-old girl held her down and repeatedly slammed her head onto the concrete, which occurred near Hazelwood East High School in Spanish Lake.
Kaylee's parents have strongly criticized their daughter's alleged attacker, who is currently in custody, and are demanding that she be tried as an adult.
Initially, Kaylee's parents took aim at social media posts they believed were authored by DeClue. These posts referenced WWE and seemed to trivialize the situation.
However, Kaemmerer was forced to retract the claims made in his prior statement, admitting: "It appears that the social media posts that were made from an account bearing the name of the accused do not appear to be legitimate in light of additional details that have surfaced about the timing of the accused's arrest, the accused's lack of access to her phone after she was taken into custody, and metadata showing precisely when these posts were first published."
Kaylee's Parents Still Furious
However, despite any signs of remorse shown by Kaylee's alleged assailant, her relatives still want her to be tried as an adult.
Meanwhile, the family of the unnamed girl said that she had been "harassed and bullied" before the caught-on-camera brawl and claimed that she was acting in self-defense.
The family launched a Change.org petition, urging Chief Juvenile Officer Rick Gaines of the 21st Circuit Court to show "compassion" and refrain from charging the honor roll student as an adult.
"Prior to an incident on March 8th where she was seen defending herself from harassment and bullying, she had never been in trouble," it read. "Her work as a scholar was tainted by the bullying she had to endure at school."
