The Missouri teen who slipped into a coma after her head was mercilessly bashed into the pavement in a twisted after-school brawl has slowly begun the road to recovery — but has no recollection of the beating.
Kaylee Gain, 16, has “been able to engage in limited verbal conversations” in the week since she was moved out of the intensive care unit, her family announced Friday.
“Kaylee also recently began speech therapy, and has gone on a few short walks with the assistance of hospital staff as she is still unable to ambulate on her own,” attorney Bryan Kaemmerer, a spokesperson for Gains, said in a statement.
“However, Kaylee does not have any recollection of the altercation that led to her hospitalization.”
The small steps mark significant strides for the teenager, whose family initially thought she would never recover from the fight that led to brain bleeding and a skull fracture.
Chilling footage of the March 8 attack showed an unidentified girl pin Gains down before repeatedly striking her head on the concrete just blocks from Hazelwood East High School in Spanish Lake.
The 15-year-old bully was taken into custody and charged with assault.
The Gains family on Friday also accused the perpetrator of sharing a series of social media posts boasting about the violent attack — including jokes that the beatdown would qualify her to “join MMA or WWE.”
The alleged posts have since been taken down, they said.
“Given that Kaylee began visibly convulsing within seconds after the attack, the serious nature of Kaylee’s injuries should have been immediately apparent to the accused,” Kaemmerer said, adding that the posts indicate a “complete disregard for the well-being of a fellow human being and serves as further proof that the accused is an ongoing threat to the community.”
Gain’s family — as well as Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey — have been pushing for the unnamed girl to be tried as an adult for the vicious crime.
The girl’s family defended the honor roll student, who they claimed had been “harassed and bullied” before the beatdown — a detail the Gains family said points as further proof that she knew the severity of her actions.
“If anything, the accused’s reported level of intelligence suggest that she was fully capable of understanding that violence of this nature would lead to the devastating injuries that Kaylee has sustained, and therefore provides a further reason why it is appropriate for her to be tried as an adult,” Kaemmerer said.
The full scope of the attack and the motive are still unclear.
Gain and another student were suspended the day prior for another altercation that did not result in any injuries, according to her family, who suggested the violent assault could have been in retaliation.
