SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — 11-year-old Addy Kriech of Sioux Falls is at home and doing much better after a shooting last month left her with life-threatening injuries.
“She was just literally blowing us away with how great she’s doing,” Addy’s mom Sara Kriech said.
“Glad to be home,” Addy said.
You can say that again.
“Just to have her here … she’s so sassy and so much spunk and just to see her herself again, and it was great,” Sara Kriech said. “The best gift.”
But a short time ago, Addy wasn’t doing nearly as well. According to court papers, a 10-year-old boy shot her last month. Addy’s mom Sara Kriech says she had no idea that the boy had a gun when he was with her daughter. Addy was rushed to the hospital. Roughly four hours of surgery came and went but didn’t bring good news.
“For them to not have any kind of reassurance or, ‘She’s going to be okay,’ or any optimism, you could just see it on their faces,” Sara Kriech said. “They couldn’t promise anything, ’cause they were so scared. Just seeing all those medical professionals so scared and not being able to say it’s going to be okay, it was just the scariest thing I’ve ever had to go through.”
The shooting left her daughter, a French horn player who likes horses, with life-threatening injuries.
“They had to take part of her liver,” Sara Kriech said. “It went through her stomach, her dominant arm and then out through her other side, going through her lung, diaphragm as well.”
But after more than three weeks in the ICU and multiple surgeries, Addy is now finally home.
“She’s just doing phenomenal,” Sara Kriech said.
And Monday, exactly one month after the shooting and one day after a special holiday, Addy knows how she’s been able to be so strong.
Dan Santella: Where you do get your bravery, do you think?
“My mom, probably,” Addy Kriech said.
Addy still has a long road ahead of her which includes physical therapy and likely counseling. There is a family-verified GoFundMe account dedicated to Addy and her family to help with medical expenses; you can find it here.
