A Missouri teenager who suffered a serious brain injury in a widely seen fight outside a St. Louis high school earlier this month has recovered enough to leave the hospital’s ICU, but has limited speech and trouble walking on her own, a lawyer representing her family confirmed.
Kaylee Gain, a 16-year-old student at Hazelwood East High School, has been hospitalized since March 8 with a fractured skull that resulted in brain bleeding and swelling after she was thrown to the ground and had her head repeatedly bashed against the concrete by a fellow student during the brawl. The fight was recorded and shared on social media.
As can be seen in the video, other teens continued fighting around Gain as she laid limp in the street before EMTs could arrive on the scene.
She remained unconscious up until last week, attorney Bryan M. Kaemmerer said in a statement shared with the Daily News.
On Friday, Kaemmerer revealed Gain is awake and now “able to engage in limited verbal conversations.”
“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,” he said, adding that the teen has no recollection of the fight that landed her in the hospital.
Gain’s alleged assailant, 15-year-old Maurnice DeClue, was arrested in connection to the brutal beating. Gain’s parents are pushing for her to be tried as an adult.
“The family believes trying the accused as an adult is the most appropriate way to provide the justice that Kaylee deserves,” Kaemmerer said in his Friday statement.
The DeClue family shared a statement of their own on Thursday with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, “to address the misconceptions surrounding Maurnice’s character,” they wrote. They described the 15-year-old as “diligent and helpful,” adding she’s an honor roll student, speaks multiple languages, plays volleyball and the violin, and comes from a family of doctors, lawyers and NAACP officials.
Kaemmerer also confirmed reports on Friday that Gain had been involved in a fight with a different teenager the day before, and that both girls had been suspended following the incident. It’s unclear if the March 8 brawl was connected to the earlier fight.
Two different GoFundMe accounts have been set up to help cover the cost of Gain’s recovery. As of Saturday evening, they’ve received more than $445,000 in donations toward her medical bills.
