WASHINGTON — Maryland native Tina Frost has lost her eye and is fighting to survive after being wounded in the mass shooting in Las Vegas. But she would not have made it without the help of her boyfriend and friends, doctors told her family.
Her mother, Mary Watson Moreland told CBS Nightly News that Frost remains in intensive care and is showing improvement after being shot in the face Sunday night while attending a concert in Las Vegas.
“The bullet went in through her right eye, but there was no brain swelling which was very good,” Watson Moreland said.
Doctors were forced to remove her eye and told her family she could have some level of brain damage as the bullet passed through two quadrants of her brain, according to family spokesperson Amy Klinger who works with Watson Moreland.
Frost, an accountant working for Ernst & Young in San Diego, was the only one in the group of nine friends wounded in the mass shooting Sunday. Doctors told her family her boyfriend, Austin Hughes, and another friend saved her life by getting her to the hospital quickly.
“Austin and another friend carried her 300 yards from where she was hit to where they found a pickup truck that had enough room to squeeze her onto it,” Klinger said describing how Frost reached the hospital.
Her family continues to update her condition for supporters on a GoFundMe page and on Facebook. The latest post suggests Frost is agitated with her nurses and doctors, pushing them away and trying to sit up, which Klinger said her family is taking as a positive sign.
“When the nurses switch her bedding and have to move her, or do a ‘suction’ from the tube in her mouth which is uncomfortable, Tina puts up a good amount of resistance showing us she’s still in there and she’s fighting,” her mother posted.
Frost is surrounded by her two sisters, and her parents and Hughes’ family, Klinger said. Frost’s mother is trying to remain positive, playing her music and keeping spirits up to encourage her healing.
“She’s trying to be strong. She says she’s strong when she’s in the room and when she’s with Tina but when she’s away from it, it all kind of hits her. But she has a great support system,” Klinger said of her friend Mary Watson Moreland.
Back at home in Crofton, Maryland, Frost’s friends, family and Arundel High school teachers are supporting her by contributing to a Go Fund Me account to fund her care. Donations have far surpassed the $50,000 goal, and tripled in one day.
