Student wounded in school shooting says she’s recovering

PARKLAND, Fla. — A tearful student who was wounded in the shooting rampage at a Florida high school thanked the doctors and first responders who helped her and said Monday that she is making a full recovery.

Speaking at a hospital news conference, Maddy Wilford, 17, said “it’s times like these when I know that we need to stick together.”

Wilford has undergone three surgeries since the Feb. 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, that killed 17 people. She appeared at the news conference with her parents and with doctors and first responders who helped her.

“She’s very lucky, very, very lucky” said Igor Nichiporenko, M.D., medical director of trauma services at Broward Health North, adding that the large caliber bullets “penetrated through her chest and abdomen.”

Flanked by her mother and father, Wilford said “I’m just glad that I’m making a full recovery and everything is going smoothly.”

The news conference came a day after a line of students and their parents wrapped around the school, several thousand people entering the campus for the first time since a gunman took 17 lives nearly two weeks ago.

READ MORE: Students resolute as they re-enter school shooting site