On Sunday, October 1, Las Vegas witnessed the deadliest shooting in United States history, which resulted in fifty-eight deaths and over five hundred injuries. The gunman fired rounds into a crowd of over thirty thousand over a period of ten minutes. He stockpiled twenty-three weapons in his Mandalay Bay hotel room, as well as fifty pounds of explosives and over one thousand rounds of ammunition in his vehicle. At this point in time, over four hundred of those injured have safely returned home. However, forty-five individuals remain hospitalized, many with near-fatal injuries. One of these victims is Maryland native Tina Frost. Frost, a twenty-seven year old accountant residing in San Diego, was at the Route 91 country music festival with her boyfriend when she was struck by a bullet in her right eye. Frost was rushed to the hospital, where surgeons removed her right eye and a forehead bone in order for the brain to have room to swell. In  a coma and unable to breathe on her own, doctors and family alike were skeptical of Frost’s chances of survival. “Unfortunately, some people may not ever recover,” neurosurgeon Keith Blum told CNN after the shooting. Despite the odds, Frost continues to make improvements, with updates provided by her family via a GoFundMe page. On October 7, Frost’s kidneys and liver began to properly function again.

     Three days later, Frost “kicked her legs back and forth when asked, stopped when asked, and then kicked again when asked,” according to an update from the family. The next day, Frost was able to squeeze her hand and move her toes, at her nurse’s commands. An update on October 13 provided monumental improvements: Frost breathed on her own for six hours, and walked for the first time since being shot: “3 steps to the chair and 3 steps back to the bed.” Two days later, Frost was transported to Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore to continue her recovery. As more details from the shooting have been made clear, the family has credited a man simply known as “Shane” with saving Frost’s life. According to Frost’s mother, Mary Moreland, the stranger assisted Frost’s boyfriend with carrying her to a pickup truck, pressing his shirt onto her wound. Once at the hospital, Shane loaded Frost into a wheelchair before she was rushed into surgery. The GoFundMe set up to assist Frost’s family with paying for her care, with an original goal of fifty-thousand dollars, has raised over half a million dollars in the past two weeks and continues to increase. At a time of widespread uncertainty among Americans, a little bit of hope is welcome.