up, and started to talk to her family. in the icu, erica was feisty, and combative. her neurosurgeon, dr. moriarty, said that was a positive sign. her brain was rebooting. did you pray a lot? yes. judith was the most religious and the family. one week after surgery, her prayers, and unshakable faith, were answered. erica s condition was upgraded, from critical, to fair. she looked bad, but i never dwelled on her not making it. now, the family needs to turn its focus to the one who did not make it. erica s mom. on may 25th, 2006, one week after she was gunned down, earon harper family, gathered for the eulogy. the man who led the eulogy was the only one who raised her to
part of the bullet, and broken bone. the surgeons lifesaving mission was to clean the fragments from america s hand, repair the wounds and preserve bring function if possible. erica actually was lucky in one way. the angle of the bullet wasn t straight through the brain, but downward, exiting under her chin. what a blessing as opposed to the bullet going through and damaging the skull and everything. and doctor moriarty, was it relieved that the bullet only struck the frontal lobe, which can absorb injury better, especially, in the very young. less than three years, old the brain s ability to repair is very remarkable. after a delicate three and a half hour surgery, doctor moriarty, encouraged by the bullet and the bone fragment of the prop image were gone. but despite the repair, brain injuries are unpredictable. and doctor moriarty urged
taking all in, sergeant sergeant moriarty, promise that he would give his patient a clean bill of health. no brain damage whatsoever she s wonderful. she s perfect. she is this little flower that has grown. he left there with the good brain. and that s very important. smart cookie. yeah. she s going to needed throughout life. when you look at erica, do you see any of your mom and america? yes. while parts? main thing, i see is our mouth. is that right? yeah, erica s loud, she has that raspy voice. she s like my. mom wears your mom now? up in heaven. do you think about her a lot? what kind of things do you think about? her about her coming down. what happens when she comes down? shall still be my mom. so it s a constant reminder that she is still with you?
his arms and legs around the man and braces himself. pat yelled for them to pull, and i ll tell you what. it was the quickest ever i thought i would to go up an embankment, but it must have been the adrenaline on top because we slid out of there in a matter of seconds. and minutes later, sergeant moriarty is pulled to safety too. it s a chaotic scene, but now both on solid ground, the two men who just risked their lives to save another search for each other in the crowd. we shook hands, and we it was just an understanding that only people that do this can understand the feeling of gratitude and pride in the job we had just done. it was like, i can t believe we just did that. every time i see pat, i get that little smile and that feeling inside, and i think back to that day and i know he ll be a friend for life.