Little Girl Shot In The Face In Tasmania Wakes Up From Coma

Fragments remain lodged in brain, heart


Article heading image for Little Girl Shot In The Face In Tasmania Wakes Up From Coma

An 11-year-old girl shot in the face after an argument outside a Tasmanian supermarket has woken from her coma.

Phoenix Newitt had emergency surgery to remove shrapnel from her head and neck after the shooting in Deloraine, near Launceston, on Tuesday night.

Her mother Sarah Newitt has told the ABC she woke up at Royal Children's Hospital on Sunday morning.

"(I'm) completely overwhelmed, I don't know how to express how happy and emotional and excited I am that my little girl's finally awake," she said.

"I thought she was dead -- I didn't want to believe it in myself but that's all I could say: 'she's dead'.

"I knew she'd been shot and I seriously thought I'd lost my little girl."

Ms Newitt said fragments of the bullet remain lodged in her daughter's brain and heart.

"We're just dealing with the brain side of things at the moment and we'll look at that in time to come," she said, adding Phoenix appears to have full movement in her upper body.

"She may be deaf in the right side but that's only minor to what could have been.

"She's got seven stitches and that's it."

Nathan Richard Campbell, 25, is in police custody, accused of causing grievous bodily harm and recklessly discharging a firearm.

It is alleged Campbell fired at the car in which Phoenix, her mother, uncle and four-year-old cousin were sitting, from about 50 metres away.

He is expected to enter a plea to the charges on Thursday.

Police say Campbell's girlfriend got into a fight with Ms Hewitt at a nearby Woolworths an hour before the alleged shooting.

Ms Newitt said Phoenix recognised her nan and pop when she woke up.

"It's overwhelming that Phoenix is still Phoenix because that is the main thing that I was scared of," she said.

4 September 2017




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