FORT PIERCE, Fla. — What could have been the end of 8-year-old Lilah Williams-Sjosten’s life tragically turned out to be a moving story of determination.
In March, Williams-Sjosten was on her way to SeaWorld when a drive-by shooting happened near Avenue O and Northwest 12th Street in Fort Pierce. She was shot in the face.
She says that she didn’t see the bullet coming and didn’t feel it hit her.
“It’s true that you said it didn’t hurt. “She’s a tough little girl,” said Lilah’s mom, Synthia Williams.
Lilah told CBS12 News, “It didn’t even hurt at all.” “I was resting my eyes, then I fell asleep, and then it just happened. I didn’t hear it or see it, no.”
When Synthia got the call no mom ever wants to get, she was at home in Palm Beach Gardens.
“I got a phone call from a cop saying that she had been shot,” she said. “It was like my worst fear had come true like it wasn’t real. It was just very frightening.
I didn’t know what to think, like if she was okay or not, and I didn’t know where she was going. I was scared because she was an hour away from me.
Lilah had surgery at Saint Mary’s Medical Center.
Dr. Jason Portnof was the oral surgeon who did the three surgeries to fix Lilah’s jaw. He talked about how he did the operations.
“Reconstructed jaw, based on the uninjured side so that we mirrored the uninjured side to the injured side,” he said, holding up a 3D model of Lilah’s jaw as an example.
After such random terror and a few weeks of surgeries and healing, Lilah and her family have escaped the worst possible thing that could have happened.
“She can chew, move, talk, sing, and do anything else she wants to do,” Portnoy said.
“Cartwheels!” Lilah spoke up.
“She can do cartwheels again without any trouble, so I think we did a good job,” the doctor said.
About six months from now, the screws in her jaw will be taken out.
Synthia said, “Her personality hasn’t changed, so she’s strong-minded and everything turned out great.”
