Ariel Salaices was playing with her older brother on a slide when a stray bullet hit her
A Tennessee toddler is fighting for her life after being struck by a stray bullet while playing in her own backyard.
On March 15, 2-year-old Ariel Salaices was playing with her older brother on a slide when someone fired a gun nearby. The little girl was hit with a stray bullet from a wooded area near their home. The bullet became lodged in her head.
According to a GoFundMe page by Ariel’s aunt, Stephanie Brown (the page is no longer active after meeting its goal), Ariel collapsed and her brother ran to get their father. She was rushed to a nearby medical center before being transferred to Knoxville Children’s Hospital.
Brown writes that a CT scan “showed that a piece of the bullet hit the right back side of her head, fractured and … severed an artery, causing extensive damage.”
“She ended up having a stroke,” Brown writes. “She has no function or blood flow to the trauma area.”
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Still, there are hopeful signs. “She kept trying to wake herself up,” Brown writes. “Her pupils were dilating and she was responding to pain and touch; which is a good thing.”
The family now posts regular updates on the Facebook page ‘Updates for Ariel’. Though the child has not yet regained consciousness, her family sees signs that she may be improving.
“She’s moving around a little, coughing, getting kinda aggravated,” the family wrote on Sunday, “and she has started to breathe over the ventilator a little bit, which is amazing. Again, we won’t know the extent of what this affected until she fully wakes up.”
Ariel’s parents are staying at the Ronald McDonald House near the hospital, while her two older brothers are with relatives.
Police are searching the area to identify the person who fired the bullet. They are urging anyone with information about the shooting to contact the Johnson County Sheriff’s Department at tips@johnsoncountysd.org.
While the investigation is ongoing, the family hopes Ariel will make a full recovery.
“Ariel is a very spunky little girl,” Brown tells ABC News. “She’s sassy and she’s full of life. She’s definitely not one who wants to sit still.”