Twenty days after Sally Strelecki was shot in the head after a bullet tore through her apartment wall, she's awake, alert and communicating with those around her, said Nick Osano, Strelecki's fiancé.
Doctors at Littleton Hospital began weaning the 27-year-old off a medication that causes a medically induced coma about 10 days ago and she since has begun to regain some of her motor skills and even talk.
"It's absolutely amazing and nothing short of incredible," Osano said.
Strelecki was shot in the back of the skull on the morning of Oct. 2 at her apartment in eastern Centennial.
At the time, Strelecki was at the kitchen counter with her pets' food bowls in hand. Osano was on the couch when he heard the gunshot. Then he saw his fiancée on the ground in a pool of blood.
"He looked over and before he could say, 'What is that?' she fell," Amy Graham, Strelecki's mother, previously told The Denver Gazette.
Graham declined to comment to The Denver Gazette on Friday.
Strelecki was admitted to Littleton Hospital following the shooting and was placed on life support. Earlier this week, The Denver Gazette reported Strelecki was being removed from life support, however, that decision was halted.
Currently, Strelecki remains on partial life-support, but since awakening from a medically induced coma has regained the ability to move and squeeze her hands, shake and kick her legs, communicate through American Sign Language and even talk.
She's even started physical therapy with the assistance of two of her nurses, Osano said.
"When I was leaving she pointed to the door, waved goodbye and gave me the sign for I love you," Osano said. "(It's) something we used to throw up at each other any time we'd leave for work in the morning (and) she remembered all on her own and did it as a response."
On Friday, Strelecki even asked to see the couple's dog, Niyah.
Although the road to recovery is just beginning, Osano said his fianceé can handle anything thrown at her.
"To know she's fighting as hard as she has to come back to us is nothing short of a miracle," Osano said. "She's got a light and fire that I've never see in another person and nothing and nobody can extinguish that except for herself."
Your Privacy Choice