Las Vegas Shooting: Crofton Native In Coma, 'She's Fighting'

CROFTON, MD — Crofton native and 2008 Arundel High School graduate Tina Frost is in a coma with a severe head wound after she was shot at a weekend concert in Las Vegas in the nation's worst mass shooting. But her family says she shows signs of spirit as she is looked after in an intensive care unit. Frost was shot in the right eye, which doctors removed in surgery.

Gunman Stephen Paddock, 64, of Mesquite, Nevada, massacred 59 concert-goers and left another 500-plus injured under the glitz of the Las Vegas Strip Sunday on the third night of the Route 91 Harvest Music Festival, as country music star Jason Aldean performed. Paddock had taken up a perch 32 floors above the festival in the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino.

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The Victims Of The Las Vegas Shooting

Just after 10 p.m. local time Sunday, from his room high above in which he had arsenal of weapons, Paddock began rapidly firing on the crowd below. Despite the large death toll and hundreds of wounded, authorities say police reacted quickly. Paddock shot himself to death as officers blew open his hotel room door.

Frost's family has flown to Las Vegas to be with her, Arundel high posted on its Facebook page. By Wednesday night, a GoFundMe page set up to help the family with expenses had raised more than $298,000.

Frost's former coaches told the media that Frost and her family exemplify school spirit and its soccer program.

"Tina represented everything it means to be a Wildcat student athlete. She was a leader in the building, she had a passion for her sport, she had a passion for her fellow student athletes, and we're just all really thinking of the entire family and praying for the best," said Arundel athletic director Kevin Necessary.

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Frost is an accountant who works for Ernst & Young in San Diego. Doctors say her boyfriend, Austin Hughes, and another friend saved her life by getting her to the hospital quickly, CBS News reports. Hughes and another friend carried Frost 300 yards to a pickup truck that drove her to the hospital, a family friend said.

The GoFundMe page creator shared a message from Frost's mother, Mary Watson Moreland, on her daughter's condition. In addition to removing her right eye, where the bullet was lodged, surgeons removed a bone from her forehead to allow the brain room to swell. It will remain that way for the next few months. Because she cannot breathe on her own, Frost is on a ventilator. She's critically stable in ICU, where she'll stay for at least a week.

Late Tuesday, Watson Moreland updated supporters:

“When the nurses switch her bedding and have to move her, or do a 'suction' from the tube in her mouth, which is uncomfortable, Tina puts up a good amount of resistance showing us she's still in there and she's fighting!"

Doctors have told the family it is very common for head trauma patients to have a recovery that ebbs and flows, she wrote, so they may see improvement one day, then none the next.

"Once again, we are overwhelmed and grateful for the outpour of love and support we have received,” Watson Moreland said.

The fundraiser is aimed at covering all expenses such as traveling, food, hotels, missed work, and caring for Frost, friends said.

Arundel High School is also collecting money for the family, according to the school's Facebook page. Frost played on the soccer team while at Arundel and was on the All-County team in 2007.

The school will be collecting money for the family to cover their needs. Supporters should contact Mrs. Davenport with any questions.

Photo of Mary Watson Moreland and her daughter, Tina Frost, courtesy of GoFundMe