Mayah Zamora was one of the 17 children injured during the deadly school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, in May. On July 29 — 66 days after the 10-year-old was first hospitalized — Mayah finally got to go home. She was the last patient injured in the shooting to be discharged from a hospital.
Mayah was first taken to University Hospital in San Antonio on May 24 in critical condition. She had to undergo “numerous surgeries,” according to the GoFundMe put together by her family, who had to stay in San Antonio (which is an hour and a half outside Uvalde) during her treatment.
“Mayah has a very long road to recovery, and we’re going to be with her the entire way. This long road includes numerous surgeries Mayah had undergone, future surgeries she may require, future hospital and doctor’s visits, mental health/trauma treatment, amongst many other things,” the family wrote.
Her brother, Ruben Zamora, also had been keeping everyone updated on his sister’s progress on social media. On July 2, he explained that Mayah was undergoing up to 3+ hours of physical therapy a day, and at the time he was not sure when his sister would be discharged from the hospital. “But I’ll tell you what she is strong, she is determined, she is stubborn, she is hard headed — and on top of all that.. she wants to get out of that hospital,” Ruben said on Facebook.
Then, on Friday, Mayah walked out of the hospital. University Hospital shared the exciting news on Twitter with a video of Mayah giving flowers to her nurses and other caretakers as she exits the hospital.
“Today was a happy day at University Hospital! Our final patient from the Uvalde shooting, 10 year-old Mayah Zamora, was discharged! …She is our hero and we can’t wait to see all she accomplishes in the future! #MayahStrong,” the caption reads.
The Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde, Texas, which took the lives of two adults and 19 children, is the second-deadliest school shooting in U.S. history, after the Sandy Hook Massacre in 2012. According to the CDC, there were 45,222 firearm-related deaths in 2020. Firearm homicides increased by 33.4% between 2019 and 2020, making firearm-related injuries the leading causes of death in children and adolescents in the U.S.
