Anderson, 22, sustained
multiple gunshot wounds in the movie theater rampage last week. Three
shotgun pellets hit her arm, and one went through her nose into her
brain.
The head injury could
have been fatal, but thanks in part to a brain abnormality she never
knew she had, Anderson is on her way to a full recovery, according to
her pastor.
He said there's just one way to describe what happened: "a miracle."
"The doctor explains that
Petra's brain has had from birth a small 'defect' in it. It is a tiny
channel of fluid running through her skull, like a tiny vein through
marble, or a small hole in an oak board, winding from front to rear,"
Brad Strait, senior pastor at Cherry Creek Presbyterian Church in
Englewood, Colorado, wrote on his blog this week.
Petra Anderson, 22, third from left, survived a gunshot wound to her brain because of an abnormality she never knew she had.
"Like a marble through a
small tube, the defect channels the bullet from Petra's nose through her
brain. It turns slightly several times, and comes to rest at the rear
of her brain. And in the process, the bullet misses all the vital areas
of the brain. In many ways, it almost misses the brain itself," he said.
"In Christianity we call
it prevenient grace: God working ahead of time for a particular event in
the future. It's just like the God I follow to plan the route of a
bullet through a brain long before Batman ever rises. Twenty-two years
before," Strait wrote.
Anderson was one of 58
people wounded when a gunman opened fire early Friday inside a screening
of the new Batman movie, "The Dark Knight Rises," at a theater in
Aurora, Colorado. Twelve people were killed.
Andrew Roblyer, a friend
of Anderson's family, stopped short of describing the condition as a
defect. As a neurosurgeon explained to the family, channels or "voids"
like hers are not uncommon, but the placement of them is random and can
vary, he said.
The 22-year-old was
moved out of the intensive care unit Monday. She has started physical
and speech therapy and is able to walk, talk and laugh, according to
Roblyer.
"She's herself in a lot of ways," he said.
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Anderson is a gifted
musician and composer. She spent last summer studying composition at the
Bowdoin International Music Festival and is an alumna of the
prestigious Interlochen Center for the Arts camp.
She also studied music
composition at the University of the Pacific, Conservatory of Music, and
was named the 2011 Presser Scholar, a national award for outstanding
music students. She graduated this year.
CNN Chief Medical
Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta, who is a neurosurgeon, recalled a case
where someone had what looked to be a significant bullet injury to the
brain, but the person also had an arachnoid cyst, or a fluid-filled
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