Baby girl injured in stabbing attack in Sydney mall released from hospital
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A nine-month-old baby injured in a stabbing attack at a shopping mall in Sydney has been released from the hospital after a week.
The baby had suffered chest and arm injuries in one of Australia’s worst mass stabbings and underwent surgery at the Sydney Children’s Hospital.
She was brought out of the intensive care unit last week and eventually released from the hospital over the weekend. The child would continue to receive care from doctors, a health official told BBC.
Her mother, Ashlee Good, was among the six people killed in the carnage at Westfield Bondi Junction on 13 April.
Good, 38, was the first victim to be identified after 40-year-old Joel Cauchi began stabbing people at the shopping centre. Witnesses reported that she handed over her small child to other terrified shoppers for them to carry out make-shift medical aid.
Two brothers said they tried to help her and her child using shirts from the shop they were sheltering in to stop the bleeding.
One of the brothers told 9News Sydney: “We were just shopping and saw the man run up to the woman with the baby and then we were both ready to go and help out.
“But I just said to my brother, ‘We’ve got to run in’ – [we] ran in, told the guys to lock up the doors and then the mother came with the baby bleeding, stabbed and we got them into the store and just got them safe and then rang for help.”
Good later died in St Vincent’s Hospital from her wounds.
New South Wales Health minister Ryan Park confirmed the child’s release on Sunday, adding: “”At the request of the family, I strongly urge the media and community to respect their right to privacy at this extremely difficult time.”
A GoFundMe campaign for the child set up in her mother’s name has received £347,500 in donations so far.
The family of Good said she was a “beautiful human” and expressed their gratitude to the brothers who tried to help her and her daughter.
A statement obtained by Australia’s national broadcaster ABC from Good’s family said: “Today we are reeling from the terrible loss of Ashlee, a beautiful mother, daughter, sister, partner, friend, all-round outstanding human, and so much more.
“We appreciate the well wishes and thoughts of members of the Australian public who have expressed an outpouring of love for Ashlee and our baby girl.
“The two men who held and cared for our baby when Ashlee could not – words cannot express our gratitude. We are struggling to come to terms with what has occurred.”
Five women and one man were killed at the mall in a targeted attack on women. The New South Wales police commissioner Karen Webb said it was “obvious” that Cauchi focused on women and “avoided women”.
The only man killed in the attack was a 30-year-old security guard, Faraz Tahir, who tried to intervene.
Police shot and killed the attacker, while authorities have ruled out terrorism and said Cauchi had a history of mental illness.
Shoppers returned to the mall over the weekend to a “really quiet” mall on Friday, a day after the centre opened its doors for community members to pay their tributes to the victims.
There was a large police and security presence, with guards wearing black stab-proof vests posted on each level of the mall. Visitors numbered in the hundreds, but were fewer than the usual expected on a Friday during school holidays.
Hundreds of people on Sunday evening gathered for a candlelit vigil at Bondi Beach to remember the victims.
Prime minister Anthony Albanese, opposition leader Peter Dutton and New South Wales premier Chris Minns joined the crowd to light candles for the victims.
Mr Albanese said the crowd had gathered “to grieve for what has been stolen from us”.
“All the possibility and potential. All the kindness and humanity. All the love and laughter of the six lives snatched away on that hardest of Saturday afternoons.”
