ANNE ARUNDEL COUNTY, Md. (ABC7) — Tina Frost doesn't know it, but her employer, Ernst & Young, has a dedicated human resources representative helping with A-to-Z logistics as loved ones wait by her hospital bedside.
Frost, a 27-year-old Anne Arundel County-native, was attending the 'Route 91 Harvest Festival' with her co-workers and longtime boyfriend, Austin Hughes, when the barrage of gunfire erupted, a single bullet struck Frost in the forehead. The bullet pierced the frontal lobes of her brain before ricocheting, landing in her right eye.
"She's stable, but obviously still very critical," said Amy Klinger, a family friend who works with Frost's mother at a commercial real estate development firm located in Potomac. "Her right eye needed to be removed. Doctors put an implant or placeholder in there for now because they don't want the brain to swell into that area."
Klinger explained how Hughes and Frost's friends carried her limp body across the panic-stricken infield, roughly 300 yards in total. That is when the group spotted the owner of a pickup truck loading injured people into the cargo hold. Hughes secured a spot for Frost. The pickup drove to the Sunrise Hospital Emergency Room, some six miles away.
"Because of the amount of bleeding that came from the head trauma, Austin took off his shirt and wrapped it around Tina's head to keep her clean," Klinger added. “He was really remarkable.”
Surgeons placed Frost into emergency brain surgery before identifying her. Simply put, survival was paramount. Meanwhile, Hughes was tasked with calling her mother – some 2,400 miles away – to share news of the ensuing tragedy.
With support from Southwest Airlines, Mary Frost managed to board the first Vegas-bound flight from BWI Airport Monday morning. Those efforts helped the grieving mother get to Sunrise Hospital before her daughter was released from surgery, Klinger explained. Frost’s father, siblings and a few other key people have arrived in the hours and days since.
For the last three days, Frost has been in a non-medically induced coma within the confines of the intensive care unit. Many of the finer details of her physical condition are simply too raw to share. However, Frost's family is finding some solace in that her reliance on a ventilator was down from 100 to 30 percent as of Wednesday afternoon.
"The assumption is that there will be some sort of brain damage, because with this type of trauma, it would be shocking if there was not," Klinger added. "But she's a strong, healthy, fit girl. She is an athlete and she is a fighter, so hopefully those things are all in her favor."
Frost graduated from Arundel High School in 2008 where she was a standout soccer player and a member of the lacrosse team. She continued her soccer career while attending Gardner-Webb University in North Carolina.
Upon graduating, Frost moved to San Diego, became a certified public accountant and accepted a position with Ernst & Young. In fact, the global accounting firm sent a staffer to Las Vegas with the specific task of assisting her mourning family.
"Ernst & Young has actually been unbelievable in all of this. They sent an HR person from California to basically be the family's handler throughout this week. They made all of their hotel reservations, they are making sure they are having all of their meals. There's somebody on the ground whose sole job is to take care of the family."
In her high school senior class yearbook, Frost is pictured smiling in a black dress with a pearl necklace. Beside that color photo, she shared her 10-year goal, which read, "married, living in a nice house on a lake with 2 beautiful children."
"That’s Tina. She is the sweetest girl. She is really just a good kid. Our only hope is that she will get to where she always wants to be," Klinger concluded.
Dech_it on October 16th, 2017 at 20:54 UTC »
After I was caught in a terrorist attack with my co-workers the CEO of the company we worked for flew in to meet us and paid for a trauma counsellor to help us in the following weeks. He was CEO of a very large UK company and I always appreciated that he did that for us, it was a moment of kindness at such a dark time.
NotcZombie on October 16th, 2017 at 20:47 UTC »
When my grandmother was murdered at my house, and I couldn't live there for obvious reasons, my company paid for my hotel until I was able to move back. It was probably relatively cheap for them, but it meant the world to me.
NotHonkyTonk on October 16th, 2017 at 19:53 UTC »
NASA Does something similar. Whenever an astronaut gets a flight assignment another astronaut is chosen to be their families handler. They accompany them to press events and facilitate travel to and from launches. In the event something does happen the handeler will stay with the family for longer to help arrange funerals and to act as a well needed buffer between the grieving family and politicians that want a photo of themselves" supporting" the grieving family.