(AP)Two were severely wounded in the head, said Dr. D. Holmes Morton, a pediatrician and director of the Clinic for Special Children in Strasburg.

A neurosurgeon told Morton about a week ago that one of the two was expected to remain in the rehabilitation facility at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia until December. The other is considered fully disabled and is being tended to by her family at home.

“She is not expected to recover much function, if any,” Morton said. “Hers is almost a case of palliative care.”

Morton said the other three survivors have “face and limb wounds that will be disabling for a long time, if not permanently.”

“They’re kids who are pretty damaged and will have long-term consequences for these wounds,” he said.

Morton described the girls’ injuries to The Associated Press Wednesday, the first time a physician with direct knowledge of their care talked about their recoveries.

Morton’s clinic is about four miles from the scene of the Oct. 2 attack at West Nickel Mines School in Bart Township.

The 32-year-old gunman, Charles Carl Roberts IV, committed suicide as police surrounded the one-room Amish schoolhouse where he had barricaded himself.

One surviving girl’s shoulder joint was so badly damaged she may not recover the use of her arm. Another girl was wounded in the face, but did not suffer brain damage and is recovering “pretty well.” There also were pelvic and hand wounds, Morton said.

The tragedy has been difficult for family members, particularly the boys whom Roberts allowed to leave the school before the shooting, Morton said.

“What kind of scars it will leave in that small group of families and the community at large, it’s hard to say,” he said. “But almost certainly some.”

Morton said the shooting raised troubling questions about the link in American society between violence and sexuality, and the widespread availability of handguns. Among the material Roberts brought with him was sexual lubricant, and he said in a suicide note that he was tormented by the memory of having molested young female relatives 20 years earlier, a claim authorities have not confirmed.

“The insights into this individual person who did this is difficult, but to sort of re-examine the priorities of our own culture and our tolerance for tragedies like this would be more productive than curiosity toward the Amish,” Morton said.

Donations to pay for the girls’ treatment and to support Roberts’ widow and three children have poured in from around the world.

Rich Lauer, director of the Anabaptist Foundation in Mifflinburg, said his organization has collected $1.4 million, much of it in donations of $50 or less and often accompanied by an expression of sympathy.

“I spoke with the accounting office yesterday, and they said they had a banana box full of notes and cards to forward to the Amish community,” he said.

The Mennonite Disaster Service has collected $551,000, said its finance and administration director, Ron Guenther.

Herman Bontrager, a spokesman for the Nickel Mines Accountability Committee, which is coordinating receipt and distribution of donations, said Wednesday he did not have a total dollar figure for donations.

Five hospitals involved in caring for the shooting victims have said they would absorb treatment costs. blog comments powered by Disqus