- Troy Forbush said he is one of the five MSU students treated at Sparrow Hospital after the recent MSU shooting
- Forbush, of Okemos, is studying music education at MSU
- Forbush vowed to work with others to ‘enact change’
Michigan State University student Troy Forbush came forward Sunday as the fourth of five students critically injured in the Feb. 13 campus shooting to be publicly identified.
Forbush, a graduate of Okemos High School, said he is the first of the students to be released from Sparrow Hospital, according to his Facebook page.
“I took a bullet to my chest, had a brush with death, and almost didn’t make it if it weren’t for the incredible doctors who saved my life in emergency surgery that night,” Forbush wrote.
Forbush is studying music education and vocal performance at MSU, according to his Facebook profile, and is social chair of the school’s chapter of the American Choral Directors Association.
Related:
- MSU shooting update: University to ask state for more security money
- Michigan State shooting updates
- Michigan State students demand tougher security at emotional town hall
- Michigan State shooting: third victim identified, in critical condition
- On ‘Spartan Stronger’ website, Michigan State students process their grief
He said his injuries will take time to heal and vowed to become a voice of change following the mass shooting, which also killed three students: Arielle Diamond Anderson, Alexandria Verner and Brian Fraser.
“There was a time when I used to dream of getting into this school— now, I represent it,” Forbush wrote in his post.
“My world has been turned upside down so suddenly but I refuse to be a number, a statistic. Alongside my family, friends, community, university, & state government officials, we will enact change. I have a long journey of recovery ahead of me. This is only the beginning. Rest in power Alexandria, Arielle, and Brian.”
Sparrow spokesperson John Foren told Bridge on Monday that one student has been discharged, one is in fair condition, two students are in serious but stable condition and one student remains in critical condition.
While officials are not releasing the names of the five students, friends and family of the students have identified four of the students through social media. They are:
Nate Statly, a junior from Hartland, who is in critical condition.
“Doctors have informed us that his path to recovery will be a long and difficult one,” his brother Josh Statly wrote on a GoFundMe page Wednesday.
Guadalupe Huapilla-Perez, a junior from Florida, had to have her spleen removed. The bullets also affected her lungs, colon, stomach and diaphragm, her sister Selena Huapilla-Perez wrote on GoFundMe a week after the shooting.
And John Hao, a junior from China, is paralyzed from the chest down and had his spine severed, his roommate and friend wrote on GoFundMe.