Watch video and read complete article here.

What could’ve been a tragic end to 8-year-old Lilah Williams-Sjosten’s young life ended up turning into a heartwarming story of perseverance.

This past March, Williams-Sjosten was on her way to SeaWorld when she was shot in the face during a drive-by shooting near Avenue O and Northwest 12th Street in Fort Pierce. Lilah was flown to Saint Mary’s Medical Center for surgery.
Dr. Jason Portnof was the oral surgeon who reconstructed Lilah’s jaw with three surgeries. He explained how he performed the operations.

“Reconstructed jaw, based on the uninjured side so that we basically mirror-imaged the uninjured side to the injured side, so we could bend a plate, a custom titanium plate, that we could use to re-line everything up and give her an anatomic outcome,” he explained, holding up a 3D molding of Lilah’s jaw for reference.

After such random terror, and a few weeks of surgeries and recovery, Lilah and her family have avoided unthinkable tragedy. The screws are scheduled to be removed from her jaw in about six months.