Autistic girl makes ‘miracle’ recovery after alleged murder-suicide attempt by mom

 

Matt Stapleton embraces his daughter, Isabelle, who goes by the nickname “Issy.”

Fourteen-year-old Issy Stapleton, a violently autistic child whose mother allegedly tried to kill her in a botched murder-suicide attempt, is now walking, talking and smiling.
According to a family Facebook post, the girl’s recovery “is nothing short of a miracle,” her father, Matt, wrote Monday.
She was removed from life support Friday in the intensive care unit of Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital in Grand Rapids, Mich., where doctors concluded she had suffered brain damage and was unable to breathe on her own.

After her ventilator was turned off, Issy began breathing. By Saturday, she was awake, asking questions and “showing signs of the incredible young woman she is,” her dad wrote.
Mom Kelli Stapleton, 45, has been charged with attempted murder. The mother and daughter were found unconscious last Tuesday inside the family van, in which authorities say two charcoal grills had been lit and the windows rolled up.