Dr. Narayan Sundaresan, Chief of Neurosurgery at Lincoln Hospital with Gemma Vasquez, mother of Vada Vasquez.

Bronx, NY — The mother of 15-year-old Vada Vasquez publicly thanked the neurosurgical team at HHC's Lincoln Hospital on Wednesday for the remarkable surgery that saved her daughter's life, after she was struck in the head by a stray bullet on November 16th.

"It's a great Thanksgiving, it's going to be a good Christmas, it's going to be a good everything," said a greatly relieved Gemma Vasquez, as she stood with the neurosurgery team in a conference room at Lincoln Hospital.

The bullet which struck Vada drove skull fragments into the left temporal lobe of her brain, the area that controls speech. Thankfully, Dr. Narayan Sundaresan, the surgeon who treated her and patched up her skull, believes that, with therapy, she will overcome any lingering speech impairment.

"I expect she will make a full functional recovery," said Dr. Sundaresan.