She survived a deadly mass shooting in high school, then another in college

Kylie Ossege looks at her horse, Blaze, at a boarding facility Nov. 11 in Mayfield Township, Mich. Ossege was severely injured in a 2021 mass shooting at Oxford High School and says spending time with Blaze provides her with a measure of comfort. “He’s my best friend.” A better friend than time, perhaps, which now gathers for Ossege like dust in a corner, a clingy bundle of haunting memories that she can neither forget nor sweep away: Fifteen minutes as she lay shot and bleeding in an Oxford High School hallway. “I’m excited to have my words heard and my story heard,” said Ossege, who spent two weeks writing the statement that she estimates will take about 10 minutes to deliver. “The only thing that makes it feel better is taking medications and laying down or sitting down,” said the MSU sophomore who, inspired by her own caregivers, is studying kinesiology on the East Lansing campus that’s so sprawling Ossege sometimes orders an Uber to drive her the equivalent of a 10-minute walk — “because 10 minutes can be miserable for me.” A family friend connected Ossege with an executive at Northwell Health, home to a neurosurgery team at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City that it was thought could provide her with relief. We expect her to get back to those.” Ossege said the surgery “has been a mood booster” that’s also provided pain relief.