A 13-year-old girl who is a member of Mensa may never recover from a traumatic brain injury suffered when she plummeted head-first down a cliff in the Grampians while on school camp.
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Moama Anglican Grammar student Faith Butt fell 10 metres in the national park in Victoria's south-west on October 23.
She remains in the Royal Children's Hospital and has improved enormously in the past five weeks, but has a long way to go, the Riverine Herald reports.
The newspaper also reports she has post-traumatic amnesia, so is unable to recognise family members.
Faith is not only a member of Mensa, meaning she has an IQ in the top two per cent of the population, but speaks Italian, plays piano, and is a budding sportswoman.
A crowd-funding campaign has raised $26,000 to assist her parents, who have remained at her bedside since the accident.
"We had been told from the first day she might not improve, when she was basically just lying there," her mother Barb told the Riverine Herald.
"Since then she has been moving her legs and her arms, and now this [breathing unaided].
"There are some here who are remarkably positive, who say things are going along well ... but then there are the others; the brutally honest, who say she might not improve at all."
A message on the Pray for Faith fundraising page to support her family says the teenager was incredibly talented and fun-loving.
"Those that know Faith understand how very special she is. Her loving, caring and kind personality mixes with her high intellect and sense of fun.
"She is an Italian-speaking, piano-playing, netball and swimming champion who is incredibly strong, determined and focused.
"It is these qualities that she is drawing on right now as she digs in for the fight of her life."
Maurice Blackburn Lawyers are assisting the family.
"Investigations into what happened have been launched by Worksafe and Victoria Police and are ongoing, so we will need to wait until those investigations are completed and her condition stabilises," public safety lawyer Dimi Ioannou said.
"At this stage we're hoping that Faith makes a full recovery and any consideration about whether she is eligible for any compensation will be determined at a much later date."
