Shooting Victim Goes Home Moses Lake Teenager Was Rehospitalized Last Week

Natalie Hintz, who was wounded in a classroom shooting last month, was released from a local hospital Sunday.

Hintz, 13, was the only survivor among four people shot at a Moses Lake junior high school on Feb. 2.

She spent a month in Seattle hospitals recovering from her life-threatening wounds, and went home in early March.

But she suffered a relapse last week and was taken to Samaritan Hospital in Moses Lake when she began vomiting every 10 minutes.

Darwin Hintz, spokesman for the family, said surgery repaired an intestinal blockage that caused the vomiting. But he said Hintz is still weak.

“She is very thin, emaciated,” Darwin Hintz said. She drank a milkshake and ate some tuna fish Sunday, he said.

Hintz’ upper arm bone was shattered and the arm nearly severed by the bullet from the hunting rifle. She also suffered numerous internal injuries.

Hintz decided she would be more comfortable recuperating at home, he said. Doctors also thought it would be psychologically better for her to be home, he said.

“She’s happy to be in her own bed again,” he said.

She will stay in bed for the next week, he said.

Classmate Barry Loukaitis, 15, has been charged with three counts of murder and one count of assault in the shootings.

Killed were classmates Manuel Vela and Arnold Fritz, and algebra teacher Leona Caires.

No motive has yet been determined for the killings.