UCD student Natasha McShane, who suffered serious head injuries after being attacked with a baseball bat in Chicago, has returned home to Ireland.
The 23-year-old postgraduate student from Silverbridge in South Armagh was celebrating with a friend, Stacey Jurich (24), when they were attacked last April.
Ms McShane had secured an internship which meant she could prolong her stay in the US city where she had been studying for the semester.
Ms McShane was transferred to the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast, where she will undergo a crainioplasty procedure this week under the care of renowned trauma-surgeon Dr Tom Flannery. Following her recuperation, she will continue her rehabilitation programme in a nearby specialised unit.
Doctors at the Rehabilitation Institute in Chicago, where Ms McShane has being undergoing treatment for the last six weeks, said she was now at a point where "no medical necessity existed to keep her in Chicago particularly when comparable therapeutic aids and services were equally available to her back in Belfast".
She is eating and walking with assistance and has also started to say some words, her parents Liam and Sheila McShane said in a statement last night. "Her peripheral vision continues to remain impaired and her cognitive function and speech require long and intensive rehabilitative therapy. Her doctors still maintain that her final prognosis is uncertain," they added.
Heriberto Viramontes (30) and his girlfriend Marcy Cruz (25) were charged with armed robbery and aggravated battery in connection with the attack.