BEAVERTON, OR. (THECOUNT) — Family member and survivors of the 2017 Route 91 Harvest Festival shooting are suffering the loss of Kim Gervais, who was shot during the Oct. 1, 2017 tragedy and paralyzed. She died on Friday marking the 59th victim of the horrendous incident.
The sister of Gervais, Dena Sarvela, confirmed Gervais’ death to KPTV out of Beaverton, Ore.
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Gervais, 58, had gone to the 2017 Route 91 Harvest Festival with two friends, identified in a 2017 New York Times piece about Gervais as Dana Smith and Pati Mestas. Smith escaped safely, Mestas died, and Gervais was paralyzed from the neck down in the shooting.
“She hurt. Even though she was paralyzed from the neck up, she could feel all the pain,” Sarvela says. “There was scrap metal still in her because [the shooter] used exploding bullets.”
A 2017 story from Fox 12 Oregon mentions that Gervais was helped that night by a couple who kept her safe from further harm after she was struck and transported her to a hospital. According to Sarvela, Gervais spent nearly a year away from home, because she was unable to be transported back home. “That was rough,” Sarvela admits.
“She lost her zest for life because of it, because of the shooting, because of her injuries that she sustained,” Sarvela adds of her sister. “It was hard to be that same person, that we all know and love.”
Adds Sarvela, “When I saw her [after the shooting], you could just tell. She was done.” Gervais’ heart stopped on Friday, reports BigCountry.
“She is, was, she still is … she’ll never leave my heart, ever,” Sarvela says.
Adds Sarvela, “I also know she was missing her husband very, very much, and that’s what gives me hope — that she’s with him right now. Gives me a lot of hope, and I know they are.”
Geo quick facts: Beaverton is a city in Washington County, in the U.S. state of Oregon. The city center is 7 miles west of downtown Portland in the Tualatin River Valley. As of the 2010 census, the population is 89,803. This makes it the second-largest city in the county and Oregon’s sixth-largest city – Wikipedia.
