[caption id="attachment_71441" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Natasha before the attack. "]
Two years after she was brutally attacked and left for dead on a Chicago street, Natasha McShane from County Armagh is still struggling to recover the young and exuberant life she once enjoyed.
"Her world - once filled with possibility - has shrunk to the size of her parents' living room, where, in the afternoons, she sits in a chair by the window," a report in the Chicago Tribune stated.
Natasha is living with her parents in Silverbridge, County Armagh.
"The last year has offered no respite from the surgeries and struggles that have plagued her since a brutal mugging in Bucktown," the report said.
McShane was an exuberant 23-year-old exchange student, working on her master's degree and out celebrating an internship that would allow her to extend her stay in Chicago. She and a friend, Stacy Jurich, were walking home when they were struck from behind by a bat-wielding mugger.
According to the Tribune, McShane, took the brunt of the beating and was left bleeding and unconscious on the sidewalk. Hospitalized for months, she initially made small but steady steps toward recovery.
Heriberto Viramontes, 33, a reputed gang member, who, according to prosecutors, had seen the two women as "easy targets," was arrested after the attack. Marcy Cruz, 27, had driven him to the area, waited in a van and smoked a marijuana-stuffed cigar during the attack, according to prosecutors.
Viramontes and Cruz are still being held at Cook County jail, each facing 25 felony counts, including attempted murder and armed robbery. No trial date has been set, said the Tribune report.
