A 16-year-old girl has been in a coma for 12 days after being beaten within inches of her life.

Doctors had to perform emergency brain surgery, to save the girls life after she was beaten, and left in a Portage la Prairie junk yard.

The family of Vanessa Popiel is just waiting and hoping for their daughter to wake up.

Now they can only pray as their baby girl is in a hospital bed nearly 100 km away.

Byron and Tracey Popiel cannot comprehend why someone would or could do this to their daughter.

It happened on June 28, 2009 when Popiel was walking home from a social by herself.

Her parents say she was beaten and left to die just metres from home.

She was able to crawl across some train tracks and across a road to some homes where neighbours could hear her screaming for help.

The people who found her are still so shaken up they could not speak about it.

RCMP say a 17-year-old male is facing a number of charges including attempted murder.

His first court appearance is set for July 29, and while his name has not been released, Vanessa's dad says he knows the young man.

"He's been following her around and he's been asking her to go out with him, and she says no she doesn't want to she has a boyfriend," Byron Popiel said.

Friends and co-workers at Tim Horton's say the teen was sweet and kind-hearted and a hard-worker.

The Popiel family is trying to come to terms with what's happened, but because of financial constraints and an unreliable vehicle, they can only visit their daughter once a week.

With a report from CTV's Shaneen Robinson