HeavyEvents.com Forum

As some of you know, I got some bad news on Saturday, while at the games. My mom called to tell me my first cousin's first cousin, who I grew up with, was "accidentally" shot by her boyfriend Saturday in the wee hours (about 2 am, I think). He was apparently showing her his new gun, and was very drunk while doing it. The bullet went through her stomach and out her back. She has been in ICU since. On the table they found that her liver has been split in half, and her aorta (I think...this is from my mom) was severed, which was causing major bleeding. They fixed that, but as of yesterday afternoon were to airlift her from Huntington, WV to Columbus, OH where a team of doctors were to meet her to try and repair the liver. If they can't repair the liver, she would have to be on the list for a transplant, and that leaves us with little hope, because gunshot victims are way down on the priority list for livers. At that point, we should just say our goodbyes. So please pray for Jenny. She is so young...only about 23 years old. She is alert, but can't speak because she's hooked up to machines. She has responded by squeezing hands, though. She is an only child, and her parents are heartbroken. Thanks for your inquiries over the past couple of days. I appreciate the prayers, in advance!

My thoughts are with you and your family Steph. I'll keep my mouth shut on my feelings about the boyfriend

Well damn. If you need anything, we're here.

Thoughts and prayers are with you and your family. If you need anything, you have but to ask!

A

Very sad news, Steph. We'll all be praying and pulling for Jenny's recovery. --Frank

Prayers having been said for everyone involved as well as all the families, if there is anything else we can do, please let us know.

Our thoughts and prayers are with Jenny and your family.
-BJ and Christina

Oh, Steph, I'm so sorry to hear about your cousin. We will all be praying for Jenny.
anything you need, just ask.
Jeff

Thanks, you all, for your kind words.

The latest update is that they will begin the first of 3-4 surgeries on her in the morning. They have to wait a day or two in between surgeries, so this will be going on for the next week or so. But the doctors feel positive about being able to fix the liver. So here's hoping that there are no complications, in the meantime. Jenny has a long road ahead of her, but it seems like it may be looking up. Thanks again for your prayers!

That's great news, Steph-- we'll keep the thoughts and prayers coming. God bless you guys.

--Frank

Girl- you know I will be praying for your family to have continued strength through this and for Jenny to make a complete recovery.
Let me know if there is ANYTHING I can do.
Hugs,
me

We will pray for her as well. Hang in there. And, let us know if there is anything we can do.

Just thought I'd let you all know what's going on in Jenny's life, almost four months later. The surgery the doctors in Columbus performed went amazingly well. Jenny was released from the hospital and sent home only a couple of weeks later. She had tubes that drained gross junk from her insides for some weeks following. Those tubes had to be drained and cleaned very frequently (I think it was every half hour or hour/24 hours). She healed much quicker than the doctors ever imagined and any follow-up surgeries were deemed unneccesary. Tubes were removed and ports left open for future surgeries began healing on their own. She was in excrutiating pain, but the healing process was smooth and faster than expected.

Now for the spiritual healing of Jenny. She had been with this jerk who shot her since fresh out of high school (about 7 years I believe), and he was so bad for her and to her. She had been very distant from our family for years, and would only come to family functions long enough to pack up a couple of plates of food to take back home to him. She was very rebellious with her parents and with us, though we all tried to reach out. She was adopted by her parents as a baby, and I remember her telling me when she was about 13 that she knew she was adopted and wished she had different parents. I know we all say that, but she meant it. Though she is somewhat of a daddy's girl, she and her mother are polar opposites and she has never meshed with her.

Skip to the day she came home from the hospital. She was watching TV and twice in one day heard two seperate stories of someone being shot through the liver and dieing from it. She sobbed. The realization of all of it hit her, then. She wrote the boyfriend a goodbye letter. Not sure if she gave it to him. She soon starting calling my aunt and wanting her and my cousins to come and visit her. She was eager to have family around her! The same mother that she had professed to hate was the mother that changed those gross tubes innumerous times a day. A new light and respect was shed on that relationship. She had friends from high school, who were friends and good kids before she started running in the bad crowd, contact her to say they were praying for her. One of these was a boy who had liked her for years. A very good guy. They began to talk a lot and spend some time together. Through him she has since made a whole new group of good, healthy friends. Jenny then was able to come out to family functions and from reports from my mother, she is a changed woman. More a woman now than the girl she was before. She is open and lighthearted and THANKFUL. Since the time she was able to leave the house she hasn't missed one Sunday in church. She has a renewed and better than ever faith in God, because she knows that it was through him she found the strength, was healed, and was blessed with the firm foundation of friends and family who poured out their love to her through this.

I am amazed at the miracle of her life, and I want to thank you all for praying for her, too. I believe it is because of the prayers of good people, the capable hands of good doctors, and the grace of God that she is alive and a brand new bonus to the world, today. How's that for uplifting? Just call me Oprah.

Glad to hear that she is doing better all around, Steph. Sometimes it takes tragic events for people to realize how well they have it. I am glad to hear that some divine intervention has given her a reset on life.

Wow. That's incredible news! It's good to see reconciliation with families.

Steph, I'm so sorry. Hopefully the transplant folks will take into account that she's not a ne'er do well drug dealing gunshopt victim. The real difficulty with transplants is that so few people agree to be donors. Anyone who feels for steph's cousin should consider becoming an organ donor if they haven't done it already. And let your family know you feel strongly about it. Often, when doctors talk to surviving family members about harvesting organs from donors, the families refuse to give them up, countermanding the wishes of the deceased. Okay, I'm off my soapbox.

Wow, she sounds like a hell of a fighter. Great news!

Glad things are heading in such a positive direction!