Health and Wellness Life!

Gunshot wound survivor tells story of pain and hope

By: - December 26, 2020

Claire, a gunshot wound survivor, shares her continuing six-year journey of pain and hope to remove a stray bullet lodged in her cervical spine.

For six years, Claire, 40, has suffered pain in the neck and throat area because the doctors from different clinic and medical institutions in the Caraga region and here in Cebu, where she sought help for her condition, could not find the exact location of the bullet lodged in her cervical spine.

She could not imagine that she could have to endure this painful situation now and the life that she had before she was struck by a stray bullet in 2014 while visiting a waterfall in Surigao with her friends.

“Nag-walk mi ato sa falls mismo when suddenly naay murag gilabay nga dako nga stone sa akoa. I thought nga gikan lang sa flow sa waterfalls. Then, pag-igo jud sa akoa murag nalagpot jud akong ulo. Suddenly there’s blood all over behind my neck. That was the time na-feel jud nako ang sakit. Human, ni spit ko ug fresh blood then dili na ko ka tabi,” said Claire as she recalled that fateful day.

(We were walking in the falls when suddenly I felt something struck me like a stone thrown at me and hitting. I thought then that the stone fell from the waterfalls. But when I was struck my head was thrown back and suddenly there was blood behind my neck. That was the time when I felt pain. Then I spit fresh blood and then I could not speak anymore.)

Luckily, pagpa CT-Scan nako sa Hi-Precision, ni ingon ang imaging team na naa procedure ang ilang CT-Scan na 3D reconstruction. Mao na-identify jud nila kung asa dapit ang bala.

 

CLAIRE

Gunshot wound survivor

Her friends rushed her to a clinic in the area but she was later transferred to the district hospital.

She is lucky to be alive, but since then with the bullet still lodged inside her body, she has been living in pain. And so began her journey to find a way to remove the bullet in her body and relieve her of the pain that she had been enduring for quite a time.

 

A journey that has led her to Hi-Precision Diagnostics Center in Cebu where she is given a chance to be free of the pain after experts at the center using CT Scan 3D reconstruction process finally located the bullet in her cervical spine.

Looking back, she recalled her days at a clinic and hospital in Surigao where the doctor could not find the bullet lodged in her cervical spine.

“What happened to you, maam. Asa ang sakit dapita (Where do you hurt)?,” a doctor in a Surigao hospital in 2014 asked Claire as the results of her cervical spine X-ray was released and the doctor saw that her cervical spine was normal.

“Wala ra man something, maam,” said the doctor, who could not see a bullet in the cervical spine.

The doctor gave her antibiotics and recommended a hospital in Butuan where she could undergo a CT Scan where the general location of the bullet was found.

She was then transferred to Cebu where her doctor monitored her for six months because the doctor could not find the exact location of the bullet in her cervical spine.

“Ni ingon ang ako doctor na monitoring ko for six months para ma-check kung asa jud dapita kay sa CT-Scan. Dili man jud makita. Kung kuhaon daw niya ang metal di siya ka-palpate kung which side,” said Claire.

(The doctor told me that he would monitor me for six months so that we can check where the bullet was in the CT-Scan. But the bullet could not be seen. If he will remove the metal, he could not palpate which side it was.)

CT Scan machine at Hi-Precision Diagnostics Cebu | Contributed Photo

Her search for relief of her pain led her to Hi-Precision Diagnostics Center in Cebu where finally experts at the center using CT Scan 3D reconstruction process located where exactly the bullet was lodged in her cervical spine.

“Grabe jud ang ako worry ato. Luckily, pagpa CT-Scan nako sa Hi-Precision, ni ingon ang imaging team na naa procedure ang ilang CT-Scan na 3D reconstruction. Mao na-identify jud nila kung asa dapit ang bala,” said Claire, who is relieved that the location of the bullet has been found.

(I was so worried. Luckily, I had a CT-Scan in Hi-Precision and the imaging team told me of the their CT-Scan 3D reconstruction procedure. That is the procedure that located the exact location of the bullet.)

Hi-Precision Diagnostics Cebu CT Scan imaging result | Contributed Photo

Aside from that, she also remembered the clean room at the center, and she was also grateful for the Hi-Precision staff who had taken care of her during her stay there.

With the bullet in her body located, Claire now has a chance to remove it through an operation and free her of the pain that she has been enduring for years.

Latest Stories
Most Read