4 months ago
5
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – A 16-year-old girl is urging people to be more careful with guns after she said she was hit by a stray bullet during a family celebration on the Fourth of July.
According to Raengell Ortega, she was struck in the back on Eagle Road in Little Rock. She said she was shot when she bent over to grab a soda from a cooler.
"The hole was so tiny we thought it was a firework that hit me," she said.
Thinking it was a firework that caused her injury, Ortega didn't go to the hospital.
She said she was in significant pain and didn't know she had been shot until the next day when she went to the hospital.
"My hip is still hurting. My leg feels numb," she said as she stood with her crutches.
Ortega said doctors told her she was at a high risk of being paralyzed if they did surgery to remove the bullet.
"I honestly thought my life was going to be over with,” she said. “I thought I wasn't going to be able to walk again.”
English (US) ·