Woman Alleges Hospital Overlooked Bullet Lodged In Skull, Discharged Her After Treating ‘Graze Wound’

A drive-by shooting victim in Miami accused a hospital of leaving a bullet lodged in her skull unnoticed and treating what they said was simply a graze wound.

Shakena Jefferson, 42, was rushed to the unidentified hospital with a head wound following the shooting on Feb.11. They bandaged the wound near her left temple and sent her home with antibiotics, Janet Medley, Jefferson’s wife, told ABC News on Monday.

Medley took Jefferson to the Baptist Hospital on Feb. 14 when she complained about pain. The hospital immediately performed an X-ray and spotted the bullet. Jefferson was made to undergo surgery on the following day to remove the bullet.

“When we got home, she started complaining about, ‘Bae, I got a headache. I got a headache. I got a headache,’” Medley told WSVN. “When I brought her to Baptist Hospital, they immediately did an X-ray on her head, and they found a bullet inside her head.”

Jefferson was struck by the bullet outside the couple’s home near 113th Avenue when they were heading to the grocery store. They accidentally came in the line of fire and were not intended targets.

Jefferson was recovering in an emergency room while surrounded by her family.

“Right now, she’s around family members inside her hospital [room],” Medley added.

Such negligence by doctors leads to irreparable loss. Last year, doctors at a government hospital in Indian state of Hyderabad accidentally severed a fetus’ head while performing a cesarean section on the 23-year-old mother, leaving the torso inside her womb. Worse, the doctors didn’t inform her family about the incident and referred her to another hospital citing she was critical.

In another such incident, a 24-year-old woman in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu died of an infection after doctors forgot a surgical sponge inside her stomach during a cesarean section. She was transported to the hospital again two days later after complaining about severe stomach pain, where doctors learned the infection became life-threatening.