Though Kuyuki was still very much a young man in the prime of his life he had serious green eyes that looked as though they had seen too much. Pain had done that to him. He had read his medical file, which was pinned to the foot of his bed, and understood what had happened to him.
In truth, he should have been dead. He should have been dead long ago, but that's a story for another time. Anthony Kuyuki had been hit by a bullet from a .22 rifle from a distance of almost 250 feet. The sniper had been aiming for his heart - and if the bullet had found its target, Kuyuki would have had no chance of surviving. But nothing is certain - not even murder. A tiny movement had saved his life. As he had come out the building, he had stepped off the front steps onto the ground, his right foot carrying his body down towards the level of the road. It was at that exact moment that the bullet had hit him, and instead of powering into his heart, it had entered his body half an inch higher, ricoheting off a rib and exiting horizontally under his left arm.
The bullet had missed his vital heart stuctures, but even so, it had done plenty of damage, tearing through the subclavian artery, which carries blood over the top of the lung and into the arm. This was what Kuyuki had felt when he was hit. As blood had poured out of the severed artery, filling the space between the lung and the thoracic cage, he had found himself unable to breathe. Kuyuki could have easily have died from shock or loss of blood. Kuyuki was unconscious when the first ambulance arrived about half a minute later.
There wasn't much the parmedics could do: IV fluids, oxygen, and some gentle compression around the bullet's point of entry. But that was enough. Kuyuki had been rushed to the St. Dominic's, where surgeons had removed the bone fragments and put a graft on the artery. He had been in the operating room two and a half hours.
In truth, he should have been dead. He should have been dead long ago, but that's a story for another time. Anthony Kuyuki had been hit by a bullet from a .22 rifle from a distance of almost 250 feet. The sniper had been aiming for his heart - and if the bullet had found its target, Kuyuki would have had no chance of surviving. But nothing is certain - not even murder. A tiny movement had saved his life. As he had come out the building, he had stepped off the front steps onto the ground, his right foot carrying his body down towards the level of the road. It was at that exact moment that the bullet had hit him, and instead of powering into his heart, it had entered his body half an inch higher, ricoheting off a rib and exiting horizontally under his left arm.
The bullet had missed his vital heart stuctures, but even so, it had done plenty of damage, tearing through the subclavian artery, which carries blood over the top of the lung and into the arm. This was what Kuyuki had felt when he was hit. As blood had poured out of the severed artery, filling the space between the lung and the thoracic cage, he had found himself unable to breathe. Kuyuki could have easily have died from shock or loss of blood. Kuyuki was unconscious when the first ambulance arrived about half a minute later.
There wasn't much the parmedics could do: IV fluids, oxygen, and some gentle compression around the bullet's point of entry. But that was enough. Kuyuki had been rushed to the St. Dominic's, where surgeons had removed the bone fragments and put a graft on the artery. He had been in the operating room two and a half hours.
