Woman Forced to Live With Her Intestines Hanging Out Of Her Intestines After She Was Shot In 2017
- Anu
- June 12, 2020
- Health, Trending
- Takieyah Reaves, Woman Whose Intestines Are Hanging Outside Her Stomach
- 0 Comments
A woman has been left with her intestines hanging out of her abdomen after a nightclub shooting in 2017.
Mother of two, Takieyah Reaves escaped death after being shot twice by a random attacker who sprayed bullets at a crowd of nightclubbers.
Takieyah who was 29 when the incident happened was struck in her stomach and right leg. One of those bullets blew her stomach wide open, with doctors warning she was unlikely to survive intensive surgery aimed at repairing her damaged insides.
After doctors stitched her up, the size of the wound on her stomach made it impossible to close, forcing her to live with a gaping hole on her torso and with the inside of her intestines fully exposed.
This has left people mistaking the protruding wound for a pregnancy. ‘It will get patched up properly, but it has been left open and exposed ever since it happened. It bulges and I am constantly asked if I am pregnant when I go out. People ask me if it’s a boy or a girl and I then have to explain everything.’ Takieyah, a criminal justice student told Metro UK.
Takieyah continued: ‘I wasn’t supposed to make it out of hospital alive, my family were told to say their goodbyes. I am so grateful to still be here and be given a second chance at life, but I can’t help feeling depressed by how I looked.” She lost 4.5 liters of blood and defied death to survive the shooting.
‘I kept my stomach hidden from everyone for a long time, even from my kids. I was so depressed by my body, I had scars all over and I hated it. ‘I just wanted to curl up in a ball and hide and I was scared to go outside because of guns on the street.
“I also didn’t want anyone to see my body so I found it hard to live my life as normal.”
Doctors created a makeshift lining for Takieyah’s stomach by using skin from her leg.
‘It has changed my life but I am so grateful I am still able to raise my kids. I was depressed for a while but I decided that I couldn’t go on like that for their sake. ‘I do want my body back but I see them as my war scars. People tell me how beautiful I am and I have learned to embrace what happened.’
Takieyah is due to have her stomach stitched back together for good, at the end of June this year after three years of living with an open wound.
