On Oct. 13, 2013, 18-year-old Martha Childress' life changed forever.
As she awaited a taxi to take her back to her
dorm room on the campus of the University of South Carolina, Childress
was struck by a stray bullet fired from a gun by a man she had never
even met.
The bullet hit Childress in the ribcage and she immediately collapsed to the ground. She says she remembers everything that happened in the moments after she was hit.
"I didn't really know I was shot at first. I just knew I heard a loud bang and
I fell and didn't really know what was going on and I couldn't feel my
legs," said Childress. "I looked over to my best friend, who was
standing next to me, and I just told her, 'I can't feel my legs. I can't
move.'"
Childress says chaos
surrounded her in those desperate moments where she didn't exactly know
the extent of her injuries. She repeatedly asked anyone in the area what
happened and she finally received the word as her lungs began to fill with blood.
"Then finally, I was like, 'Please tell me
what's going on,' and they told me I was shot," said Childress. "I just
went quiet. I had no idea, and then all these crazy questions went
through my mind like, 'Why would someone do this to me, what happened,
why did I deserve this?'"
She was transported to Palmetto Health
Richland Hospital in critical condition where doctors finally told her
she was paralyzed. It was a fact Childress said she already knew
"I had the worst idea in my mind, I knew, though, I was. It just confirmed what I already knew," said Childress. "It was hard."
After almost a week in intensive care,
Childress was moved to the Shepherd Center in Atlanta to begin the long
rehabilitation process. It was a transition she was not prepared for,
she said
"Coming here was a big adjustment," said
Childress. "I wasn't ready for what I was about to get into. It's very
demanding and grueling here. It's hard to learn these things because you
start all over.
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