THE BULLET that hit 18-year-old Rosell Bondoc’s left kidney, sending her to the hospital, missed her spine by a mere 2 centimeters.
“When I saw it, I thought to myself, thank God, it didn’t hit the spinal cord. If it had, she could have been paralyzed for the rest of her life,” Dr. Dominguez Reyes told the
Inquirer on Monday.
Bondoc ended up in the intensive care unit of Mary Chiles General Hospital on July 25 after she was hit by a stray bullet when Vhon Martin Tanto, the driver of a Hyundai Eon, shot and killed biker Mark Vincent Garalde following a road altercation in Quiapo, Manila.
Bondoc was throwing the garbage when she was shot in the back. The police, however, have yet to establish how she was hit, theorizing that the bullet may have ricocheted after it struck Garalde.
Reyes said Bondoc was rushed to the hospital just in time. She was bleeding profusely and in the emergency room, her blood pressure dropped to zero. They had to give her 10 bags of blood to save her.
Hospital director Rolando Florendo said the damaged kidney was stitched up, adding that Bondoc may be discharged in one or two weeks, depending on her recovery.