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On November 19, 28-year-old David Blount Jr. set out from his house early one morning to hunt some deer. He parked his pickup truck barely a street away from his home, in his aunt’s driveway, then stepped out to get his rifle from the truck bed.
The rifle was a family heirloom, one that had been passed down in Blount’s family for generations.
As Blount grabbed the barrel this time, the loaded bullet fired and went straight into his right forearm. “It was a freak accident,” Blount explained, “I had barely touched the gun, but the bullet went through my arm and flew out, skimming my head by five inches.
“One of the tools in the truck must have caught on the lever. There was a loud bang and a flash and the bone in my wrist was blown off. My wrist was hanging down and I'd torn all my ligaments.”
His aunt, who’d been inside the house at the time, didn’t think much of the gunshot sound because it was hunting season, and she lived close to where many locals would go to hunt deer. It was only when Blount walked in, dripping with blood, that she realized her mistake.
Blount’s aunt immediately helped her nephew bandage up his arm and drove him to the hospital for proper treatment. During that time, Blount called his fiancée, Kourtnee Harvey-Williams.
“I was in complete shock,” she said.
At the hospital, doctors were able to save Blount’s arm – but at a steep price. Surgeons took some skin from Blount’s left thigh and some muscle from his left underarm to repair his arm. They also had to insert a metal rod to rejoin the shattered bones.
Over the next week, Blount underwent three more, different 30-minute surgeries to keep his wound clean and monitor its progress. But “the skin was completely gone. … The wound was mangled with bits of skin inside.”
While Blount is recovering – his doctors are now advising him to keep his arm elevated for 40 minutes of every hour, totaling 16 hours of elevation each day – there is no guarantee that he will ever regain sensation in his right arm.
“Our lives have been turned upside down and his career has been put on hold, as he's right-handed and relies on his hands for work,” Harvey-Williams said. “He was in such shock he couldn't feel any pain at first. Now he only has a bit of feeling in two of his fingers.”
The couple has plans on getting married next year, but are currently hoping to raise about $10k to cover Blount’s current and future medical bills. You can support them here.
