Shock as woman shot in face survives
When they arrived at the scene of a hijacking on the Bluff, paramedics thought they were too late to save Sam Musk.
|||When they arrived at the scene of a hijacking on the Bluff, paramedics thought they were too late to save Sam Musk, 30, who was lying in a pool of blood after she had been shot in the face.
“And then I saw her chest was rising and falling, she was still alive,” said incredulous KwaZulu-Natal Emergency Medical Services paramedic, Queeneth Sibiya.
“She is one of the strongest woman I know to have survived such an attack.”
This week, Musk, an insurance broker and mother of two, spoke about her terrifying ordeal and the long road to recovery ahead.
Surrounded by family at her home on the Bluff, her jaw wired up, making it difficult for her to speak, she related the events surrounding the hijacking of her white VW Polo on the night of September 4.
“I was dropping off a client and we had pulled into his driveway in Kingsley Road in the Bluff. Suddenly there was someone next to my car and he just fired at me through the window.
“I remember him telling me to get out of the vehicle.
“Then he opened the door, dragged me out and chucked me on the ground,” Musk said.
The bullet had smashed through the window, hitting Musk in the jaw and severing her carotid artery, before lodging between two vertebrae.
“My client had been pulled out of the car by a second person. It all happened so quickly, then they were gone.
“I remember lying on the ground, my mouth filling up with blood. I could hear myself gurgling and my client rushed over. He was shouting my name over and over and he rolled me over on to my side.
“When the paramedics arrived, they thought I was dead already,” Musk said.
She was rushed to hospital where she was stabilised, before being moved to another hospital the following morning, where she spent two weeks in intensive care.
The operation to reconstruct her jaw could be performed only once the swelling had subsided and she had to spend four weeks in hospital.
Apart from a smashed jaw, the bullet also caused nerve damage causing paralysis in her right arm and leg, both of which have improved with physiotherapy. Musk also suffered bruising to the front and back of her head and the bullet remains lodged in her vertebrae.
“My head hit the steering wheel when I was shot and I was also badly bruised on the back of my head when I was thrown to the ground.
“There were also glass shards in my eye and hands. I was still picking out shards in my hand a week ago,” she said.
Musk was full of praise for the paramedics who attended the scene. “I remember being in the ambulance and the paramedic talking to me.
“Queenie was so calming, I knew I was in good hands. Both paramedics who came to the scene visited me on Sunday,” Musk said.
Her father, Adrian Booysen, said seeing the police coming up his driveway with the news his daughter had been shot was the worst moment of his life.
While Musk was on a hospital plan at the time of the shooting, it does not fully cover all her medical costs.
To make matters worse, she will not be able to return to work until January. Since she works on a commission basis, she cannot earn an income until then.
Durban musicians have stepped in to help Musk pay the massive medical bills she is now facing, with eight bands performing at a “Jam for Sam” event to be held on October 24 at the Fynnlands Sports Club on the Bluff.
Police said the hijacked vehicle had not yet been recovered, but that the investigation was continuing.
Independent on Saturday
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