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Shakena Jefferson of Miami survived a drive-by shooting but a doctor reportedly misdiagnosed the severity of her wound at an area hospital a short time later.
Jefferson, 42, was treated for what the doctor then called a graze wound. He bandaged her left temple and sent her home with antibiotics, her wife, Janet Medley, told ABC News. Three days later, Jefferson was X-rayed at another hospital’s trauma center where a bullet was found still lodged in her head.
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Jefferson underwent emergency surgery on Saturday to remove the bullet.
“We are so grateful to be here. So grateful to be alive,” Medley, who also suffered injuries in the drive-by shooting, said from her hospital room, located a floor below where Jefferson is recovering, ABC News reported.
Miami-Dade Police Detective Argemis Colome told ABC News the shooting occurred last Tuesday in southwest Miami and that Jefferson and two other victims were injured. Colome said witnesses told police the suspects were driving all-terrain vehicles.
The victims are all gay but Colome said investigators are so far not calling the shooting a hate crime. “We’re definitely looking into it as a very violent crime. We’ll see if we get more information and if it does come to that then obviously there will be an additional charge that we can add,” Colome told ABC News. “As of now, we don’t have enough to determine that. We’re not discarding it, but we don’t have enough right now to definitely make that an additional charge.”
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Medley said that she and Jefferson were preparing to head out to go grocery shopping and were getting into a car when bullets rang out.
“The guy must have had an automatic weapon because I can still hear the gunshots in my ears, ‘Pop, pop, pop, pop.’ It wouldn’t stop,” she told ABC News. Medley hit her knee on the open car door as she dove for cover.
So far, no arrests have been made.