Woman suffers bullet wound
Wednesday, January 7, 2009 11:15 AM PST
PORTLAND (AP) — It wasn’t until the nurse in the emergency room lifted up a phone and said, ‘‘We’ve got a gunshot victim,’’ that Sandra Howell understood why her arm hurt so much.
She had been wounded by a bullet from a neighbor’s apartment.
Portland police said the neighbor tossed a gun on his bed, it discharged, and the bullet pierced the wall between.
Howell said she woke up about 3:30 a.m. Sunday.
‘‘I heard a pop, and then felt the pain and burning in my arm,’’ said the 46-year-old mother.
She said she wasn’t sure what had happened. She didn’t see any blood.
‘‘All I know I was screaming,’’ she said. ‘‘I had no clue what had happened until I got to the hospital.’’
The .38-caliber bullet had hit her in the left shoulder, traveling down her arm and lodging in her biceps.
‘‘They told me if it might have been an inch or two over, it could have hit my head,’’ Howell said. She had surgery Sunday to have the bullet removed, and returned to her Portland apartment Monday evening.
