Recovery for Kari After Expressway Shooting

At approximately 3 am this past July 3rd, my 25-year-old daughter Kari became the victim of a drive-by shooting as she was driving on I-240 near the Poplar Ave. exit.  She and her passenger, Kevon, were on their way to the 24-hr AutoZone in Memphis to get a part for her truck, so that she and her boyfriend, Kenny, could fix her truck and they would be able to get to their job site that morning. Kari and her boyfriend renovate and rehab houses. It's a very physical job, and Kari loves doing it and takes pride in her work (Her favorite part is doing tile work.). 

As she approached the Poplar exit, her friend Kevon heard two pinging sounds on the car and asked Kari, "What was that?" He then turned around and saw a late model SUV, possibly a GMC Yukon, pulling from behind them to alongside them on the driver side where my daughter was. Kevon realized what was happening and told Kari, "They're shooting at us. Go! Go!" By this time, the SUV was beside them and continuing to shoot into the car on the driver's side. Windows shattered. My daughter knew she had been shot when she felt the burning in her back. News story link here 

Despite being shot by what would later be determined to be a 556 amour piercing round from an assault rifle, she was able to stay focused thanks to Kevon's encouragement and directions and exit I-240 at Walnut Grove.  If they had stopped to switch seats, they would have been killed. The police later counted 13 bullet holes in the back and driver side of the car, a car she had wanted to buy from her brother, a 1999 Honda Accord.  Kevon and the Honda saved Kari's life.

Kari somehow drove to the Baptist Hospital ER just off the Walnut Grove exit. Kevon thankfully escaped injury. At the Baptist Hospital ER, it was determined that my daughter had an entry and exit wound in her abdominal area, into the back and out the front. She was stabilized and airlifted to the Regional One Trauma Center where she underwent emergency exploratory laparotomy, splenectomy, pancreas repair, and transverse colon repair.

After surgery, she was sent to Trauma Stepdown where she will remain for some time due to her surgical site having to remain open to prevent infection. She eventually will go to the medical/surgical floor and remain there before finally being able to come home. She has two surgical drains, an NG tube in one nostril, a feeding tube in the other nostril. She has a central line in her shoulder, two peripheral IVs, and a Foley catheter. She is in a tremendous amount of pain due to the abdominal muscles having to be cut/separated to access her abdominal cavity and repair the damage from the armor piercing round.

Please remember that Kari has no family at her bedside. Due to Covid-19, the hospital is on lockdown, and she is allowed no visitors. Her siblings, her father, and I are unable to comfort her, hold her hand, brush her hair, or to simply sit and be present with her. We are dependent upon text messages, video messages, and phone calls to reach her. At this time, she is in too much pain to participate, but we send the text and video messages so that they are there on her phone when she is able to watch and listen to them.  She is unable to even roll over in the bed without assistance from the nursing staff. 

Kari, a wonderful, intelligent, kind, delightfully quirky young woman was shot for simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time. She has months of recovery ahead of her before she is able to resume her physically taxing job. She will need monetary assistance during her recovery phase until she can resume work, which she is determined to do. It will take time. 

The driver of the possibly stolen SUV and the shooter have not yet been caught. To my knowledge, other than Kari and Kevon, there were no other witnesses to the two men who tried to kill them.

On Monday, July 6th, my younger daughter Noelle and I will be taking gifts for her to the hospital. They will be picked up from the front desk. I will not be allowed to see my child. She will not be able to see her mother. 

Kari, being the honorable person she is, feels guilty over her brother's car, the 21 year old car she wanted to buy, which was destroyed in the barrage of gunfire. That car was her shield. She shouldn't be worried about that, but she is. She is also worried that her family (Ron [father], Hunter [older brother], Trevor [younger brother], Noelle [younger sister], and I) and boyfriend Kenny won't be kept in the loop despite us calling the nurse's station to get updates. Her focus should be on healing, but through the pain, through the fear, she worries about others. She shouldn't have to.  Her recovery comes first.

Please help my daughter to know that her recovery and convalescence at her home with her boyfriend will have some measure of financial ease.  The more she worries, the longer the healing will take. She is 25 years old. Her birthday is July 16th. She will still be in the hospital on her birthday. She will still not have seen her family. She misses her family, her boyfriend, her dog Charlie (a border collie rescue) and her squirrel Shoe (also a rescue). She is a light in this world and makes it a better place.

All donations will go towards Kari's medical expenses and post-hospital recovery.
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