Former Disney star Christy Carlson Romano nearly lost an eye while shooting clay pigeons with her husband, Brendan Rooney, for his birthday.
On Saturday, the 40-year-old actress shared an Instagram video showing the injuries to her face, including a large wound under her right eye, after she was “hit in five places” by “another party.”
In her post, Romano explained that the outing was intended to be a “present” for Rooney’s birthday.
“So, I got shot in the eye. It was not fun,” the “Even Stevens” star said with a shaky sigh at the beginning of the clip.
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“I got shot here. It is still inside,” she continued, pointing to a bullet hole under her eye, which was swollen with blood inside the eyeball.
“There’s a fragment here,” Romano said, tapping the side of her face near her eye.
“There’s a fragment here,” she added, pointing to a mark on her forehead. Romano lifted her hair to show another wound on her forehead, saying, “We cleaned that out.”
“I’m very grateful to first responders as a whole. I mean, they’re just the most amazing superheroes to take care of us at our most desperate times.”
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Romano expressed her gratitude for the care she received at St. John’s South Austin Medical Center in Austin, Texas.
“This was really bad tonight,” she said. “Everything’s kind of clearing out. But I’ve got to say, I got shot in the face. And live to tell the tale.
“Be grateful for every day.”
“I saw my life flash before my eyes.”
In the caption of her post, Romano went into further detail about Friday’s harrowing incident.
“Yesterday was my husband’s birthday and I took him to shoot clay pigeons as a present,” she wrote. “There was another party with us and they unsafely fired in the wrong direction and shot me in the face.”
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The “Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test” star said her husband “immediately sprung into action, assessed me, and rushed me to the hospital. I was hit in 5 places, one was less than an inch from hitting me directly in my right eye.”
“Unfortunately a fragment got lodged behind my eye and it is too risky to remove surgically at this time,” she added. “Doctors will continue to monitor me.”
Romano noted she can “see normally at the moment.”
“With everything that happened, all I can think about is how grateful I am to be alive. I love my daughters, husband, family, and friends so much.
“I saw my life flash before my eyes and I’m telling you, hug the people around you every chance you can. Life can change in an instant.”
Romano and Rooney first met in February 2011 and tied the knot in December 2013. The couple share daughters Isabella Victoria, 8, and Sophia Elizabeth, 5.
The writer-director shared a tribute to his wife in the comments of her Instagram post.
“You are the bravest, toughest, most stoic and badass woman I have ever met,” he said. “I am so thankful you are alive. I am so thankful you are the mother to our children. I wouldn’t know what to do without you.
“I love you more than life itself,” he added, with a prayer hands emoji.
Rooney also shared his wife’s video on his Instagram story, writing, “Kiss your loved ones,” adding an emoji of a red heart.
Clay pigeon shooting is an outdoor sport in which upside-down circular disks made of limestone and pitch used as targets are propelled into the air by machines called traps. Shooters use shotguns with each shot projecting hundreds of small lead balls to hit the clay pigeons.
The sport is typically not considered dangerous as long as safety measures are followed.
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