While walking down the street at night, Katie McDonnell sustained an injury that should have killed her. She didn't even realize the extent of the damage until she looked down...
Unlikely Scenario
Generally speaking, breast implants are an aesthetic choice—not a method of self-defense. However, for one 30-year-old Canadian woman, these simple bags of silicon managed to save her from a deadly fate...
Making History
There few recorded instances in which a person's breast implant has played a significant role in saving their life. Doctors were stunned by the woman's condition when she took herself to the nearest emergency room. They had never seen anything like this before...
Casual Evening Out
Katie McDonnell, a 30-year-old Ontario native, was heading home for the evening after a night out with some friends. She hadn't strayed far from home. The bar was only a few blocks from her apartment, and she usually felt safe enough walking alone after dark...
Something Wasn't Right
As Katie wound through the streets, she tried to bury the peculiar sense that she was being followed. Every few moments, Katie turned on her heel, hoping to catch someone behind her. It was no use. Still, she couldn't shake the feeling...
Sudden Pain
Despite Katie's attempts to soothe herself, her unease only grew more intense. Katie was only a few steps from her apartment building when she felt a sudden heat and pain on the left side of her chest. She felt the area with her hand, and when she pulled it away, she saw that her fingers were red and sticky with blood...
Trip to the E.R.
Katie was baffled. What had happened to her—and more importantly, why hadn't she noticed it? Confused and in pain, Katie made her way to the nearest emergency room, only to be met with total bewilderment...
Totally Perplexed
Soon after Katie entered the E.R., she was transferred to the hospital's trauma center. At first, the doctors had no idea what had caused the perforation in her side. It was the same size and shape as a bullet hole, but there was no visible exit wound...
She Had Been Shot
Sure enough, after she was sent in for an x-ray, the medical team found a mass that had been obscured by one of Katie's breast implants. Katie was shocked to learn how the implant had saved her life...
Bizarre Coincidence
Doctors explained to Katie that the bullet had been shot at close range, entering the left side of her chest. Instead of going straight through her heart and back, as the shooter had likely intended, Katie's breast implant deflect the bullet to her right side, where it became lodged behind her breast.
Medical Mystery
Doctors were puzzled by Katie's demeanor. She was in perfectly stable condition, speaking coherently to the doctors and surgeons. For someone who had survived a fatal gunshot wound, Katie was acting as though she had only sustained a minor injury...
How Was It Possible?
The bullet had caused a number of rib fractures, which allowed doctors to trace its trajectory through Katie's body. Doctors at the hospital had never seen anything like this before, including the plastic surgeon who was assigned to operate on Katie...
Extracting the Bullet
Plastic surgeon Giancarlo McEvenue performed implant removal surgery on Katie, at which point he also removed the copper-jacketed 0.40 caliber bullet that could have taken her life. He submitted the bullet to the police, hoping they could identify Katie's shooter...
Still Out There
Unfortunately, the shooter was never identified, nor was the firearm ever recovered. The case was so unique that McEvenue published a case study on "breast implant-related firearm injuries." McEvenue described Katie as a "comfortable patient in no distress," despite her potentially life-threatening injuries.
Not Alone
Although the circumstances are incredibly rare, breast implants have been known to save lives in other situations. For some women, undergoing a breast augmentation did more than enhance their self-esteem. This simple cosmetic procedure ended up protecting them from near-fatal injuries...
Bulletproof Chest
The implants of Eileen Likness were put to the test after she kissed her boyfriend goodnight. The Canadian woman dropped off her boyfriend, Fernando Chora, on a side street in Calgary when suddenly she heard two gunshots. Eileen glanced around, only to see her boyfriend standing a few feet away...
Shot By Her Boyfriend
It took Eileen several seconds before she realized that she had been shot in the chest at point-blank range by her boyfriend. She ran from the car and entered a nearby restaurant, screaming for help. Eileen was then airlifted to the hospital, where it was discovered that her implants had stopped the bullet from killing her...
38KKK Line of Defense
Sheyla's life flashed before her eyes, but the thing that stood between her and death was her enormous chest. Her 38KKK fake breasts cushioned the blow, effectively saving her life. "The accident was bad and my boobs are sore, but they protected the rest of me," Sheyla said. Originally, Sheyla's breasts were size MMM, but a life-threatening infection forced her to remove them...
Struggling to Cope
After she was left with sagging skin where her implants had once been, Sheyla sank into a deep depression, even attempting suicide. "Not having my breasts was killing me, I didn't know if I could make it," she said. "My breasts had become part of me and I was deformed without them. I felt like I had lost a leg." Fortunately, she was able to have her implants reinserted prior to her accident...
Implants Destroyed
Needless to say, Eileen's implants were destroyed in the shooting. "They were gone," she testified in trial. Certain that her implants prevented her premature death, Eileen immediately had new implants inserted after recovering from her wounds. Her boyfriend was convicted for attempted murder.
Built-In Airbags
40-year-old Sheyla Hershey, a model with the world's largest breast implants, wasn't wearing a seatbelt when her Ford Mustang spun around and smashed into a tree on the other side of the road. The Guinness World Record-holder was accused of driving while intoxicated...
Kangaroo Attack
While cycling along the Riesling Trail, one of the most popular and picturesque trails in Clare Valley, Australia, Sharon Heinrich soon became the victim of an unprecedented attack. Heinrich noticed a kangaroo standing up on a nearby ledge...
Lucky to Be Alive
Te marsupial knocked Heinrich and her cycling pal, Helen Salter, right off their bikes. The kangaroo, which Heinrich believed to be a male buck, leaped on top of Heinrich and used his powerful legs to jump from her chest on top of Salter, rupturing Heinrich's breast implants in the process.
Getting to Safety
Not only had the kangaroo burst Heinrich's breast implants, but the incident left her with three cracked ribs and various cuts and bruises. Salter suffered a concussion. Neither of the women had their phones on them. Fortunately, a group of tourists spotted the women on the trail...
Trip to the Hospital
Salter made her way to the nearest town to seek help. A local business called an ambulance and Heinrich was rushed to the hospital, where a surgeon told her that she could have died. Despite her injuries, Heinrich urged people to continue hiking the trail. "Please don't let anybody be scared, because it was a beautiful, beautiful ride before 'Skip' played," she said.
Breast Implants Helped Diagnose Her With Cancer
Kelly Brown, a mother of four, paid £5,000 for a private breast augmentation operation to fill out her 32AA breasts to 34DD with silicone implants. The 33-year-old had already been to see her doctor about the small lump on her right breast four times in three years...
Something to Worry About
Every time Kelly had gone to the doctor concerning her lump, she was given an ultrasound, but medical professionals reassured her that the lump—which eventually grew to the size of a golf ball—was simply a benign cyst. The breast augmentation procedure then revealed that Kelly, then 29, was seriously ill.
Wrong Diagnosis
Kelly's family didn't have a history of breast cancer, so she didn't believe that she was at risk. As the lump continued to get bigger, Kelly continued to visit her doctor, but she was convinced that it was likely hormonal. Assured that the lump was nothing to worry about, Kelly took out a loan for the operation...
Causing Problems
"At first the doctor at the private clinic kept refusing me because of my lump, but when I got a letter from the hospital confirming that it was a cyst, he agreed to perform the operation," she said. After a number of infections, Kelly's breast implants were removed and later reinserted... but at the six-week checkup, the doctor said she needed to get a biopsy, seeing as her lump had increased in size.
Devastating News
The doctors who had once told her that she had no chance of developing cancer said that she was finally starting treatment—two years too late. After six grueling rounds of chemotherapy, Kelly underwent a mastectomy and reconstructive surgeries. Finally, it was revealed that Kelly's tumors were shrinking, extending her life expectancy to as long as ten years.
Living Life to the Fullest
Kelly and her boyfriend James got married, and she intends to try to spend her remaining years with her loved ones. "Although it's too late for me now to cure my cancer completely, I want to tell other women with lumps in their breast to insist on being taken seriously," she said. "I know I probably wouldn't be here today if I didn't have my 34DDs."