Silicon breast implant stops bullet
Lydia Carranza is grateful to have survived the gunshot
An American woman, who was shot in the chest at point blank range, was saved by her size-D breast implants.
Lydia Carranza was working at a dental office in California when the husband of her colleague stormed into the premises.
The man, armed with a semi-automatic assault rifle, was there for his wife who had asked for a divorce.
The wife's brother, also worked at the office, went up and tried to reason with the man but was shot in his stomach.
The gunman then turned to his wife and fired several shots, killing her on the spot.
Then, he turned to Carranza and other co-workers crouching less than 0.6-metre from the wife's body and opened fire.
Carranza was hit in her right arm and just when she pretended she was dead, the gunman aimed his pistol at her heart and fired another shot.
But the mother of three children and grandmother of two was lucky enough to survive, thanks to her silicone breast implants.
Carranza had performed the surgery a few years before the incident to change her breast size from B-cup to D-cup.
"She's just one lucky woman. The bullet fragments were millimetres from her heart and her vital organs.
"Had she not had the implant, she might not be alive today," Carranza's surgeon Dr. Ashkan Ghavami told the Los Angeles Times.
He added that the the implant absorbed much of the bullet's impact, limiting most of the damage to the breast itself.
Carranza told the daily that: "I just felt wet in my chest area. I thought I was going to die."
She said she was grateful to have survived far "worse than a scary movie".
Jaime Paredes, the alleged gunman, is awaiting trial on charges including murder following the shooting in July, last year.
Published Feb 27 2010
Lydia Carranza is grateful to have survived the gunshot
An American woman, who was shot in the chest at point blank range, was saved by her size-D breast implants.
Lydia Carranza was working at a dental office in California when the husband of her colleague stormed into the premises.
The man, armed with a semi-automatic assault rifle, was there for his wife who had asked for a divorce.
The wife's brother, also worked at the office, went up and tried to reason with the man but was shot in his stomach.
The gunman then turned to his wife and fired several shots, killing her on the spot.
Then, he turned to Carranza and other co-workers crouching less than 0.6-metre from the wife's body and opened fire.
Carranza was hit in her right arm and just when she pretended she was dead, the gunman aimed his pistol at her heart and fired another shot.
But the mother of three children and grandmother of two was lucky enough to survive, thanks to her silicone breast implants.
Carranza had performed the surgery a few years before the incident to change her breast size from B-cup to D-cup.
"She's just one lucky woman. The bullet fragments were millimetres from her heart and her vital organs.
"Had she not had the implant, she might not be alive today," Carranza's surgeon Dr. Ashkan Ghavami told the Los Angeles Times.
He added that the the implant absorbed much of the bullet's impact, limiting most of the damage to the breast itself.
Carranza told the daily that: "I just felt wet in my chest area. I thought I was going to die."
She said she was grateful to have survived far "worse than a scary movie".
Jaime Paredes, the alleged gunman, is awaiting trial on charges including murder following the shooting in July, last year.
Published Feb 27 2010
