RICHARDS Bay High learner Coney Rossouw has unknowingly carried a bullet around, lodged in her upper arm, for the past nine months.
The 16-year-old sportswoman was taken by her parents to a doctor last Thursday after complaining of pain and swelling in her right arm following her participation at an athletics meeting in eShowe.
The talented shot-putter and discus thrower is preparing to represent KZN at SA national level.
‘The first thought was that I had torn the triceps muscle, but after Dr van Niekerk ordered an X-ray it showed the bullet in my arm,’ said Coney.
It didn’t take the family long to put two and two together, and the story had its origin at the Richards Bay Ski Boat Club celebrations last New Year’s Eve.
‘I had called my parents to fetch me at midnight and was walking towards the gate when I suddenly felt a sharp pain in my arm, about where it joins my back.
‘It wasn’t all that sore and I kept on walking but one of my friends behind me noticed that it was bleeding badly through my clothes.
‘My parents arrived and took me home where we examined the wound. We thought at first it may have been from a flare but there were no burn marks,’ said Coney.
Her father, Coenie, has military experience and soon recognised it as a bullet wound.
‘There was blood and water coming out of the hole in her arm, so I knew it was deep,’ he said.
Coney was taken to hospital and given a local anaesthetic before it was cleaned and then stitched at her mother’s insistence. No X-rays were taken at the time.
Although the wound left an ugly scar and there was heavy bruising, it duly healed and Coney lived painlessly until the recent athletics event.
‘We can only assume the bullet must have moved during the exertions. Besides the lump and the pain there is now evidence of inflammation.
‘Looking back at the incident on New Year’s Eve and the angle of the bullet’s trajectory down the arm, it appears a shot was fired up into the air from Alkantstrand,’ said Coney.
‘I know it could have been far worse had it landed on my head.’
With her sport activities now on hold, she is waiting to finish her exams while plans are being made to have the bullet surgically removed.
‘I would like to keep the bullet as a memento, but on the other hand it could perhaps be used in evidence if anyone was arrested for discharging a firearm that night that could be tied to the bullet.’
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