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'I was shot in the face': Amy's 'lucky' escape

A Perth woman who was shot in the face in a US gang-shooting has told of her ordeal and the 'lucky' circumstances that saved her life.

Amy Matthews, 21, was caught in a 2014 shooting in New Orleans while on a US holiday after finishing university.

The drug-related shooting on notorious Bourborn Street killed one woman and injured nine others.

"I heard the first shot… it’s not something you hear usually like it’s a sound you’d never hear, so my brain was struggling to figure out what it was in the beginning," Amy told reporter PJ Madam.

"And then I heard it again and then people started running and screaming."

CCTV footage of the shooting shows a busy street deserted in seconds after the shooting started.

Amy was with a friend at the bar Krazy Korner when the first shots rang out.

A bullet hit her in the cheek, exiting through her top lip and smashing 13 of her teeth, it melted her gums and shredded her tongue.

Despite the terrible damage to her face, Amy was unaware she had been hit but knew something was wrong.

Amy is treated in Bourbon Street after the shooting.
Amy is treated in Bourbon Street after the shooting.

"I felt heat a lot of heat in my cheek and I spat blood and teeth into my hand."

She said she ran to the first person she could find, a security worker at the bar and SU Marine Will McDaniel.

A man familiar with being under fire, McDaniel remained calm and assessed her wounds but knew he would need medical expertise to help Amy further.

Almost kind of like a zombie movie …her hands were completely covered in blood. Blood up to almost her eyes," Gunnery Sergeant Will McDaniel said.

At her graduation
At her graduation

"She just ended up in my arms and I just pulled her off down a side street.

"I needed the right kind of help."

Out of the chaos, military doctor — or Corpsman — Josh Whatman emerged.

Combined, they were her best hope at making it out alive.

"When a Marine needs the most help, aside from his buddies keeping the bad guys away, the Corpsman is gonna save your life."

In another stroke of luck that night, Amy's surgeon revealed the trajectory of the bullet that hit her was millimetres from causing severe damage or death.

"A little lower, the bullet would've shattered the lower jaw which would've made reconstruction much more difficult," he said.

Any recovers in hospital after the shooting.
Any recovers in hospital after the shooting.

"A little higher, she would have had much more damage to the upper jaw as well, possibly the nose, eyes, brain."

Amy has made a remarkable physical recovery from her injuries, but still suffers from PTSD.

"I just feel lucky that I came out of something that you wouldn’t expect people to come out of that kind of thing so I’m just happy that I’m unluckily lucky – that’s how I see it."

Amy travelled back to New Orleans recently for the first time to meet them men who saved her life.

"I don't go a day without thinking about them."

"All I know is that I got grabbed by both of them and there was nothing else to think about. It's a bond that no-one else will understand."

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