Discovery Health
By
Sara Reistad-Long
For many pregnant women, just keeping your baby-to-be healthy and yourself sane for nine months can feel like a monstrous challenge. But for the four mothers of
Discovery Health's upcoming special
"She Survived That…Pregnant?!" -- airing November 30 at 8 PM EST/PT -- those concerns were just the beginning. From outrunning a bear -- only to be hit by a car -- to surviving being impaled by a microphone stand, these women not only made it through unbelievably bizarre and life-threatening situations, they also did it while pregnant.
AOL Health spoke with Andrea Benjamin, the 25-year-old mother of three, who lived through multiple gunshot wounds to the abdomen while pregnant with her son in May 2008.
AOL Health: What happened to you was pretty unbelievable, what do you remember of the experience itself?Andrea Benjamin: I was seven and a half months pregnant, and I'd just moved back to Saint Paul, Minn. It was a bad neighborhood. That night I was at home [in my apartment] with my boyfriend and 10-month-old son, watching a movie. Somebody buzzed the door, and I wouldn't open it. Suddenly, the person started shooting. I immediately called the police, but as I did that, I felt myself get shot. Over and over. I was crying to them, "I've been shot, I've been shot."
I wound up on the ground, throwing up blood, and when I looked down,
amniotic fluid was pouring out of the bullet hole [in my abdomen]. That's when the labor started. My younger son was on the ground. I didn't know if he'd been shot or not. When the police came to get me, all I remember saying was, "Save me, save my baby."
AOL Health: Did you think you'd both make it?AB: When I saw where the bullet hit, I was sure my baby was dead. From what I know about pregnancy, he should have been. But he'd flipped around in the womb, and that saved him. He had wounds in his thighs and rear, but none in his body. They put me under
[anesthesia] the moment I got to the hospital. Waking up to find out he was alive, too, was just incredible.
AOL Health: Afterward, what happened? That's a lot of trauma to deal with.AB: It took a lot of time for me to recover, and my new son -- I named him Jaden -- was so tiny; he had to stay in the hospital for a long time. They caught the person [who shot me], but while visiting my son at the hospital, I'd feel
paranoid around people. I'd get in the elevator and as other people entered I'd get more and more nervous. My palms would start to sweat, but I had to work through it and figure out how to live my life safely moving forward.
AOL Health: How did your life change, following the attack?AB: I moved out of the projects. I'm Native American, and the chief on my tribe's reservation heard about my story and offered me a house. I also went back to school for business. It turns out I'm good at that. I have a 3.5 GPA. Someday, I want to move to a new state, run a business. With everything that happened, I feel like I could have come out angry or productive. I'm choosing productive. I survived being shot -- the little setbacks seem tiny compared to that.
AOL Health: How's Jaden, who is now one and a half years old?AB: He has some nerve damage, and he's still so small. Everything he does, he does slower. But he's so special. I almost lost him. Sometimes when he's sleeping I just look at him and he's so adorable. He's my heart. Everybody says I favor him. I try not to, but we're just so intensely connected.
