BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -A Mississippi woman who was shot in the head not only survived but made herself tea and offered an astonished deputy something to drink, authorities said Friday. Tammy Sexton, 47, remained hospitalized three days after being wounded by her husband, who killed himself after he shot his wife. A bullet struck her squarely in the forehead, passed through her skull and exited through the back of her head, authorities said. She is expected to fully recover.
“There’s no way she should be alive other than a miracle from God,” said Sheriff Mike Byrd of Jackson County, Miss.
“She was at her bed, and he shot her right in the head,” Byrd said. “Then he went out on the back porch and shot himself.”
A deputy was greeted by the woman when he arrived minutes after she was shot with the slug from a .380-caliber handgun.
“When the officer got there she said, `What’s going on?’ She was holding a rag on her head and talking. She was conscious, but she was confused about what had happened,” he said. “She had made herself some tea and offered the officer something to drink.”
Byrd said the bullet apparently passed through the lobes of the woman’s brain without causing major damage. She was rushed to a Mobile hospital by a helicopter.
While such cases may be rare, neurosurgeons say such an outcome is possible. Medical journals also confirm people have been shot in the head with little or no lasting injury.
“You just don’t hear of something like this. Somebody gets shot in the head and they’re dead,” Byrd said.