Amedy Dewey, eight years after a shotgun blast severely damaged her face, found herself once more in a hospital bed, preparing for another surgical procedure. The familiar blue gown, bright fluorescent lights, and an IV line taped to her arm were all too common sights for her. Since surviving a murder-suicide incident in 2018, she had already undergone nearly 40 operations to mend the extensive injuries.<\/p>\n
While the anxiety preceding each surgery never lessened, this particular operation carried a distinct significance. The surgical team at Northwell Health\u2019s Lenox Hill Hospital aimed to reconstruct her jaw, restore her teeth, and provide her with a new left eye, assuming the procedure proceeded as planned. The medical professionals generously volunteered their expertise, and the costs associated with the surgery were covered by NextGenFace, a non-profit organization dedicated to assisting patients with craniofacial conditions. Dewey’s compelling story had previously been featured in a five-part series by the Detroit Free Press, a publication within the USA TODAY Network.<\/p>\n
For Dewey, now 26 years old, this represented a crucial opportunity to finally regain a sense of normalcy. She expressed the profound weariness of her journey, questioning, \u201cYears of surgery after surgery after surgery, like, when is it gonna be done?\u201d She elaborated on the emotional toll, stating, \u201cThe weight, like the anxiety, the fear that, \u2018oh my God, I’m gonna be in pain for this long.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Dewey was an 18-year-old high school senior when her stepfather, David Somers, shot her in the face before fatally shooting her mother, Lisa Somers, and then taking his own life. The shotgun pellets inflicted catastrophic damage, destroying her left eye socket, shattering the roof of her mouth, and severely harming her optic nerve, eyesight, nose, and upper lip.<\/p>\n
On that cold January night, as law enforcement officers meticulously collected fragments of her teeth and face from the highway, her survival seemed highly improbable. Dewey recounted their initial assessment: \u201cThey kept telling each other, essentially I’m not gonna make it.\u201d Her eventual survival, she noted, left them \u201cabsolutely just baffled.\u201d<\/p>\n
Firearms stand as the leading cause of death for children and teenagers across the United States, according to data from the Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund. Annually, approximately 22,000 adolescents are either shot and killed or wounded. For those who survive firearm-related injuries, the path to recovery often involves years of surgeries, persistent chronic pain, and expensive medical treatments.<\/p>\n
Exposure to gun violence is also strongly linked to a wide array of mental health challenges. Survivors frequently experience higher rates of depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Experts highlight that various aspects of the recovery process, including repeated surgeries like Dewey\u2019s, can be re-traumatizing for years following the initial incident.<\/p>\n
Dr. David Hirsch, one of the lead surgeons for Dewey\u2019s facial reconstruction and the senior vice president of dental medicine and chair of oral and maxillofacial surgery at Northwell Health, explained the psychological impact. \u201cA patient doesn’t know when that’s going to strike,\u201d he said, referring to emotional triggers. \u201cYou bring them to the hospital, they see something that all of a sudden a flood of emotions comes back, and it can be super difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite her extensive injuries, Dewey never attempted to conceal her scars. For her prom night, merely three months after the shooting, she chose a dark blue, beaded dress that resembled the princess gowns from movies and had her brunette hair styled in a half-up, half-down fashion.<\/p>\n
She distinctly remembered instructing her makeup artist, \u201cDon\u2019t cover me up. These are battle scars, these are not shameful, I wear them, and I wear them proudly.\u201d<\/p>\n
In her small hometown, where her graduating class consisted of just 99 students, her community quickly adapted to Dewey\u2019s physical alterations and offered unwavering support. However, interactions with strangers proved more challenging. During her first outing to a bar after the incident, one girl covered her left eye and pointed, another called her \u201cpig nose,\u201d and a man remarked that she was \u201coffending makeup by wearing it.\u201d<\/p>\n
She also encountered individuals who treated her with excessive fragility, as if she were a delicate glass ornament, and strangers who would unsolicitedly exclaim, \u201cOh my God, I\u2019m so sorry.\u201d Dewey, an adrenaline enthusiast who enjoys roller coasters, grew up with two lively older brothers and participates in mud bogging on back roads, found such pity deeply irritating. She dismissed the bar insults as drunken foolishness and other comments as well-intentioned ignorance.<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, these comments still caused her pain. For many years, she avoided looking in mirrors at home. Dewey emphasized, \u201cJust because I got shot, doesn’t mean to treat me fragile.\u201d She added, \u201cIt took me a lot of years to have the patience to not get upset.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even more frustrating were the persistent physical difficulties. As her weight fluctuated, her mouth structure changed, causing her dentures to no longer fit. At one point, she was entirely without teeth. Her diet became restricted, primarily consisting of mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, and finely diced chicken cubes. Simple acts, such as attempting to eat a burger, transformed into monumental challenges.<\/p>\n
Dr. Hirsch noted that his team rarely performs surgeries for facial gunshot wounds because most individuals who sustain such injuries do not survive. He recalled his initial impression of Dewey: \u201cWhen we met her, she was really positive. It was just amazing to me, the resilience that this human being could have.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reconstructive facial surgery presents complex challenges on multiple fronts, according to Dr. Hirsch. In Dewey\u2019s specific case, surgeons had to navigate extensive scar tissue and locate blood vessels further away from the facial area.<\/p>\n
The mental health aspect of her recovery proved equally intricate. Patients who have undergone numerous surgeries, often due to previous procedures failing to achieve the desired results, frequently carry significant emotional trauma into subsequent operations. Dr. Hirsch pondered the critical questions: \u201cHow is the patient emotionally, and is she having so much PTSD that it is going to be difficult to achieve our objectives? How are we going to help Amedy get through this?\u201d<\/p>\n
In the two months immediately following the shooting, Dewey underwent at least 15 facial surgeries, followed by additional major operations at the University of Michigan. Over the years, these procedures blended together as surgeons worked to repair damage and prepare her eye socket for a prosthetic eye.<\/p>\n
The specialized team at Lenox Hill, renowned for its expertise in complex facial reconstruction, believed they could still offer further improvements. This collaborative effort brought together a multidisciplinary team from Lenox Hill Hospital, which, alongside Dr. Hirsch, included Dr. Brett Miles, vice president and chair of otolaryngology and head and neck surgery; Dr. Lawrence Brecht, director of maxillofacial prosthetics; and Dr. Charles Thorne, chair of plastic surgery.<\/p>\n
Across three distinct surgeries, the team utilized bone harvested from Dewey\u2019s lower leg to rebuild her upper jaw. They then implemented a set of prosthetic teeth and inserted specialized implants into her eye socket to support a future prosthesis. After a three-month healing period, a custom orbital prosthesis was fitted on June 4.<\/p>\n
Dr. Hirsch explained their strategic approach: \u201cWe basically said, \u2018Let’s rebuild the entire upper jaw, and that’ll be your foundation for the projection of the cheekbones, the support for the lower part of the eye, and also the support for the mouth and the teeth.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Nowadays, people no longer react with a double-take when they see Dewey. Just last week, while she was running errands in town, a local store owner commented on her cheerful demeanor. Another friend, upon seeing her, remarked, \u201cYou are coming back.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dewey acknowledges that she is still on a personal journey of self-healing, continuing to \u201cbattle\u201d with herself \u201cinternally\u201d and \u201cmentally.\u201d However, she has observed improvements each year and has dedicated efforts to raising awareness about gun violence and mental health, particularly during June, which is Gun Violence Awareness Month.<\/p>\n
\u201cI scream for mental health, because nobody talks about it,\u201d Dewey passionately stated. This summer, she is volunteering at a retreat organized by myFace, an organization supporting children with craniofacial differences.<\/p>\n
Her external healing has also significantly contributed to her well-being. \u201cI look in the mirror, and I just smile, and I’m so happy,\u201d Dewey shared. \u201cIt’s finally coming together.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Eight years after a devastating gunshot wound to her face, Amedy Dewey, now 26, has endured nearly 40 reconstructive surgeries. Her journey of resilience includes a recent complex operation at Lenox Hill Hospital to rebuild her jaw, restore teeth, and provide a new eye, as she continues to advocate for mental health and gun violence awareness.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":589,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[67,69,68,71,70,72,74,73],"class_list":["post-588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-amedy-dewey","tag-facial-reconstruction","tag-gun-violence","tag-lenox-hill-hospital","tag-mental-health","tag-nextgenface","tag-survivors","tag-trauma-recovery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fastblogtheme.com\/pressnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fastblogtheme.com\/pressnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fastblogtheme.com\/pressnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fastblogtheme.com\/pressnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=588"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fastblogtheme.com\/pressnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fastblogtheme.com\/pressnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fastblogtheme.com\/pressnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fastblogtheme.com\/pressnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fastblogtheme.com\/pressnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}