The bullet in Keisha Blanchard’s body is a constant reminder of the moment her life changed. The moment arrived during a peaceful January walk near her home in Carondelet in St. Louis. She doesn’t know why someone shot her — but 10 months later, her body still won’t let her forget the fear.
“My body remembered things about that day that I did not remember,” she said. “The sound of a car coming up behind me … the sound of an unknown loud pop or bang. My body remembers that and freezes up. The idea of walking with headphones is, like, no more, because I need to hear what is happening around me.”
The feeling, she said, is “the idea that there is no such thing as safety.”
Blanchard’s shooter is unknown. Although police are still investigating the Jan. 5 incident, she said that without information on the shooter — or witnesses to identify the perpetrator’s vehicle — there’s a chance that she will never know who shot her or why. Her case is just one of hundreds of shootings that occur every year in St. Louis. Many remain unsolved.
That uncertainty, however, “makes me want to be more involved in the community,” Blanchard said.
“I don't care to know who did it or why. I just hope to be a part of the community — that I can love on some people that probably look like this person — so that it won't happen again.”
Blanchard’s recovery hasn’t been easy. At a trauma center hours after the shooting, she said she was surprised when a physician told her, “We are not in the business of removing bullets.” She was discharged the same day.
That sequence of events is common, said Dr. LJ Punch, a trauma surgeon and founder of the Bullet Related Injury Clinic. He said that 70% of people who are shot and seen by an emergency department are sent home “with no dedicated aftercare, because they will only have been seen and evaluated by emergency medicine physicians and trauma surgeons as consultants.”
For someone like Blanchard, whose wound did not require immediate surgery, there are few official resources or guidance on what is supposed to happen after they are released from medical care with bullets still in their bodies. Dr. Punch’s clinic, known as the BRIC, has spent three years on a pilot program treating people with bullet injuries. Its work, and next month’s opening of a BRIC institute, are part of a larger mission to broaden the standard of care for bullet injuries — all while working with people to remove bullets from their bodies.
“[Why is there] a lack of developed progress in understanding the long-term needs of people whose bodies have been injured by bullets? That's a much bigger topic of conversation,” Dr. Punch said. “But the bottom line is there isn't.”
For Keisha Blanchard, physical injuries are just one side of her recovery. Along with the BRIC, she received help from the Freedom Community Center to move to a new residence — far from the site of the shooting — and to adopt a dog.
Tammy Kuykendoll, the nonprofit’s director of Community Referral Pathway programs, said that helping people who have been shot starts with being “survivor centered.”
“What are your needs? How can we support you? It might be relocating out of the state. It might be relocating to a hotel for safety. It could be securing housing,” Kuykendoll said. “We offer a menu of services that supports different individuals in their needs.”
To hear more from Keisha Blanchard about her experience, and to learn how Dr. LJ Punch’s experience treating bullet injuries as a surgeon inspired him to create the BRIC, listen to St. Louis on the Air on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube, or click the play button below.
“St. Louis on the Air” brings you the stories of St. Louis and the people who live, work and create in our region. The show is produced by Miya Norfleet, Emily Woodbury, Danny Wicentowski, Elaine Cha and Alex Heuer. Jada Jones is our production assistant. The audio engineer is Aaron Doerr. Send questions and comments about this story to talk@stlpr.org.
