Saturday, May 3, started out just a normal weekend day and ended with a hurried trip to the emergency room for one Blanco girl.

Emily Torre, a fifth grader at Blanco ISD, was at home with her parents and two older siblings on Saturday when the accident occurred.

Emily’s dad had cut her some wood and given her a hammer and some nails so that she could build a house for her cat. She set about doing just that as her dad was working on his own project nearby. Emily’s mother, Renee Torre, and her two older siblings were in the house.

Not long after Emily had begun her project, her mother heard what sounded like a gun going off, followed by the screams of her daughter. Mr. and Mrs. Torre ran to their daughter, only to find her bleeding profusely from two wounds in her right leg.

Not sure what had happened, and Emily not able to tell them, Mr. and Mrs. Torre tried to figure out how their daughter had been injured. Renee Torre said, “the smell of gun powder lingered in the air.”

After looking around the area for possible shooters, and finding no signs of anyone on the property, the Torres began to concentrate their search on the ground around where Emily had been hammering. After several minutes of searching, they located a small piece of metal that looked like it had come from a .22 shell.

Emily had apparently hit an unspent, buried shell when she missed the board she was hammering, causing it to discharge and send shrapnel into her leg.

Her parents rushed Emily to Stone Oak Hospital, where doctors decided they would need to remove the shrapnel. The first surgeon was unsuccessful in finding the metal that was lodged in Emily’s leg, so a second surgeon and an x-ray machine were used to enable the doctors to remove the pieces.

One piece entered her leg on the outer side of her right thigh and lodged itself just below the bone. The second piece entered just below the bend of her right knee, but was not as deep. She was given a local anesthetic and the doctors were able to remove the pieces without complications.

She was discharged at around 2 AM on Sunday morning and is now home doing well, a little sore, but feeling okay.

The Torre family felt it was important to let people know about Emily’s accident because, while rare, it could happen to anyone.

.22 shot shells are easiest bullet to discharge without a gun, just by simply hitting it with an object. It is still a rare occurrence, but it is always best to be cautious.

Parents, remind your children that bullets are never safe to play with, and to always be careful around them.