How one bullet shattered a body and a family
San Diego (CNN)Just one bullet. It shattered Chelsea Romo's left eye. It nearly blinded her right. It exploded inside her head. It caused two hematomas that physically shifted the position of her brain.Shrapnel exploded throughout her skull and face. So much that it clogged a machine doctors later used to suck out the debris. That single high-velocity bullet was among 1,100 others fired by the Las Vegas gunman who attacked the crowd at a country music festival five months ago.Read MoreIt did exactly what a round fired by an AR-15 was intended to do: inflict maximum damage. Rounds from similar guns caused the brutal physical wounds suffered by victims in Las Vegas, a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, and a school in Parkland, Florida. It is why the AR-15 and similar rifles are again at the forefront of today's student-led debate about whether some guns simply should not be available to civilians.Chelsea Romo, with her children Blakely and Gavin, before she was shot.For Chelsea Romo, that single bullet altered her body and life forever.Shrapnel is still inside her, creating hard gray spots under the skin of her face and her scalp. Periodically, pieces come to the surface and can be picked out. A piece of shrapnel that came to the surface of Chelsea Romo's nose. But just the fact that she's alive means so much. Romo had three surgeries in 10 days to begin repairing the damage. Screws were put in her cheek. Her cornea was sutured shut. The 28-year-old mother of a 5-year-old boy and 2-year-old girl thought she would never get to see them again.Chelsea Romo, who lost her eye in the Las Vegas shooting, with her daughter Blakely."I've thought about as my daughter grew up and not seeing her get married or seeing her become a woman and seeing her face as she matures," Romo says.But Romo has experienced what her eye doctors repeatedly tell her is a miracle. Her left eye is an empty socket. But with the help of a hard lens she must put in and pop out each day, the sight in her right eye is getting better. Total blackness to a blurry light Romo doesn't remember the gunshot that changed her life. She was standing in the front row at the Route 91 festival in Las Vegas on October 1 when the gunfire started and her friend told her to duck.Romo held the left side of her face as she turned to her friend. "I can't see," Romo told her. Everything was orange. After that, it was total blackness for a week. Chelsea Romo feared she had lost both eyes in the Las Vegas shooting.She slipped in and out of consciousness and heard doctors talk about a fractured this, a fractured that. And then a little light returned. "I remember the exact moment when they took the goggles off and I saw the doctor in front of me. It was the first time I saw anything in a week and to me it was just a relief," Romo recalls. "Even if it was horrible vision, at least I could see something. It wasn't black anymore."JUST WATCHEDAn up-close look at the AR-15ReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHAn up-cl
