An unemployed Michigan woman-uninsured and unable to afford medical treatment for a searing pain through her shoulder-shot herself with a gun in efforts for treatment by hospital ER.
Kathy Myers, age 41, says she was pushed to the brink of desperation because she was "crazy in pain," and the local hospital emergency room would give her no more than a handful of anti-inflammatory medication.
"Pain will make you do silly, crazy things," the 41-year-old Niles, Michigan, woman said. "I knew they wasn't going to do anything, again. They said if it wasn't life-threatening, no health insurance, you can't get no help."
About a month previous to shooting herself in the shoulder with a gun, Myers' labrador retriever had attributed to the shoulder injury, when she said she was in her back yard with the dog and heard a pop in her collarbone area--suffering from severe pain since, that she's been unable to have medically treated. "I knew they [the hospital emergency room] wasn't going to do anything [to help treat the shoulder pain], again. They [hospital ER staff] said it [severe pain from the shoulder injury] wasn't life-threatening, no health insurance, you can't get no help."
Interviewed by in a video, Myers reenacts how she covered her right shoulder and head with two pillows before pointing her .25-caliber handgun at her own body. "I took the gun and went 'Boom!'" she said. Myers was treated for the gunshot wound at Lakeland Community Hospital, released a few hours later--but the self-inflicted gunshot wound didn't help her achieve her goal, saying "It [the gun shot] didn't take the pain away."
Myers was treated for the gunshot wound only and released from hospital ER within hours, but without the earlier shoulder injury--that is actually causing the severe pain--fixed or corrected. Myers said she wouldn't shoot herself again and has "no suicide wish." Life isn't great "right now, but I want to live," she said.
Myers is looking for a medical specialist who will accept a payment plan she can afford to pay. Until then, mental pain may surpass physical, as the Berrien County Prosecutor's Office decides whether it will press or prosecute charges against Myers, for firing the gun within city limits.