After being shot three times and undergoing months of rehab, Passion Burgess finally heard the words she's been waiting for this week: It's a boy.
She was 18 and three months pregnant when she was shot while sitting in a car waiting for a friend. Since the March 19 attack, she has been paralyzed from the waist down and has had to balance both recovery and pregnancy.
Though there were early fears she might lose the baby, she gave birth Tuesday to Elijah, a healthy 5 pound, 8 ounce boy. He was due in September, but under doctor's recommendations, she gave birth Tuesday through Cesarean section.
"I had a very rough, rough pregnancy, but I'm happy," Burgess said by phone Friday from her hospital bed at St. Mary's Medical Center in West Palm Beach. "My baby's OK."
Burgess, who turned 19 in April, was studying to be a nurse before her life was upended. She worked in a Walgreens pharmacy, interned at a local doctor's office and was planning to get a degree as a medical assistant from Keiser College this fall.
All of that changed when she was shot twice in the back and once in the arm while parked near Ninth Street and Avenue J. Emmanuel Anderson, 21, was charged in June with attempted murder.
Police said they think he was angry at one of Burgess' cousins and shot her in retaliation. In the past few months, she made the slow journey from the trauma ward to intensive care at St. Mary's, until she was strong enough to go home to Fort Pierce.
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She was 18 and three months pregnant when she was shot while sitting in a car waiting for a friend. Since the March 19 attack, she has been paralyzed from the waist down and has had to balance both recovery and pregnancy.
Though there were early fears she might lose the baby, she gave birth Tuesday to Elijah, a healthy 5 pound, 8 ounce boy. He was due in September, but under doctor's recommendations, she gave birth Tuesday through Cesarean section.
"I had a very rough, rough pregnancy, but I'm happy," Burgess said by phone Friday from her hospital bed at St. Mary's Medical Center in West Palm Beach. "My baby's OK."
Burgess, who turned 19 in April, was studying to be a nurse before her life was upended. She worked in a Walgreens pharmacy, interned at a local doctor's office and was planning to get a degree as a medical assistant from Keiser College this fall.
All of that changed when she was shot twice in the back and once in the arm while parked near Ninth Street and Avenue J. Emmanuel Anderson, 21, was charged in June with attempted murder.
Police said they think he was angry at one of Burgess' cousins and shot her in retaliation. In the past few months, she made the slow journey from the trauma ward to intensive care at St. Mary's, until she was strong enough to go home to Fort Pierce.
Source
