Score one for proponents of cosmetic surgery! A Canadian woman testified on Wednesday that her breast implants may have saved her life when her ex-boyfriend shot her almost seven years ago.
Sun News reported that Eileen Likness, of Alberta, Canada, was driving with her former boyfriend, Fernando Chora, on Jan. 2, 2006, when she apparently got fed up with Chora and told him to get out of the car. Likness told prosecutor Britta Kristensen that she pulled over on a side street in Okotoks — 45 km (about 28 miles) south of Calgary — to drop Chora off. But after Chora had walked about a dozen paces away from the car, Likness heard what she thought were two shots, which prompted her to jump from her still-running vehicle and head to a restaurant close by, the Calgary Sun reported.
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Likness said that a bullet entered her right breast, brushed her chest plate and exited her left breast before it nicked her left forearm.
“My implants took the brunt of the force,” she said at Chora’s trial on Thursday. “They were gone.”
Chora told defense lawyer Adriano Iovinelli that the shooting was an accident. He said the gun fired when he removed it from his travel bag on the floor in front of the passenger seat. He initially dropped the weapon, but then retrieved it and fled the scene in his ex-girlfriend’s car, Sun News reported.
“I was kind of trying to figure out what happened, I was kind of in shock,” Chora said. “I’m so used to ‘the gun went off and the cops are coming,’ so I jumped in the car and I drove away.”
While navigating unfamiliar roads 20 minutes later, he said, he saw a STARS air rescue helicopter arrive and realized the shots had struck Likness. She was transported to Foothills Hospital in Calgary. Sun News reported Chora was charged with attempted murder, but Kristensen concluded there was insufficient evidence to support the notion he wanted to kill Likness.
Chora also allegedly broke into an elderly couple’s home following the shooting and held the occupants at gunpoint. He faces two firearms charges related to the incident, the Calgary Sun reported.
As for Likness, she decided to undergo surgery again after she recovered from her wounds to re-enhance her breasts.
“I had to wait some time,” she said, “but yes, I had some put back in.”
Likness’ claim isn’t the first report of breast implants protecting victims this year. In late January, WESH Orlando reported that a Florida woman’s cosmetic additions saved her life when she was stabbed by her ex-fiancé’s new girlfriend.