Adam was walking down a main street in Petrolia when he suddenly heard a pop, then a whizzing sound, then another pop inside his head. It sounded, he recalls, like a chestnut cracking.

Confused, he stepped into a nearby restaurant where he was meeting a friend for dinner. That’s when he noticed he was covered in blood. Adam had been shot – right here in small-town Petrolia. Adrenaline had taken over and until he saw the blood, he hadn’t realized exactly what had happened to him.

At the Charlotte Eleanor Englehart Hospital (CEEH) of Bluewater Health Emergency Department, Adam learned he had been shot with a pellet gun. The pellet was still lodged inside his head. That second “pop” he heard was the impact against his bones. Removing it would require a specialized surgeon in London because the pellet was sitting in a sensitive area surrounded by nerves.

Miraculously, Adam had no paralysis or nerve damage. “A millimeter difference and half of my face could have been paralyzed,” Adam says.

Looking back, he remembers the people as much as the medical care. “The care in Petrolia was fantastic. The staff were compassionate and kind, even though they were dealing with an injury that’s very out of the ordinary for a town like this.”

For Adam, CEEH of Bluewater Health stands out, and he holds so much gratitude for his care team that made all the difference during an unexpected and stressful incident.