Richneck Elementary School teacher, Abigail Zwerner is speaking publicly for the first time after being shot by a primary school student on 6 January.
The 25-year-old teacher detailed the horrific day at Richneck Elementary School in the city of Newport News, Virginia.
‘I thought I had died,’ she told NBC’s Today show this week.
In the interview that aired on Tuesday, journalist Savannah Guthrie asked Ms Zwerner what she remembers about the day.
‘The morning it felt like just a regular school day, but I started hearing things and things started happening that made my fear grow,’ Ms Zwerner said.
Police have said the child brought the gun in his backpack to the school.
Ms Zwerner said she clearly recalls seeing the gun being pointed at her.
‘I remember the look on his face. I remember feeling something. It was a pretty scary day.’
Ms Guthrie asked Ms Zwerner about her left hand, which appeared on camera wrapped in medical gauze.
‘The initial gunshot went through my left hand and ruptured the middle bone as well as the index finger and the thumb. The gunshot then went into my chest up here where it actually still remains,’ she said, while pointing just above her heart.
‘So, I have a scar up here, and I still have some bullet fragments up here.’
Ms Zwerner said doctors at the hospital told her the gunshot wound ‘could’ve been fatal’ but since the bullet went through her hand it ‘most likely saved my life’.
In the wake of the incident, the school’s superintendent was fired and the assistant principal resigned. Richneck Elementary School has since installed full-time security and metal detectors.
In the NBC interview, Ms Zwerner said she sometimes has nightmares about the shooting, and can struggle to get out of bed some days due to the difficult recovery.
‘I’m not sure when the shock will ever go away… I think about it daily.’
