Parents didn’t report daughter’s gunshot wound thought it was just her period

Painful period: A 10-year-old girl in Hayward, California nursed a gunshot wound for five hours after her family believed the blood was her period. Her father, above, said they didn’t know it was from a bullet

Young women are often told about the pains associated with menstruation, but one 10-year-old was in over her head when she complained about a pain early Thursday morning.

That’s because what her family deduced was her first period wasactually a gunshot wound.
The 10-year-old was sleeping in her bed at her home in Hayward, California around 2am Thursday morning when shots fired outside hit her in the buttocks.

The girl’s father, 42, told KPIX that he heard the shots, but thought they sounded like bulbs popping.

Soon after, his 10-year-old daughter came out of her bedroom complaining about a pain in her pelvic region.

He says the girl’s mother and sister examined her and believed the blood was from her starting her menstrual cycle.

‘An older sister gave her a pad and told her to put it on and go back to bed,’ Hayward Police Lt Mark Stuart told the San Jose Mercury News.

But when she woke up for school the next morning, she was still in pain.

That’s when her parents examined her more closely and noticed the wound on her buttocks.
The girl’s 15-year-old sister called 911 and emergency responders were dispatched around 7:30am.

Despite nursing a bullet wound for five hours, police say the girlwas ‘in good spirits’ when they arrived.

She went into surgery Friday to remove the bullet and was last reported recovering in the hospital.

At first, police were suspicious as to why they weren’t called sooner about the shots.

‘How come we weren’t called? We really need to know why we weren’t called,’ Hayward Police Sgt Mark Ormsby told KPIX. ‘If they were scared – understandable. But we still need to be out there to treat whoever we can treat.’

The girl’s father explained that it isn’t customary in the gang-ridden neighborhood to call the police every time gunshots are heard.

‘We don’t call the cops when you hear shots on the streets. I didn’t know it was in front of my house and I didn’t know my daughter was shot,’ he said.

The doctor who examined the girl agreed that the parents could have mistaken the blood for a period since the entry wound was ‘rather small’.

‘The doctor said that if that’s what they were seeing and they never initially saw the entry wound from behind, that it’s plausible to believe it was a period as opposed to being shot,’ said Lt Stuart.

After the evaluation, the police said they would no longer be pursuing child neglect charges.
It’s still uncertain why the family was targeted, and so far police have not arrested any suspects in the shooting. -dailymail