Rock hurled through windshield may cost California nurse an eye, she says

Driving to work at a California hospital two nights before Christmas, nurse Pam Burnett at first didn’t know what had happened after hearing a loud crash.

“I started freaking out,” Burnett told KTVU. “I couldn’t see. Something hit me in the face. I thought my brain was bleeding.”

Burnett, a labor and delivery nurse at a Martinez hospital, managed to pull over and call 911 using Siri, KPIX reported.

Someone had hurled a grapefruit-size rock through her windshield in an apparent random attack, KGO reported.

Now Burnett fears she may lose her right eye, according to the station. She has undergone three surgeries, one on Christmas Day, to try to repair the damage.

Burnett, the mother of two young boys, has some vision in her left eye, but calls the condition of her right eye “guarded,” KPIX reported.

“I’m really sad for my wife but I’m so angry,” said husband Steve Burnett, KTVU reported.

California Highway Patrol officers are investigating the 10:45 p.m. incident Dec. 23 on Highway 242, KGO reported. The rock may have been thrown from an overpass.

CHP officers asked that anyone with information on the incident call 925-646-4980, KPIX reported.

In April, Margarita Ruiz, 63, of Antioch, died when someone threw a brick through a windshield along the same part of Highway 242, the East Bay Times reported. Ruiz, a passenger in the vehicle, died at the scene.

This story was originally published December 30, 2020 at 10:47 AM with the headline "Rock hurled through windshield may cost California nurse an eye, she says."