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A young dad has suffered a horrific injury to his arm after accidentally shooting himself while deer hunting.

David Blount Jr had just collected his high-powered rifle from the back of his pickup truck when he shot himself.

The bullet flew through the 28-year-old's right arm, narrowly missing his head and leaving him with a gaping, bleeding wound.

Now, he has to keep his limb elevated above his head for 16 hours a day after the 'freak' shooting on November 19 this year.

In the aftermath of the incident, David underwent three 30-minute operations - one every 48 hours for a week to monitor and clean his wound.

He was later told to keep his arm elevated for 40 minutes out of every hour.

(Image: PA Real Life)

The plumber, who has a toddler daughter, has an arm elevator, a foam block with a hole that he puts his limb inside to keep it raised.

When he sleeps he uses three pillows to keep it high up, to avoid the blood swelling down to his hand.

He has been told to continue with this intensive therapy for at least two weeks - and it is unlikely he will ever fully regain feeling in his right arm.

David's fiancée, Kourtnee Harvey-Williams, recalled how her partner phoned her while she was at home, saying he had shot himself.

“I was in complete shock,” said the 28-year-old. “He told me he was on the way to hospital, dripping with blood.”

The couple live together with their 20-month-old daughter, Jordynn, in Texas, US.

Kourtnee continued: “Our lives have been turned upside down and his career has been put on hold, as he’s right-handed and relies on his hands for work.

“He was in such shock he couldn’t feel any pain at first.

(Image: PA Real Life)

"Now he only has a bit of feeling in two of his fingers.”

David had parked on his aunt Barbara Kroll’s driveway, a street away from his Montgomery home, ahead of the incident.

He had picked up his rifle - a family heirloom passed down for generations – from the back of his truck just before the deer shoot.

But as he touched the loaded gun’s barrel, a bullet fired into his lower right forearm.

“It was a freak accident, I had barely touched the gun, but the bullet went through my arm and flew out, skimming my head by five inches,” David said.

“One of the tools in the truck must have caught on the lever.

“There was a loud bang and a flash and the bone in my wrist was blown off. My wrist was hanging down and I’d torn all my ligaments.

“I can’t blame anybody but myself.

"I should have been more careful and shouldn’t have left it loaded.”

(Image: PA Real Life)

Kourtnee, a customer services representative, heard the gunshot at 5.30am.

But because of regular hunting in the area, she thought nothing of it.

After the incident, David walked into Barbara’s home and said: "I shot myself."

He added: "The gun went off. I have shot my arm.”

Barbara immediately wrapped his bleeding, limp, arm in a blanket and drove him to the Conroe Regional Medical Centre, Texas.

Phoning Kourtnee on the way, David spoke quietly and calmly, still in utter shock.

“I was so stunned I didn’t know what to expect,” Kourtnee remembered.

“I got in the car to follow him to hospital, dropping Jordynn off at my mum’s on the way.”

When she saw David’s wound, Kourtnee said she was horrified.

“The skin was completely gone. It was gross,” she said.

“The wound was mangled with bits of skin inside.”

(Image: PA Real Life)

Medics gave David antibiotics, cleaned his injury and bandaged his arm up.

Although he was bleeding badly, the dad-of-one didn’t require any blood transfusions.

However, he was told he would need to undergo surgery.

Within a couple of hours, he was transferred to the Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center, in Houston, Texas.

There, he had a half-hour exploratory operation to ensure there were no bullet fragments in his arm, to clean his wound and to put antibiotic beads inside.

This surgery was repeated every 48 hours for a week so his arm didn’t get infected.

“I was so scared about the impact on his life as a plumber,” Kourtnee said. “David has been so positive and brave throughout his operations.”

At the end of November, surgeons took skin from David's left thigh, and muscle from his left underarm, to graft his arm back together. They also a temporary metal rod inside his limb to join up the bones in a five-hour procedure.

(Image: PA Real Life)

In six weeks’ time, medics will replace the rod with bones from David’s pelvis in another operation.

It is also possible he will need further skin grafts.

“Every time he goes under the knife, it’s nerve-wracking,” Kourtnee said. “But he’s used to it now. We are trying to maintain a normal life, as much as we can.

“Jordynn is a daddy’s girl and it’s hard for her to understand what’s going on.”

Doctors are unable to forecast how long it will be before David gets movement back in his hand, but he will never get the full use of it again.

He will start physiotherapy in a couple of weeks and his family remain hopeful.

Kourtnee said: “A lot is up in the air at the moment, but he is strong willed and we are hoping for improvement by our wedding next year.”

The family are fundraising for David’s medical costs.

To donate to their YouCaring page, click here .