Shot Girlfriend Mistaken For Hog Recovers, Forgives Her Lover

A hunter who shot his girlfriend after she was mistaken for a hog says he’s a lucky man.

It was one year ago that Steve Egan was hunting in the woods of Flagler County in Florida. He spotted a wounded hog on its back about 30 yards away. Thinking it was the same hog he shot minutes before, Egan raised his rifle and fired a single shot with a .30-caliber bullet.

It was a direct hit, but the hunter forgot the first rule of shooting — always know your target. Egan had actually shot his girlfriend, who he had mistaken for the hog.

The injury was very serious at the time. Lisa Simmons, a 51-year-old nurse who had worked with heart doctors for 18 years, could see blood pumping from the femoral artery in her leg.

Determined not to die in the forest after being mistaken for a hog, Egan’s girlfriend fashioned a tourniquet and held it while he rushed back to get a cell phone and call 911.

By the time a medical helicopter arrived to save Simmons she was losing consciousness and spilling blood rapidly. In all she would need 14 pints of blood, and during surgery she died twice. Her surgeon said it was the worst non-combat injury he’d ever seen someone survive.

Egan said he felt lucky that his girlfriend lived, but the ordeal wasn’t over yet.

The story soon became a national punchline, with headlines that shouted Shot Girlfriend Mistaken For Hog. Jay Leno picked up on the story, quipping: “I don’t know what is worse for the girl: having your boyfriend shoot you in the legs or saying the reason he did it was that he mistook you for a hog. Pretty awful.”

The attention grew so bad that Egan and Simmons deleted her Facebook page.

Egan said the story finally went away after a few days when a man high on bath salts ate off the face of a homeless man.

Despite the trauma they went through, the man who shot his girlfriend after she was mistaken for a hog said their relationship remains strong and she harbors no ill feelings toward him. Egan has helped Simmons through her year of rehabilitation, and she is taking classes to become a nursing instructor.