Chelsea Romo blinded in Las Vegas shooting returns home

August 2024 ยท 3 minute read

A mother-of-two blinded in the Las Vegas massacre has returned home to her children a week after the horror shooting.

Chelsea Romo, 28, was shot in the face at the Route 91 Harvest festival when a gunman opened fire from his Mandalay Bay hotel room last Sunday.

Doctors were unable to save her left eye due to the metal shrapnel that had become lodged inside. 

She now needs a cornea transplant to save her right eye but she will remain classed as legally blind.  

Chelsea Romo, 28, was left blinded after she was shot in the face in Las Vegas last week. She finally returned home to her two children Saturday after a week in intensive care

Chelsea Romo, 28, was left blinded after she was shot in the face in Las Vegas last week. She finally returned home to her two children Saturday after a week in intensive care

After a week in intensive care in a Vegas hospital, Romo was reunited with her two young children on Saturday when she returned home to Los Angeles.

Friends and family lined her street as she was driven to her home. 

Romo was among the crowd of concert-goers when the gunman opened fire. She could be heard screaming that she couldn't see immediately after she was shot and told friends she felt her eyes get pierced by metal in the chaos.

Her friend Kelsi Kessler had been shot in her upper arm but managed to help carry Romo over a fence to get help from paramedics. 

While Romo now faces a lengthy recovery, her family say she remains upbeat.  

'Her spirits are just amazing. We go to see her in the hospital and she's cracking jokes. She's so upbeat, she's uplifting the people in there,' her father Dave Ferm told WHO13.

After a week in intensive care in a Vegas hospital, Romo was reunited with her two young children on Saturday when she returned home to Los Angeles

After a week in intensive care in a Vegas hospital, doctors were unable to save her left eye and she needs a cornea transplant to save her right eye

Romo was reunited with her two children on Saturday when she returned to her LA home. She lost her left eye and she needs a cornea transplant to save her right eye

Romo was reunited with her two children on Saturday when she returned to her LA home. She lost her left eye and she needs a cornea transplant to save her right eye

The mother-of-two has spent the past week in intensive care in a Las Vegas hospital

The mother-of-two has spent the past week in intensive care in a Las Vegas hospital

A week on from the deadly massacre, authorities are finally able to start returning items left behind in the panic at the concert venue. 

Police have spent the seven days since the shooting collecting evidence amid the thousands of items, some of them stained with blood. 

'Whatever was dropped when people started running, those items we're collecting and we're going to provide back,' Paul Flood, unit chief in the FBI's victim services division said at a news conference.

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The items have been cataloged with detailed descriptions, and some have been cleaned of things including blood.

They are now being returned to people at a Family Assistance Centre at the Las Vegas Convention Centre, starting with a few sections of the concert scene.

'Just in general, the sheer size of the space, the amount of personal items that were left there, it's just a huge undertaking,' Flood said.  

A GoFundMe page set up for Romo has so far raised $95,000. 

She could be heard screaming that she couldn't see immediately after she was shot and told friends she felt her eyes get pierced by metal in the chaos

She could be heard screaming that she couldn't see immediately after she was shot and told friends she felt her eyes get pierced by metal in the chaos

Friends and family lined her Los Angeles street as she was driven to her home a week after the horror attack in Vegas

Friends and family lined her Los Angeles street as she was driven to her home a week after the horror attack in Vegas

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