According to People, Harmonese Pleasant was due to give birth in a matter of weeks with her first baby — a girl — when she was shot outside of the New Orleans home she shares with her boyfriend, jazz trumpeter Kermit Ruffins.
The bullet hit her and her baby, and miraculously, they both survived. Baby Blossom, however, was delivered prematurely and suffered significant injuries from the bullet.
The couple had just celebrated their baby shower and were expecting Blossom to be born in three weeks. But on March 24, 2022, Pleasant was outside of their home talking on the phone when she felt a sudden, sharp pain in her abdomen.
“I looked down, and all I saw was blood,” she said. All she could do was scream from the pain.
Ruffins received a call from Pleasant while he was at his bar around the corner. He said, “Our house was just around the corner, but that was the longest ride of my life.” He found her lying on the ground with his daughter and son-in-law next to her. “I raised her shirt and saw a little bitty hole and said, ‘Did you fall?'”
They didn’t know until they got to the hospital that she had been shot.
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Ruffins explained to Fox 8 Live shortly after the shooting, “All of a sudden she felt something hit her stomach. She didn’t hear anything. There is a witness that said he heard the shot and saw a blue Malibu speed away after the shot.” The person who shot the gun has still not been determined, though police believe a gun may have accidentally discharged.
The bullet had struck Pleasant’s uterus and Blossom, whom they believe saved Pleasant’s life. “Blossom basically blocked the bullet from wounding Harmonese more,” said Ruffin. “She came into this world and saved her mom’s life.”
Pleasant underwent an emergency C-section and Blossom was flown to Children’s Hospital New Orleans where she stayed in the neonatal intensive care unit. Separated from her baby, Pleasant had to meet her face-to-face for the first time over FaceTime.
“I was happy to actually see her but upset that we didn’t get the skin-to-skin contact that baby and mother need,” she said. “I was angry about what happened hours before and numb and hurt over it too. When doctors told me she wasn’t moving her legs as she should be, it was like a stab in the heart.”
While Pleasant made a complete recovery, a bullet fragment hit Blossom’s spinal cord, injured her lung, and punctured her kidney. That fragment remains in her kidney as doctors do not believe it needs to be removed.
Blossom is now 13 months old and is “making progress.” She can reportedly move her toes, though her parents have been told she may never walk. Doctors are unsure of the full extent of her injuries.
“There is a lack of sensation and motor usage [in her legs], and there’s a possibility she could have some bowel and bladder issues later, but Blossom has done so well. We’re very pleased with her progress,” said Dr. Fabienne Gray, a pediatric surgeon at Children’s Hospital. “The fact that Blossom was shot when she was a fetus is devastating. I think she will be dealing with the repercussions of this for the rest of her life.”
Now the couple plans to build a new home that is wheelchair-accessible and they recently celebrated Blossom’s first birthday. “This little girl is a bundle of joy,” said Ruffins. “She’s laughing and playing all day long. Looking at Harmonese and Blossom every morning is the biggest blessing.”
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Blossom’s favorite movie is “The Princess and the Frog” — a jazz-themed Disney musical set in New Orleans. “She gets scared to death” when Ruffins plays his trumpet but, he laughs,”[W]hen that damn alligator plays the trumpet in Princess and the Frog, she’s jumping up and laughing! I don’t understand that!”
Ruffins hopes to teach his daughter all about writing and playing music “and everything she needs to do to be a cultured young lady.”
He added, “We have a long road ahead of us. It’s going to be a little rough, but we are so optimistic.”
