ABC Reporter Shot In The Neck On Assignment Posts Gnarly X-Ray As Proof

An ABC correspondent has been shot in the neck while on assignment in the Phillipines, and while his injury isn’t life threatening, you wouldn’t know it from the goddamn X-Ray.

Adam Harvey was reporting on the deadly conflict between IS-backed militants and government forces in the southern city of Marawi, when he and his crew entered what was considered to be a safe zone.

As the Jakarta-based journo fetched supplies from a vehicle, Harvey says “I felt an almighty stabbing at the side of my neck and I went down on the ground and I thought I’d been hit by a bit of shrapnel.”

The crew patched him up with a first-aid kit and took him to a medical centre, and then a hospital. It was there he was given an X-Ray and a CT scan; only then did Harvey realised his neck was the resting place for a fully-formed bullet. 

The resulting image is horrific. Harvey, who did not lose consciousness throughout the entire ordeal, posted the X-Ray image to Twitter with a fitting caption.

Lucky. pic.twitter.com/2ZPYZfidO9

— Adam Harvey (@adharves) June 15, 2017

Harvey says that the safe zone was one of the last places he expected to be hit by a bullet, and that it must have been fired from a considerable distance away. Harvey has since been flown to Manila to have the bullet extracted, and says the doctors immediately recognised the slug as an M16 round. 

Colleagues have used the photo to give major props to Harvey for his bravery and dedication, to wish him well during his recovery, and to say his late father – the reporter Peter Harvey – would have been proud.

Good grief Adam. Glad you’re safe. Your wise father always used to email me in hotspots reminding me to to duck and stay low.

— Michael Usher (@michaelusher) June 15, 2017

Time to get out for treatment. Assignment over. Bloody good work. Your father would be proud.

— Paul Bongiorno (@PaulBongiorno) June 15, 2017

Great reporting mate. Thinking of you. Tough gig. Close shave. Hope you recover well

— brian thomson (@brianthomsontv) June 15, 2017

Wow mate!! That is some war story!!! Great to hear you’re ok

— Dan Nolan (@Dan_Nolan9) June 15, 2017

Mate I’m going straight for the Ketel 1

— Adam Harvey (@adharves) June 15, 2017

Oh, in case you’re wondering what it feels like to be shot, but don’t feel like going through it yourself, Harvey reckons “it felt actually like I’d been hit in the head with a cricket ball or in the side of the neck with a cricket ball.”

As for his actual assignment, Marawi has been under siege by hundreds of IS-backed militants since late last month. Some 200,000 residents have fled, but on Tuesday, Harvey filed a story saying that as many as 1,500 civilians were still trapped in the conflict. 

The siege is ongoing. With any luck, a reporter as tough as Harvey will be able to provide Australia with more details. 

Source: ABC / Adam Harvey / Twitter.
Photo: Adam Harvey / Twitter.