"I think it's safe to say that Ricky has won the lottery twice already, once by making it into the NFL and the second by getting shot in the chest and being able to walk out of the hospital the very next day," Dr. Thomas Yadegar tells Inside Edition.
The San Francisco 49ers announced rookie wide receiver Ricky Pearsall will miss at least four games after being shot in the chest.
Authorities say the NFL star was shot in the chest during a robbery and was able to walk to the ambulance. He was released from the hospital 24 hours later. Many are wondering how that is possible.
Pearsall, 23, was a first-round pick by the 49ers in the 2024 NFL draft.
He was shopping in San Francisco over the Labor Day weekend, when police say a robber tried to steal his Rolex watch. The gunman opened fire during a struggle and Pearsall was shot.
The bullet went through Pearsall's chest and out of his back in what doctors call a through-and-through. It missed his vital organs.
"It missed his heart, it missed the large blood vessels in the chest cavity, it missed his lungs as well as his spinal cord and you can say it was a one-in-a-million shot," Dr. Thomas Yadegar tells Inside Edition.
Pearsall's mother took a Facebook and wrote, "God shielded him. Thanks be to God it missed his vital organs."
Yadegar says being in shape helped Pearsall tolerate a certain level of trauma.
Rolex watches are frequently targeted by robbers.
Jason Oppenheim, star of the reality show "Selling Sunset," says he no longer wears the brand after he saw surveillance video of a man getting mugged for his watch in the parking lot near Oppenheim's office.
Yadegar says Pearsall is very lucky.
"I think it's safe to say that Ricky has won the lottery twice already, once by making it into the NFL and the second by getting shot in the chest and being able to walk out of the hospital the very next day," Yadegar says.
