A woman is praising SKIMS after surviving a shooting: 'Kim Kardashian saved my life'
A woman is crediting a bodysuit from Kim Kardashian’s shapewear company with saving her life.
The soon-to-be American Horror Story actress took to her Instagram Story on Friday to re-post a TikTok from May 18th, in which a 22-year-old Kansas City resident named Angelina Wiley claimed her SKIMS bodysuit helped her survive a mass shooting.
The video went viral on social media earlier this week, and in the comments section of the TikTok, Wiley’s followers tagged SKIMS and Kardashian in hopes that the reality star would eventually see Wiley’s story.
“Kim Kardashian saved my life,” Wiley said in the video. “The night that I got shot, under my dress I was wearing a SKIMS shaping bodysuit. It was so tight on me that it literally kept me from bleeding out. I recommend it. I'm definitely going to buy some more, I mean I should wear it every day — it's like body armor for women…Call it fate, or Jesus, but I'm gonna call it Kim.”
Kardashian wrote “Wowwww” underneath the re-posted video.
In a phone conversation with Yahoo Life, Wiley explains that the shooting occurred in Kansas City on New Year’s, when Wiley was waiting for a car to go home after celebrating with friends. It left her with four gunshot wounds, a ruptured bladder, and a fractured pelvic bone.
Wiley was wearing the SKIMS Sculpt Thong Bodysuit during the shooting, and due to her belief that SKIMS helped protect her from further harm, Wiley reached out to the company to let them know her experience. She says that they gave her a refund on her original purchase as well as a discount.
Wiley notes that she appreciates the brand’s commitment to “empowering women,” and wanted to let them know the way in which she believes their product helped her. Prior to the shooting, Wiley was studying criminal justice online, an interest that she and Kardashian — a criminal justice reform advocate studying to become a lawyer — have in common.
Where compression comes in after a shooting
It’s unknown whether SKIMS may have impacted Wiley’s ability to survive the shooting, and the bodysuits have no intended medical purpose.
Hubert Wong, M.D., chief of emergency medicine at MemorialCare Orange Coast Medical Center in Fountain Valley, Calif., previously told Yahoo that there are steps one can take if one finds themselves in a situation where someone has been shot, and emergency personnel have not yet arrived.
First, it’s vital to remove oneself from the shooter and ensure you are in a safe place. When you are in a safe spot to do so, apply direct, local pressure on any wound with external bleeding.
“Some of these wounds can be quite severe with significant damage, but try to direct local pressure using a small piece of clothing,” he said. “Applying a couple of fingers’ worth of direct pressure will maximize the chance of stopping the bleeding.”
Wong added that with more severe wounds, direct pressure may not be effective.
Life after surviving a shooting
Wiley has kept her more than 12,000 followers updated on her life on TikTok. She still has a bullet in her stomach, which she says insurance won’t cover the removal of, and she currently has thousands of dollars worth of medical bills from the shooting. Friends started a GoFundMe for her, so that she “does not have to worry about expenses while she is recovering,” per the site.
Wiley adds that it was initially “hard” to make videos about her experience, because she would get comments saying she was “milking” her situation.
“It made me feel bad, because I started to feel like, with shootings, if you don’t die, it doesn’t matter,” she notes. “It was like, because I lived, it wasn’t a big deal.”
However, Wiley eventually found people who were supportive, and now uses TikTok to share her progress. She has also spoken about recent mental health challenges, such as hearing fireworks during the Fourth of July that sounded like the rapid gunfire she experienced.
“It completely changed me,” she says of the shooting. “Every day is just so exhausting because I’m on edge constantly. Before the shooting happened, I had heard of [post-traumatic stress disorder], and I knew that the Fourth of July was a struggle for some people like veterans, but I never fully understood it — you can’t fully understand until it happens. When Fourth of July came, the first one since the shooting, it was awful. It was probably one of the worst moments since the shooting.”
Wellness, parenting, body image and more: Get to know the who behind the hoo with Yahoo Life's newsletter. Sign up here.
