When she was 18, Amedy Dewey was shot in the face by her stepfather, who also killed her mother
Since then, she has had 37 surgeries, the most recent to replace her teeth and jaw and enable her to eat real bites of food
She is sharing her story to create awareness of domestic violence and abuse, and says the memory of her mom helps her push through the hard times
Amedy Dewey was an 18-year-old competitive cheerleader and avid soccer player when her stepfather shot her in the face in the backseat of a car on a snowy, cold, Michigan highway in 2018. He then shot and killed her mother, Lisa, before turning the gun on himself.
Since then, Dewey has had 37 surgeries to repair the damage from the brutal trauma that she said doctors told her “less than 2%” survive. Her most recent surgery was in November 2024 when she had a bone graft arranged by NextGenFace, a nonprofit that works with Northwell’s Lenox Hill Hospital doctors. Dr. Brett Miles and Dr. David Hirsch created an upper jaw with bone grafted from Dewey’s fibula; Dr. Lawrence Brecht gave her new teeth.
And now Dewey, 25, can properly eat for the first time.
“It’s another piece to put in the puzzle,” she tell PEOPLE, adding that a prosthetic eye is next. She’s also working towards her degree to be a trauma therapist amid her outspoken campaign to raise awareness about gun safety and mental illness.
Before her advocacy, she says,“ I felt like I didn’t have a purpose in this world. It was just surgery after surgery after surgery.” But now, “I just want people to see the signs of danger, domestic violence and abuse, and be able to realize, ’I’m not in a safe environment. My kids aren’t safe. I need to get them out.’ “
Although it’s difficult to talk about her past, “I keep reopening these wounds,” she says. “I keep going for my family, for strangers. I don’t want anybody to suffer what I went through.”
She shares her story with PEOPLE’s Cara Lynn Shultz.
I’ve had a lot of surgeries, but the most recent one made me so happy that I started dancing.
I was at home with my dad and my mouth had healed enough to eat real food. The first thing I ate was a grilled cheese. I sat down with him at the table, and I’m like, “Okay, I’m ready.” I took a bite, and I looked at my dad and I had a big ol’ smile on my face, and I got up to dance.
Then, the other night, we went out to dinner and I had a bacon burger with two inches of bacon; I bit fully through everything.
Before the surgery, if I had a burger, I would have to cut it up into fourths and then even sometimes cut it up smaller, break it apart. It was difficult to eat. My lip was sunken in. When I talked, I had a lisp. It was embarrassing. Getting teeth back, I feel like I’m on top of the world.
Once, I was out with friends and I couldn’t finish my meal because it hurt my gums so much. I mean, seven years of no upper teeth. I had dentures, but when you lose weight, gain weight, your mouth changes.
Now, I can actually eat normally!
My next procedure will be a prosthetic eye. I’m really excited because I look in the mirror and I go straight to the eye socket and I’m like, “Oh, it’s a big pink hole.”
So far, I’ve had 37 surgeries in seven years — since January 6, 2018.
That was the day my stepfather picked me and my mom up from the airport. In Michigan, the weather was -9 degrees. Dead of winter. The roads were slick, and he was driving very erratically. I was scared that we were gonna get in a car crash. My mother was screaming at him, “You need to slow down!” He started yelling at me, threatening me. I’m just like, “You’re crazy.’” And he says, “You wanna see crazy?”
That’s when he pulled the car over at mile marker 59, Everyone’s getting out. I opened up my door, and then my mom said, ”Amy, he has a gun. Get back in the car.” I thought he just had the gun to scare us, like he always had in the past.
I remember dialing 911. I remember looking over my shoulder. When people say it happens in the blink of an eye, it literally does. My ears popped and everything went black.
He shot me first. My mother thought I was dead, so she fought tooth and nail. I was told her hands were bruised to hell. His glasses were smashed. She fought to the very end. She thought her baby was gone, and she fought till her very last breath, and then he turned the gun on himself and did himself in.
When I finally came to, I vomited profusely. I couldn’t see anything. I could hear the traffic. Surprisingly, my eardrums didn’t blow. My vision was still complete black. I saw nothing.
There were two things on my mind. There’s no way in hell I am letting him kill me, and I need to get help. This man has made me suffer for 5 years. This is not how I’m gonna go down.
I grabbed my phone, tried to use Siri, but what happened is the bullet went through my right shoulder all the way to the bone, entering my face from the right, exiting from the left.
It shattered half of the roof of my mouth. My roof of my mouth was literally on my tongue. My upper teeth were shattered. I had a mouthful, so I’m like, “All right, that’s not gonna work.”
I climbed in the front seat. Honked the horns. I’m trying to flash the lights. I can’t see nothing. I felt nothing. Absolutely nothing. I’m going off straight hearing and feeling, going on shock and adrenaline and my stubbornness and will not to die.
I thought I could flag someone down. I was just trying to get as close to the highway as I could by hearing. No one stopped. I got so close to the highway this time that the wind from a semi almost blew me off balance. I’m like, “How can no one see me?” But they did, actually. Later, I listened to some 911 calls and there were people that saw me. They also said they saw two people laying completely still in the snow, and that was my mother and stepfather.
When the officer showed up, he thought I was dead too. And then I started moving. I heard him say, “Blunt force trauma to the face.” I walked myself to the ambulance. The last thing I remember is I was mad because they were cutting my clothes, not even realizing I was covered in blood.
When I woke up, no one knew what I was saying. I wrote down, “Mom OK?” And then that’s when my brother told me, “No, she’s with Grandpa and Uncle Todd.”
I was in denial for the first two, three weeks. I thought, “I’m gonna get out of here and go right back to high school.” I’ve had so many surgeries. But my parents taught me when you get down, get right back up. Don’t stop trying.
Now I share what I went through to help others. I finally have the opportunity to have a voice and to tell people: This is what I saw from my stepfather for five years before the shooting; these are the signs. This is what I went through. I want you guys to know when somebody is unstable, especially if they have firearms. He threatened to shoot my dog when I was 15. I want people to see the signs.
But I also want people to know to keep going. It’s really hard to keep going, and you gotta have that strength. If people can find strength in me, I’ll be that rock for them. I’ll keep reopening these wounds.
It’s not always easy. I remember one time feeling pretty defeated, pretty down. I took a bath and had so many things going through my head. All of a sudden, this warmth came over me, and it was like a big hug. I just got this feeling of: Everything’s gonna be okay. You’re okay, you’re fine, you will get through this.
I’ve felt my mom many times over the years, but that stuck in my head because I was at a really low point. I felt like I didn’t want to keep going, and my mom knew that I needed to feel her. I knew she was there for me. Sometimes I’ll get this warmness in my chest and that voice in my head, “Everything’s okay, baby. Everything’s fine. You’ll be okay.”
I know it’s her. I know my mama is right next to me, watching me, guiding me through this journey. I know she is.