Bryan Tarnowski
Blossom Ruffins was born after being shot in utero when her mother Harmonese Pleasant was 9 months pregnant.Courtesy Harmonese Pleasant
Over the past year Pleasant, 30, has made a complete recovery, but Blossom has had a tougher journey. A bullet fragment passed through her spine, striking her spinal cord, causing injuries to her lung and puncturing her kidney, where the fragment remains. (Doctors say it is stable and doesn’t need to be removed.) Now 13 months old, Blossom is “making progress” with a team of rehabilitation specialists and neurosurgeons, Pleasant says—but it’s unclear if she’ll ever be able to walk.
Still, Blossom gives her parents hope every day. “This little girl is a bundle of joy,” says Ruffins, a New Orleans fixture who earned wider acclaim in 2010 with a recurring role playing himself on the HBO seriesTreme.“She’s laughing and playing all day long. Looking at Harmonese and Blossom every morning is the biggest blessing.”
Kermit Ruffins and Blossom Ruffins.Courtesy Harmonese Pleasant
After an emergency C-section, Blossom was flown immediately to Children’s Hospital New Orleans via helicopter, where she remained in the NICU for a week. “I remember walking into Children’s and not being able to compose myself, to stop crying,” says Ruffins, who was the first to see Blossom. “Then the nurse told me she probably will never walk. I lost it after that.”
Since the shooting, occupational therapists have worked Blossom’s muscles to ensure they don’t contract from lack of use. The couple, who met in 2021 at Ruffins’s bar Kermit’s Tremé Mother-in-Law Lounge, have seen her wiggle her toes, but “her brain is not registering that she has legs,” he says.
Kermit Ruffins and Harmonese Pleasant and their daughter Blossom outside of Kermit’s Treme Mother-in-Law Lounge.Bryan Tarnowski
Doctors say it’s too soon to know the extent of her injuries. “At this age there are a lot of things she can’t tell us,” says Dr. Fabienne Gray, a pediatric surgeon at Children’s Hospital who treated Blossom when she arrived. “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.” Still, she says, “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.” Pleasant, a former administrator who now cares for Blossom full-time, is confident her daughter will rise to the challenge: “She is so dedicated, so determined and so aware, and I think that will help her in the future.”
As for Blossom’s traumatic past, the couple still have no idea who pulled the trigger—police haven’t identified a suspect, Ruffins says: “We don’t know if it was a stray bullet. They think it might have been kids playing with a gun.” The not knowing is hard, they say, but they’re focused on Blossom.
Blossom Ruffins.Courtesy Harmonese Pleasant
Kermit Ruffins and Harmonese Pleasant and their daughter Blossom.Bryan Tarnowski
He’s hopeful her appreciation for all music will only grow. “I’m going to get her the best teachers in the city to make sure she can write music, play music and do everything she needs to do to be a cultured young lady,” Ruffins says.
For now the family have moved out of their previous residence and want to create a wheelchair-accessible home. “We have a long road ahead of us,” Ruffins says. “It’s going to be a little rough, but we are so optimistic.”
source: people.com
