Christy Carlson Romano Nearly Lost Vision After Shooting Accident

Former Disney star Christy Carlson Romano is recounting a harrowing 2025 clay pigeon shooting accident in Texas that left her with birdshot lodged near her eye, a close call that she feared could lead to blindness.

Romano was celebrating her husband Brendan Rooney’s birthday when the incident occurred. "I was peppered with birdshot at about 250 feet away, and I was struck in a fat pocket under my eye, and also in my forehead," Romano told Fox News Digital. "I still have birdshot behind my eye about a millimeter away from anything critical. And if it were to move, I would go blind. So we’re hoping that doesn’t happen."

The accident is detailed in her memoir, "Once Upon a Trainwreck." Romano described the moment of impact, recounting, "I, at one point, thought that I was going to die." She added that the experience profoundly shifted her perspective, especially as a mother.

Clay pigeon shooting involves launching circular clay targets for participants to shoot with shotguns. Romano stated that while the activity is common in Texas, another party member present did not handle their firearm responsibly, discharging it too closely in her direction.

Recalling the immediate aftermath, Romano wrote in her memoir that she collapsed and feared she was dying. Her vision blurred, and she described what appeared to be a dark liquid spreading across her contact lenses. Her husband and the other shooter rushed to her aid.

"The Texas sky is big and beautiful today," she wrote in her memoir. "Cicadas haven’t quite woken up from their long winter’s nap this February, and it’s not too hot or humid. It’s a beautiful day to die."

As she became increasingly lightheaded during the drive to the hospital, her husband urged her to stay awake. Her oculoplastic surgeon later told her that typically, such injuries require removal of eyes, but in her case, the birdshot lodged in a "fat pocket" just under the eye, narrowly missing critical structures.

"It just so happened to hit the right fat pocket right under the eye. And I really almost survived through a miracle because I think there was any amount of outcomes when it came to having birdshot striking my skull and my face," Romano said.

Doctors determined that removing the two fragments of birdshot permanently embedded in her head would be too risky, opting to leave them in place. Her oculoplastic surgeon, Dr. Sean Paul, confirmed that the birdshot entered beneath her eye and lodged in bone, narrowly missing her eyeball, optic nerve, and eye muscles by approximately one millimeter. She also sustained a subconjunctival hemorrhage, or bleeding under the membrane covering the white of her eye.

Romano described her recovery as "pretty miraculous" and expressed gratitude to the medical staff at St. David’s South Austin Medical Center in Austin, Texas. The experience, she said, reinforced the importance of living a life focused on personal growth and purpose.

"The biggest lesson that I took away from that experience was that life is short, and you need to be really attuned to what it is that you want out of life," Romano explained. "And you need to have a good life."

This incident, along with other health scares after turning 40, motivated her to write her memoir. In February 2026, Romano announced on Instagram that she had received a positive result from a cancer screening. Both her parents had battled cancer, with her mother surviving and her father succumbing to the disease. Her maternal grandmother also died of lung cancer. Her husband’s screening result was negative.

Romano finds strength in her faith and prayer, seeking to understand her calling and purpose. She hopes her memoir will help others feel less alone.