Woman found holding her eyeballs outside Upstate church, deputies say

Woman found outside South Main Chapel and Recovery Center 

  ANDERSON COUNTY, S.C. —An Upstate woman was flown to a hospital after witnesses say she used her hands to gouge out her eyeballs.

Elizabeth Hiott was working inside South Main Chapel and Mercy Center when she heard someone yelling for her to call 911.

"It was across the street, and I could see blood, and could hear her screaming, and I realized something was wrong. Something was terribly wrong," Hiott said. "I immediately called 911 and it almost felt like the 911 dispatcher didn't even believe me. That's how crazy it was."

Anderson County Sheriff Chad McBride said it took two or three deputies and two emergency medical workers to subdue the woman to start rendering aid.

Eventually the woman was put on a stretcher and loaded into a medical helicopter.

Hiott said she'd seen the woman in some church services before and at some meals served there, but said the woman didn't regularly come to the church.

A debriefing was held at the church to help those who witnessed what happened cope with what was seen.

"Prayer and community and family is what's going to get us through this," Hiott said.

The woman is in stable condition and on a respirator in the intensive care unit at Greenville Memorial.