Taylor Kim, OC High School graduate, suffers serious eye injury after fireworks accident on July 4th

FULLERTON, Calif. (KABC) — It’s been nearly two weeks since 18-year-old Taylor Kim’s outlook on life changed forever, and now she’s simply trying to heal her condition.

“There was a lot of bruising,” she said.

The young student was celebrating the Fourth of July with her parents in Los Angeles County when someone allegedly set off illegal fireworks near her.

“We didn’t see the person who hurt me setting off fireworks, and when I turned around, it just exploded and it all happened so fast,” she recalls.

Taylor, who recently graduated from high school and plans to study nursing at Biola University in the fall, remembers only hearing a loud bang and then feeling pain.

“After it hit me, I started bleeding all over and all I could think about was my future, what my life was going to be like, because I thought my eyeball had exploded,” Taylor said.

Then her parents, Robert and Jane, took her to the hospital.

“It was horrible,” Taylor’s father said. “I tried to collect my thoughts because it felt like a bomb had gone off.”

“She covers her left eye (Saying,) “My eye, my eye… I think my eye burst,” he added. “I just thought, ‘Oh my God. That thing went through.’ It was the worst thought, the worst image.”

Taylor suffered a ruptured eyeball, a serious eye injury, and will have to undergo several operations. Her parents do not know whether the doctors will be able to save her eyesight.

“Is it healing? Is it healing properly? Is it not healing? Is it getting infected?” her father asked.

Taylor’s dream of going to college may have to be postponed, but she and her family are confident that she can continue to pursue her goal of becoming a nurse in the future.

“We have hope, and that’s the only thing that gets us through,” Jane said.

“I know God is working and I know He will help me. I just keep praying and I know He will heal me,” Kim said.

The Kim family has started a GoFundMe campaign to ensure Taylor receives the best possible treatment.