INDEPENDENCE, Mo. -- A Missouri woman is out of a hospital and recovering at home after a cell phone was shoved down her throat last week.

Melinda "Mindy" Abell was rushed to a hospital Friday morning. She told police that her ex-boyfriend, Marlon Brando Gill, 23, became angry.

Abell told detectives that Gill grabbed her by the mouth and shoved the cell phone until it became lodged in her throat. Surgeons had to remove it.

Gill is charged with first-degree assault, which is a felony.

Police initially issued a statement saying Abell had swallowed the phone. A spokesman later explained that investigators weren't able to talk to her until after the surgery.

Abell's father, Don, said he hopes Gill will be able to find God.

"Everybody takes steps in the wrong direction. Everybody has the opportunity to take steps in the right direction," Don Abell said.

Gill was being held in the Jackson County Jail on $100,000 bond.

Don Abell said he wasn't sure his daughter would survive the drive to the hospital after the attack and was thankful she survived.

"I thank the Lord for the air she got. God is alive. He looks after all of us. You just have to have faith," Don Abell said.

Abell said that if there is anything good to come of this, it is that someone else may look closer at the warning signs of abuse.

Gill is unemployed, but his last job was selling mobile phones, according to KMBC-TV in Kansas City.