Police officer critically wounded in Watertown shootout begins rehabilitation

Doctors say MBTA officer Richard Donohue's heart stopped for almost 40 minutes

Published  6:54 AM EDT May 20, 2013


"This was the goal, to specifically be at this facility. This is the place I'm going to start to walk again, get strong and get fit and really start to regain some normalcy," Donohue tells WCVBs Liz Brunner, who sat down one-on-one with him and his wife Sunday.

The MBTA police officer was critically wounded in the Watertown gunfight with the two Boston Marathon Bombing suspects.

"I don't remember being shot; I don't remember anything after," Donohue recalls.

The 33-year-old was shot in the Femoral artery. His heart stopped for nearly 40 minutes. He wasn't breathing and lost nearly all of his blood.

He spent eight hours in surgery, and recalls the first time he woke up.

"There were so many tubes in me. There was something on this side, something on this side and something in my nose, and something in my mouth," Donohue said, motioning around him. "I can't talk. I can't eat. I'm stuck in this bed," he recalled.


He credits luck, prayers and fellow officers and first responders with saving his life.

"I definitely had my vest on that night, and [the bullet] didn't hit me in the vest, so I was kind of like, what the heck? I had this thing on; it's supposed to hit me here, save my life!" Donohue said. "I guess it just wasn't my time."

Donohue and his wife have a six-month-old child. She says she'd pat her husband's chest before he went to work just to make sure he had his vest on. "The joke is always 'don't be a hero,'" Kim said.  "We don't need a hero, we just need a husband and a dad."

Donohue maintains he's not a hero, but just doing his job.  "I got hit, but I'd go back and do the same thing if I had to," Donohue said, adding that he might take a bit more cover. "I'd do the same thing anytime I had to."

While the physical scars will heal, Donohue says mentally, he's a changed man. "I think I'll be more on guard," he said. "I feel like I'm blessed.  I got another day."

His wife says the family can see their goal. "He knows he's going to progress and he's going to get better and now we have the end, the goal, which is going home," she said. "We can see that now."

If it turns out his injury is from friendly police fire, Donohue says he's just glad police "got the job done" after the chaotic showdown with the suspects in Watertown, Mass.

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