MICHELE NORRIS, host:
Though she certainly never applied for membership, Gabrielle Giffords is now a member of a very small club: people who have survived a direct gunshot wound to the brain. Every wound is different, and the path to survival or recovery differs from one person to the next. But some people do make it through and manage to live fairly normal lives.
Jay Gordon is one of those people. Twenty-four years ago, he was shot in the head. He walked into an auto-parts store and interrupted a robbery in progress. And Jay Gordon joins us now in the studio to talk about his road to recovery.
So glad you could come in.
Mr. JAY GORDON (Chief of Litigation, Maritime Administration, Department of Transportation): Well, thank you for inviting me.
NORRIS: Do you mind if we begin with that moment, all those years ago, when you walked into that store? What happened?
Mr. GORDON: Well, I walked into an auto-parts store. I knew the salesman there. I saw him at the counters. There was somebody between me and the guy, and he turned. He had a gun, and he told me to go behind the counter with the other people - I think there was another employee there as well. And he was holding a gun on us. He wanted what was in the cash register, and then suddenly, I don't remember being shot. Suddenly, I was falling to the floor. I thought I had fainted.
I remember being - feeling good that I wasn't shaking in my boots, and then, I said, oh, you're fainting. I was on the floor, and people started to tear my shirt. And they said you've been shot. Now, I can't say that I remember things very clearly about that, because when I was shot, it was sort of like my mind went into like a cave. And I was way in the back. It was like things were far distant. I remember hearing the ambulance come. I remember people talking to me, but I remember being someplace in my mind that I had never been before.
NORRIS: So hearing things but feeling like you're not actually in the moment.
Mr. GORDON: Right. Yeah. I remember being in the hospital. I must have said something to them because they called my wife. And my wife came down, and I was lying on a gurney there. But it was - but I don't - I mean, I don't recollect the time sense of it. Things just happened very fast. I remember talking to my wife, and this is before the operation.
NORRIS: What happened in surgery? Because in the case of Gabrielle Giffords, doctors have said that the fact that the bullet exited was good news for her, if we could call it that, because it meant that the bullet didn't explode inside her brain. In your case, did the bullet actually leave your body?
Mr. GORDON: No. I still have fragments in my brain. They told me the bullet shattered, and there were pieces of my brain. They removed what they could, but in my case, the bullet did not pass through. It shattered in my skull.
NORRIS: What is the process of recovery like on the other side of brain surgery where they actually literally have to take a piece of your skull out to access your brain - in your case, remove a bullet?
Mr. GORDON: Well, in my case, I had a neurological exam, and I also had - I went to a therapist who assessed me for cognitive functions. And I mean, I haven't had really any real problems.
NORRIS: So you didn't have to go through speech therapy, physical therapy? Did you lose any movement of your, you know, ability to move your arms or your legs?
Mr. GORDON: No, not - I mean, I did a certain amount of exercise, but no more than anyone would do coming out of a hospital who hadn't done exercise for a while.
NORRIS: That's just miraculous.
Mr. GORDON: Yeah. Well, I'm very fortunate to not have any - knock on wood -thus far, not have any problems.
NORRIS: Listening to you, it's clear that the injury that you suffered all those years ago is very different than the wound that Congresswoman Giffords is recovering from right now. But I'm wondering if based on your own experience, if you have any kind of advice that you might offer to her family or to people who will be her side during recovery?
Mr. GORDON: Well, I wouldn't presume to give them advice. I would just say that, for me, the love that I got from my family, my wife and my friends was very important to me in my - as my recovery. I would say doing that would be the best that one could do, you know, recognizing that she'll need patience and understanding as she goes forward.
NORRIS: Well, Jay Gordon, thank you so much for coming in to talk to us.
Mr. GORDON: Well, you're welcome.
NORRIS: All the best to you and all the best to your family.
Mr. GORDON: Well, thank you.
NORRIS: Jay Gordon is the chief of litigation at the Maritime Administration. He was talking to us about a gunshot wound he survived back in 1986.