‘Remarkable Recovery’: NYC Police Officer Stabbed in Head Leaves Hospital
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ABC News(NEW YORK) — A New York City police officer who was stabbed in the head with a 3.5-inch blade last month left the hospital Wednesday.
Officer Eder Loor was responding to a 911 call in East Harlem on April 17 when an emotionally disturbed man stabbed him through the skull and slashed his neck and face. Loor was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital with bleeding in the brain.
“I’m happy to be alive,” Loor told a packed room of reporters Wednesday. “I’m still not normal, but it’s great that they helped me out so far. Thank you everybody.”
The 28-year-old police officer was surrounded by the medical team, whom he credits with saving his life, and his pregnant wife, Dina Loor, who revealed that Wednesday was their daughter’s fifth birthday.
“That’s all she wanted for her gift,” Dina Loor said through tears. “We just thank God for giving us a second chance at life together.”
Dr. Joshua Bederson, the neurosurgeon who treated Loor at Mount Sinai Hospital, told ABC News at the time of the attack, “He was fortunate because the knife entered in the Sylvian fissure.”
The fissure, Bederson explained, was a crevice between the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain, resembling the crack between two couch cushions. If the knife had entered at a different angle, the bleeding would have killed him, said Bederson.
“This recovery was about as remarkable as they come,” said Bederson.
Dr. Kristjan Ragnarsson, a neuropsychologist has been working with Loor to restore his sensory deficits. Loor will begin physical therapy next week to improve his walking.
The suspect, 26-year-old Terrance Hale, has been charged with attempted aggravated murder, assault and criminal possession of a weapon. At the time of the attack, Hale was living with his mother, who’d placed the emergency call, explaining that her son was bipolar and off his meds and needed to be taken to a psychiatric hospital, according to authorities.
Hale remains in custody at this time.
Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio