Man wakes from month-long coma
A man who was shot in the head defending his girlfriend after leaving a Halloween party woke up to take his first steps on Thanksgiving after spending almost a month languishing in a coma.
Doctors said Benjamin Pessah, 21, only had a 25 per cent chance of survival after he was attacked in San Francisco on October 28th defending his girlfriend from a man trying to grope her.
But in what is being described as a miracle, Mr Pessah regained consciousness last week in time for the Holidays and began his first steps on the road to recovery on Thanksgiving.
Pessah was leaving the party in Fort Mason, San Francisco, when a stranger approached and began to touch his girlfriend.
Gallant Pessah stepped in to defend his partner, Carissa Harper, 20, but the stranger, identified as 30-year-old Hun Saelee, then went to the trunk of his car for a gun and shot Pessah in the head.
Benjamin’s older brother, Nick Pessah, told ABC News: ‘It was pretty bizarre and unnecessary. He [Saelee] attempted to shoot the group of four of them. He missed everybody but the last bullet hit my brother in the head.’
When Pessah reached hospital, doctors told his distraught family that they didn’t think he would survive the severe brain injury. The victim was then put in a medically-induced coma for almost a month. ‘They weren’t going to operate because he was too severely injured,” Nick Pessah said.
‘Then they said they would attempt it but normally they wouldn’t. They only did because he is young and has a chance at surviving. They weren’t sure if he was going to make it or not.’
But as the days progressed, Pessah began making small improvements on a daily basis.
Then, a week before Thanksgiving his breathing tube was taken out and he whispered his first words, ‘Hi mom’, reduced his mother to tears.