Mall shooting survivor thanks medics for saving his life

From left, UNMC’s Joe Stothert, M.D., Ph.D., and Fred Wilson, a survivor of the Dec. 5 Westroads Mall shootings, at a news conference Wednesday. Wilson thanked Stothert and the other medical center personnel who worked to save his life after gunshot through his right arm caused him to lose nearly four liters of blood.

Two weeks after being critically wounded in one of the deadliest events in Nebraska history, Fred Wilson said Wednesday that he had no anger toward his assailant, 19-year-old Robert Hawkins.

Wilson was one of two survivors of the Dec. 5 shooting at Westroads Mall to be treated at UNMC’s hospital partner — The Nebraska Medical Center. During a news conference at UNMC Wednesday, he made his first comments since being shot.

“He was in need of help, he was ill,” Wilson said of Hawkins, who killed nine people including himself during the rampage at the mall’s Van Maur department store.

On Wednesday, Wilson repeatedly thanked all of the police and medical personnel who helped to save his life.

“Not a day goes by that I don’t feel like I am one lucky man,” he said.

One of those who helped Wilson was Joe Stothert, M.D., Ph.D., professor of surgery at UNMC and a surgeon at The Nebraska Medical Center.

Dr. Stothert performed a six-hour surgery on Wilson and said the retired school teacher was inches from death.

The human body holds five liters of blood and Wilson had lost four liters, Dr. Stothert said.

“That’s almost all that you could lose and still be alive,” Dr. Stothert said.

Click on the images below to hear comments made by Dr. Stothert and Wilson during Wednesday’s news conference.

Mall shooting survivor Fred Wilson talks about being grateful to be alive.

Fred Wilson discusses the care he received during his stay at the medical center.

UNMC surgeon Joe Stothert, M.D., Ph.D., discusses Fred Wilson’s loss of blood after the shooting.