February 15, 1996
Web posted at: 8:30 a.m EST
CHATTANOOGA, Tennessee (CNN) -- Pneumonia-related surgery was scheduled Thursday for Gary Dockery, a former police officer who "suddenly and spontaneously" began talking this week after a gun shot left him virtually speechless more than seven years ago.
For some, Dockery's apparent recovery was nothing short of a miracle. But the miracle may prove an ending rather than a beginning. Dockery's family chose to have him undergo life-saving surgery to fight the pneumonia filling his lungs with fluid. But doctors said the 42-year-old man's bullet-damaged brain may never revive from the anesthesia.
Ever since Dockery was shot in the head by a drunken assailant, he's only been able to communicate by grunting, blinking his eyes or nodding his head.
The shooting, while Dockery was answering a bogus emergency call, damaged his nervous system, robbing him of the ability to speak. That is, until this week.
Doctors at the Chattanooga hospital where Dockery was admitted Saturday for pneumonia said the "patient suddenly and spontaneously, without explanation, developed limited ability to verbalize coherently with nursing staff and selected family members."
There was no apparent medical explanation for this sudden improvement in Dockery's ability to communicate, his attending physician said in a statement. Dockery's comments were called "appropriate and lucid." But he has not spoken since Monday.
Despite earlier reports, Dockery was never in a coma, nor was he semi-comatose, hospital spokesman Pat Charles said.
On Sept. 7, 1988, Patrol Officer Dockery answered a trouble call in Walden, a mountain town 15 miles northeast of Chattanooga. He was shot point-blank with a .22-caliber derringer as he stood talking to the 911 caller in his driveway.
The shooter, Samuel Frank Downey, now 68, told officers he'd placed the fake emergency call to get back at police for reprimanding him about noise after neighbors complained. Downey was sentenced to 37 years in prison and will be eligible for parole this May.
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