Hero Cop Lost All His Blood in Boston Shootout

The police officer wounded while chasing the Boston Marathon bombing suspects lost all of his own blood—and, for 45 minutes, his own heartbeat—after being shot in the thigh, but doctors "cautiously" believe he will make a full recovery. Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority Officer Richard Donohue Jr., 33, suffered a severed femoral vein during an exchange of fire with the suspects and needed CPR and blood transfusions, the Los Angeles Times reports; one of the attending surgeons told CNN his "blood volume was almost entirely lost to the point of the heart stopping." Sean Collier, the MIT police officer who was shot and killed earlier that night, was a friend of his from the police academy.

Donohue, who has a 6-month-old son, is on a ventilator and is in stable but critical condition. Doctors say they are "cautiously optimistic" about his chances of fully recovering and being able to walk again. "As a brother, fellow officer, and American, I cannot describe the pride I felt in what Dick and other officers did that Friday morning," says his younger brother, who is also a Boston-area police officer. In a statement picked up by the New York Daily News, Donohue's family asks for continued prayers for the "dedicated police officer who loves his work and helping people." The Boston Globe backs up that assertion: Donohue was commended in January for helping to save a stabbing victim in a Boston T station. (More Richard Donohue Jr stories.)