A Bullet to the Brain
VELSHI: OK, happening now, new potential evidence in the Arizona shooting. Investigators say a black bag found by a teen walking his dog contained nine-millimeter ammunition. The FBI is testing the bag for DNA and fingerprints that could link it to shooting suspect Jared Loughner. Plus, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave a major speech today on relations with China. This comes, of course, ahead of next week's visit by President Hu Jintao. She said that the U.S. and China have one of the most important bilateral relationships in the world, but called for more openness and cooperation. And first it was "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," now the U.S. military is focusing on another controversial policy. A commission of high ranking officers is recommending that the Pentagon drop a ban on women in direct combat. A Florida deputy who survived what could have been a fatal gunshot to the head in 2007 feels that he and Gabrielle Giffords are now family. Even though they've never met, they share an incredible common bond. Senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen shares his amazing story of survival. Oh, Elizabeth is right with me.</s>ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Right here. How about that?</s>VELSHI: I knew you were here, but I thought -- I thought we were going to go to your story. Remarkable story. This man got shot in the head and has talked about his evolution from there.</s>COHEN: Right, exactly. Because, you know, so few of us know what it's like to get shot in the head, thank goodness. And as we look at the future for Giffords, he's one of the few people in the world who has an idea of what she's about to go through. And so, let's listen to his story.</s>COHEN (voice-over): A bullet through the brain, a coma. (on camera): You were once where she is now?</s>SGT. MAURY HERNANDEZ (RET.), BROWARD SHERIFF'S OFFICE: I was.</s>COHEN: You were in that coma?</s>HERNANDEZ: I was there.</s>COHEN (voice-over): Maury Hernandez is a police officer in Broward County, Florida. Three years ago, he was off duty when he noticed a man on a motorcycle running three red lights. He pulled him over and the man pushed Hernandez and fled.</s>HERNANDEZ: A couple hundred yards into the pursuit, he turned around, pointed a gun at me, and fired twice.</s>COHEN: Hernandez was just a few blocks away from Memorial Hospital and chief neurosurgeon Dr. Greg Zorman. (on camera): So the bullet entered here?</s>DR. GREG ZORMAN, CHIEF OF NEUROSURGERY, MEMORIAL HOSPITAL: Right. So the bullet entered here.</s>COHEN: And went up here?</s>ZORMAN: Correct.</s>COHEN: Yikes.</s>ZORMAN: As it did that, it was tumbling and turning and heating and heating (ph) and destroying brain tissue.</s>COHEN: When Mr. Hernandez was brought in and you saw this scan, this damage, did you think he would live through it?</s>ZORMAN: I was pessimistic.</s>COHEN (voice-over): But Hernandez said he always knew he would survive. (on camera): There are so many similarities between what happened to you and Congresswoman Giffords.</s>HERNANDEZ: I know it.</s>COHEN: And what have you been thinking when you've been watching the news stories about her?</s>HERNANDEZ: The first thing I thought was, well, she can make it. You know, she's going to be able to survive.</s>COHEN: Why are you so confident? I mean, she got a bullet in the brain?</s>HERNANDEZ: So did I. So did I and where there is a will, there's a way.</s>COHEN (voice-over): When Hernandez was discharged after nearly three months after being in the hospital, he had vision problems, speech problems and couldn't walk. Today, he's weak on his left side, but that's it. He says he's never listened to people who told him he would never fully recover. (on camera): As she goes down her path to recovery, what advice would you give her?</s>HERNANDEZ: I would give her the advice of not listening to the negativity that is going to be around her. I would tell her not to listen to that, to listen to herself and to her heart and let that guide her way. If she does that, she's going to be OK.</s>VELSHI: That is incredible. That is incredible.</s>COHEN: It's amazing.</s>VELSHI: Other than the fact that it was a bullet in the brain -- with Gabby Giffords, it went right through, with his it sort of stayed in there and did some damage -- how similar are their injuries?</s>COHEN: You know, there are some similarities, and I've actually relied on my colleague, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, to sort of help me figure a lot of this out. But if you take a look, this is Hernandez's brain scan. It didn't go all the way through. It sort of went in, stayed here and then kind of exited there. But can you see, if you can imagine a midline, it stayed on one side.</s>VELSHI: Same as hers.</s>COHEN: Same as hers, from that's what we're told.</s>VELSHI: And that seems to be important, right?</s>COHEN: That's really important because there's all this -- forgive my term here -- stuff, OK, that's really important in the middle of your brain. And the fact that it didn't cross that line is really big. And actually, Sanjay spoke to his neurosurgeon, also spoke to her husband exclusively and that's going to be on 7:30 tomorrow morning, 2:30 tomorrow afternoon, and he's going to explain more of this. I mean, cause you think -- I mean, look at that, that is a bullet lodged in the brain and he's doing OK.</s>VELSHI: That's crazy, I got to admit. I mean, the beautiful miracles of science and the human body and the brain is that there can be some healing. But he's not out of the woods. He's been -- he goes to treatment five time as week?</s>COHEN: He does, physical and occupational therapy five times a week and he says he's going to keep doing this until he can go out on the beat again and be a cop. Because right now, he can't because he can't run and running is important for cops who got to chase those bad guys. So he says he's going to keep on doing it. If it takes the rest of his life, it takes the rest of his life.</s>VELSHI: OK, well, that's excellent news. Excellent prognosis. Thanks for bringing us this story, Elizabeth.</s>COHEN: Thanks.</s>VELSHI: All right, Tunisia's president -- this is an important story. Tunisia's president has been forced from power after days of antigovernment protests. This is very, very unusual in an Arab state. The latest from the capital, Tunis, when we come back. Stay with us.