TEMPLE — At Scott & White Memorial Hospital, U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Patrick Zeigler, 28, will undergo his sixth brain surgery on Friday morning as doctors try to drain fluid from his brain after the four gunshot wounds he suffered during that deadly shooting at Fort Hood Army Post last November.
"Doctors can tell you what the statistics are, but you're always going to have people who prove them wrong," said Jessica Hansen, Zeigler's fiancé. "He's done that so far."
Three weeks ago, surgeons replaced the plastic plate on the right side of Ziegler's head where a bullet wound blew out a massive portion of his skull.
"Thirteen people died next to him," Hansen recalled. "If ever there's a moment I feel weak or ungrateful, I think of those people."
Hansen, 22, was studying neuropsychology — how the brain functions — at a Boston college when the shooting happened.
She is now living her college major as she sits by Zeigler's side and watches him recover day and night.
He is the last survivor still hospitalized, six months after Maj. Nidal Hassan is suspected of opening fire at Fort Hood.
Four bullets struck Zeigler; one pierced his skull.
For the first time, it has become clear just how serious his wounds were after surgeons gave the couple a mold of Zeigler's skull, which shows a large part missing on the right side.
"He was sitting down when he was shot," Hansen said, pointing to the missing piece in the skull mold. "The bullet entered here at the top of the hole."
The injury has now left him without use of his left arm and left foot, but Ziegler's personality was left unscathed.
"Just this morning, at 5 a.m., he woke up and said, 'Get me my uniform! I have to go to work!.' I said, 'You're dreaming.' He said, 'I'm not dreaming. The command is going to get mad if I don't go to work,'" Hansen said.
When News 8 first interviewed Zeigler in February, the staff sergeant was learning to walk again at a rehabilitation center between Austin and San Antonio.
But this month, his condition deteriorated after doctors replaced the plate in his skull and more fluid built up on his brain. On Friday, doctors will insert a new tube to drain the fluid through a hole they drilled on top of his skull.
Ross Perot and another Dallas philanthropist, Richard Lottie, have provided valuable assistance to shooting victims, Hansen said, and often communicate with Hansen and Zeigler.
Perot and Lottie asked a neurosurgeon friend of theirs from UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas to visit Zeigler in the Temple hospital last week to offer a fresh perspective on his most serious setback so far.
Despite her fiancé's condition, Hansen said she remains in contact with many of the other shooting victims and their families. She has started an online forum as well, and hopes to reunite many of the soldiers with their care providers.
Hansen said Zeigler has made more progress than anyone anticipated.
The two have also set a wedding date for July 9, 2011.
Zeigler likely wants to stay in the military, Hansen said, though it's uncertain in what role. Fort Hood and the Army have been generous over the last six months, she added.
After rushing to Texas from Massachusetts in the hours after the shooting last November, Hansen said she and Zeigler — along with other victims — have survived financially with assistance from the Association of the United States Army.
Zeigler turns 29 at the end of May, the day before his suspected shooter, Maj. Hassan, faces his first court hearing over the events of that deadly day.
E-mail jwhitely@wfaa.com
