MBTA officer lost all his blood at gun battle, remains on ventilator, shows signs of recovery

MBTA Police Chief Paul MacMillan said at a press conference this afternoon that Officer Richard Donohue this morning "opened his eyes and was able to move his hands and feet" - and squeeze his wife's hand.

MacMillan said he is hoping for a full recovery for his officer, who had three major blood vessels severed by a single bullet at the gun battle in Watertown with the two Marathon bombing suspects.

One of Donohue's doctors at Mount Auburn Hospital, David Millar, said Donohue remains heavily sedated and on a respirator, but that "we remain cautiously optimistic" he will recover.

Dr. Richard Nauta said Donohue lost so much blood his heart stopped; "He lost his entire circulating blood volume."

Nauta praised first responders at the scene in Watertown for immediately starting CPR. ER staff continued those efforts in the hospital before he was stable enough to go into surgery.

MacMillan said Donohue - a police-academy classmate and friend of killed MIT officer Sean Collier - was involved in the initial pursuit of the suspects from MIT and that he did fire his gun at the suspects in the Watertown gun battle.

MacMillan said he doubted Donohue knew that Collier was the MIT victim at the time, although he added he won't know for sure until Donohue is able to speak.

Among his visitors has been his six-month old son, according to Donohue's brother, Ed, himself a Winchester police officer.

MacMillan said the kind of cop Donohue is was illustrated last December, when he grabbed somebody's sweater to help stop the bleeding from somebody who had been stabbed at the Chinatown Orange Line stop.