It began seven years
ago when a single bullet sent Gary Dockery into a
silence no one could break. On September 17th, 1988,
police officer Gary Dockery entered a 9-1-1
emergency call that would change his life forever. He was visiting his
ex-wife and sons when he first got the call.
DISPATCH: Is this Dockery? GARY DOCKERY: Uh huh. DISPATCH: Are you on tonight? GARY DOCKERY: Uh huh. DISPATCH: OK, 3003
Wilson Avenue. GARY DOCKERY: Oh, no. DISPATCH: Shots fired, disorder. GARY DOCKERY: OK. I'll have to get uniformed
here, but I'll be on my way. He tells the boys
to go on to bed. The boys went on to bed. He got the call, and he told
the boys, he hollered at them, and told them that he would
be back in about 15 minutes, that he had a call. And that was the last time that
they had spoke to their Dad or seen their Dad. OPRAH WINFREY: Only
minutes after saying good night to his sons, Gary
Dockery was shot in the head. With over 20% of
his brain destroyed, he would live in silence
for over seven years. I cannot count the times
that I have sat by Gary's bed, the times I have prayed, please,
just if you could just speak to me, if you could just
give me some indication that you could just say something. It's just been a long ordeal. I mean, the times, it's
never gotten any easier. But after seven
years of silence, seven, Gary Dockery's condition
seemed to only worsen. Two weeks ago, he was
transferred from his nursing home to the local hospital. Doctors said he was
dying of pneumonia. In fact, he had a
do not resuscitate status when he arrived. They gave his family
the choice of letting him die from natural
causes or take the chance of surgery, which
they feared would kill him. Well, as the family
agonized over this decision, the absolutely
unexpected happened. Gary Dockery spoke. It was the story that
captured the hearts and hopes of the nation. Gary Dockery was the miracle
man, a modern Rip Van Winkle. Released from the prison
of his seven year silence, journalists from
around the world flooded this quiet southern
city, waiting for every update. Monday morning, I got
a phone call at home, so I got the phone, said hello. And this voice comes across
the phone and says, hey, buddy. And I couldn't believe
what I was hearing. I could not believe it. I started screaming my
brother's name, Gary, Gary. And it was him. I could not believe it was him. It was a dream come true. I prayed for the
last seven years that he could just tell me
he loved me one more time, and he did that. And I just thank the
Lord that he did. There's no words
to explain how wonderful that was, because
that was that child's blessings. He felt like that God
has answered his prayers, because all these years,
he's prayed that he'd just say I love you one more time. OPRAH WINFREY: To his family,
it was an emotional homecoming. For his townpeople, it was
nothing short of a miracle. I thought it was
absolutely amazing. The hand of God must have
reached out and touched this boy, because he
would have been put away, and he was in vegetable land
for all those many years, and then to suddenly come out of
it was really, truly a miracle. God works in strange ways, and
that's just one way of letting everybody know that just because
you're in a coma sometimes, doesn't mean you'll
always be in one. There's always a chance. So he proved everybody wrong. OPRAH WINFREY:
The Dockery family never lost their
faith that someday, Gary would return to them. It's a miracle come true,
and I'm going to tell everyone, don't ever give up hope,
because prayers are answered. Well, in just a
few minutes, we're going to go live to Gary's
hospital in Chattanooga, Tennessee for the latest. But first, joining me are
members of his family. Meet his brother
Dennis, his sister Lisa, and his sons Colt and Shane. And we heard you were the
first one that he spoke to. Were you in the room,
obviously, with him? Yes. OPRAH WINFREY: And
what was going on? It was about 20
to 7:00 or so, Vicki had called, and found out
what happened during the night and how he was. So we were sitting there
talking, and it was still dark in the room. I had just a little
bit of a light on. Were you all still--
the family's still visiting every day? Somebody would go
to visit every day? At the hospital, mm-hmm. And so I just decided
to stay that night, because we had been letting
somebody stay overnight. And I said, hey, buddy,
how you doing this morning? And he kind of came
up with, [MUMBLING],, something like that. And I said, what? Because I don't know if
he's ever done this before, the mumbling. So his eyes were-- were his eyes normally open? Yeah. Like, they've been open. OPRAH WINFREY: OK, OK. It's just he's not
spoke or anything. OPRAH WINFREY: OK. And so anyway,
I went up to him. And I said, do
you know who I am? He said, nope. I said, oh my god, he's talking. And I said, I'm
your sister, Lisa. He goes, mm-mm. Yeah. And so at this time I got
so, you know, whatever-- Uh huh. --that I don't really
remember now exactly what was said after that. I remember getting on
the phone to my mom because I wanted somebody
to hear him in case it was just a few seconds,
or a minute, or something. So how soon after that,
Dennis, did you hear him? Marsha tells me it
was about 30 minutes. OPRAH WINFREY: About 30 minutes. And he called you? Well, she called him,
put the phone to his ear, and let him speak. OPRAH WINFREY: Uh huh.
Did you think you were dreaming? I knew exactly who it was the
moment that I heard the voice. Was his speech
slurred or was it-- no? DENNIS DOCKERY: It
was just as plain. Just as plain. And I just lost
myself emotionally. And I just, you know, started--
Gary, I love you. And it's like, he's
asking me, you know, why are you saying this to me? Don't embarrass me or
whatever, you know. OPRAH WINFREY: Over the phone?
- It's a man thing, you know. You don't say stuff like
that to your brother. [LAUGHING] You know, so I just couldn't--
and my knees got weak. I just, like, fell to
the floor basically. I just couldn't hold myself up. Then how soon were you
at the hospital after that? As quick it took me
to get my shoes half on, my shirt half on, out the door.
OPRAH WINFREY: Really? I was there. How soon did you boys get
to speak to your father? Did he remember you? Did he know you? At first, he didn't
remember me because being I was his size, and
now I'm bigger. So he remembered him
right off the bat. OPRAH WINFREY: Really? And what did he say to you? I said, hi, daddy. He said, hi. And he told me my whole name. And that's all he
said to me that day. OPRAH WINFREY: And then what? Did you have-- I heard he had an
18-hour conversation. Was that with you guys? It was the whole family. The whole family. LISA DOCKERY: He just
didn't want to shut up. - He didn't want to shut up?
- Mm-mm. Well, you wouldn't
either if you hadn't spoken in seven years, I guess. Had you all given
up hope, Dennis? The doctors had
given you really not a lot of hope, I understand.
- No, not much at all. As a matter of fact, we were
looking at a really grim situation, as just something
that we were going to have to accept at this point. But I don't think we really
give up hope, so to speak. You've always got it in the
back of your mind, you know. There's still something. You still got time for
something to happen here.
