PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. — A drive-by shooting 16 years ago forever changed the life of a West Boca Raton High School football player.
Kevin Lubin was shot multiple times just outside of his Delray Beach home in the early morning hours of Thanksgiving Day in 2007.
He recently reconnected with the staff at Delray Medical Center who saved his life.
"I heard a car, high acceleration, and I turned around, the car pulled up, the back door opened, when I looked, I looked at a man that had a ski mask and he pulled out the AK-47,” Lubin said describing the moment he was shot. "The barrel was touching my stomach."
Lubin recalled the night of Nov. 23, 2007, when he and two friends were injured in a drive-by shooting at about midnight just outside his home along Southwest Second Street in Delray Beach.
"Shot here (in the right arm). I got shot in the abdomen, and I also got shot here (in the left side), and this was the one that ended everything — the one on my leg," Lubin said. "In total, it was seven bullets they pulled out of me."
Lubin was taken to Delray Medical Center in critical condition. His leg injury ended his football career, and doctors only gave him a 10% chance of survival.
Sixteen years later, he returned to the hospital to thank those who saved him.
"People ask me, 'Why wait?' I tell people all the time things take time to get over it," Lubin said. "I may heal externally, but internally it's a healing process."
It's a healing journey he's still on.
"Being in a hospital was the easy part, getting shot was the easy part, believe it or not," Lubin said. "It was the fight that I had to do while being at the hospital, the recovery, the process. I had almost 30 surgeries."
While the nurses and doctors called him the miracle boy, he considers them his Thanksgiving miracle.
"I love y'all, thank you for all that you do, I thank God for blessing you guys with the skills and the ability not to only take care of a life but to save one as well," he said he a letter to the entire staff at Delray Medical Hospital.
Below is the full appreciation letter he wrote to the staff at Delray Medical Center:
THANK YOU DELRAY MEDICAL
November 23, 2007, I was shot 7 times with an AK47 on the night of Thanksgiving Eve. I didn't know at the moment, but that would be the night my life changed forever.
I never truly had the opportunity to say thank you to the entire medical staff, and everybody else who played a part and saved my life that night. Thank you for being unselfish, many people may not look at it the way I look at it. To be able to take care of somebody at the worst moment in their life unconditionally, it takes a special type of group of people in the medical field to do what you did for me on that tragic night.
I am sure there were a lot of hands involved on that tragic night, but unfortunately, I'm unable to remember every hand that was involved in helping me get back to my new life because my old life I once knew was gone from that very moment. And with that, I want to say thank you. I am dedicating this thank you letter to the ER unit, intensive care unit, and trauma step-down unit, here at Delray Medical Hospital.
You could've been anywhere in the world that night, you could’ve called off work, called in sick, or just simply spent time with family because that's what you do on Thanksgiving you spend time with family.
But God wanted you to be at work that night and I’m so grateful for that. It was a long & and hard-fought journey with so many uncertainties, but look at God, look where we are now. I stand before you saying thank you from every inch of my heart, top to bottom.
In this field, sometimes it’s easy to be overlooked and feel unappreciated, but I appreciate Each and every one of you for all of your hard work and sacrifices that you made for me and so many others.
Before I end this letter, I want to give a special thank you to one particular Nurse here at Trauma Step Down, nurse Priscilla, you were patient with me, even on my worst days you walked every step of the way with me. You even came in on your day off when they called you and told you I wouldn’t eat or cooperate with the staff.
You came all the way from your home just for me to make sure I was OK. And that can’t go unnoticed. So from me and my family to yours we say, thank you.
I will end this letter by saying I love y’all, and thank you for all that you do. I Thank God for blessing you guys with the skills and the ability to not only take care of life but to save one as well.
- Kevin Lubin