Doctor seriously wounded in Monday's shooting still recovering

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The doctor shot in Monday's mass shooting, the most critically injured victim, is still in the intensive care unit at Ben Taub Hospital. 

Dr. Kevin Chap, a Houston anesthesiologist, took a turn for the worst on Wednesday evening. 

"He started losing blood," explains Dr. Chap’s brother Karim Fattahi. "He started feeling real weak. His heartbeat started racing, going up. They had to rush him to get a blood transfusion.” 

Dr. Chap says when he first heard the gun blast during Monday's mass shooting in West University, he thought his car airbag had deployed. 

“Because he had just hit a pothole and he thought the airbag went off," says Fattahi. "Then he heard six or seven gunshots. He looked up to his windshield and saw a big bullet hole. Then he looked down and saw blood on his chest. He tried to steer his car but his arm was numb.”

Dr. Chap had been shot in the neck. 

“The bullet went through his neck, went down his shoulder and into his back rib cage,” adds Fattahi. He also says his brother had just made breakfast for his wife and three kids and was heading to work on Monday morning when he drove right into the gunfight police were having with the mass shooter, Houston attorney Nathan Desai.

Dr. Chap was rushed to Ben Taub Hospital remaining in critical condition for days and suffering that setback Wednesday. 

Fattahi says surgeons repaired two leaking arteries and because his lungs are collapsed Dr. Chap had yet another surgery to insert tubes into his chest.
 
”He's very blessed the bullet actually went through the neck and didn't hit any vital organs and missed all the major arteries,” says Fattahi.

Fattahi says even as his brother is struggling to recover he hopes more people will come together to support and not harm one another.

"Everybody's going through stuff but we should look out for one another.  We hope this makes everyone come together,” adds Fattahi.

Police still don't know why Desai opened fire on his neighbors leaving nine people injured. 

Desai is a former Dallas County Deputy District Attorney. He is a graduate of Alief Hastings High School. His father still lives in the Alief area. Desai attended law school in Tulsa and was a partner in a law firm in Houston until the firm folded in February due to poor profits.  

Fattahi says his brother, Dr. Chap, normally rides his bike to work. The family is grateful he wasn’t on his bicycle Monday when Desai took aim at him.