Cop knifed in head the 'luckiest unlucky...

Cop knifed in head the 'luckiest unlucky...

The jagged blade rammed into Officer Eder Loors brain came within a sliver of leaving him blind, voiceless, paralyzed or most likely dead.

The heroic NYPD cop instead woke up Wednesday morning with everything intact, including his incredible 24-hour run of spectacular good fortune.

Hes as lucky as you get, said neurosurgeon Dr. Joshua Bederson, who saved the critically injured cops life after a vicious Tuesday morning attack by a mental patient off his medications.

If you want to call that a miracle, I guess youre justified in calling it a miracle, the doctor said at Mount Sinai Medical Center. It was awfully close.

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Loors wife, Dina, in her first public comments since her husband cheated death, revealed that her spouse told a fellow cop about pulling the bloody knife from his own head.

Since hes an EMT, he managed to hold the pressure, and somebody on the street, I believe, handed him a towel, she recounted.

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The stabbing took mere seconds, while the emergency surgery lasted two hours and 40 minutes. Loor, expected to make a complete recovery, managed to dodge a series of potentially lethal pitfalls:

- If his middle cerebral artery was sliced open and the knife just nicked it the officer would have bled to death.

- The blade stopped just an inch from a section of the temporal lobe that controls speech, and another half-inch from the area that handles motor function.

- Doctors removed a blood clot and cleared pressure on the brain from welling blood.

In the end, the officers survival was a matter of literal millimeters and the sure scalpels of his surgeons.

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Hes probably the luckiest unlucky man you can ever have, Bederson said. His young age and incredible physical condition are probably going to speed a very, very rapid recovery.

When Loor arrived at the Manhattan hospital at 10:58 a.m., the 31/2-inch wood-handled knife had torn a hole in his skull. He was bleeding inside and outside his brain, creating a large hematoma.

The knife went deep into the brain, and deep into the temporal lobe, the doctor said.

The blade entered through Loors left temple, passed directly behind his eye, and left a paper cut-sized wound on the artery, Bederson said.

It couldnt have been closer, he said.

The couple has a 4-year-old daughter, and Dina is expecting a boy in July when the child will be delivered at Mount Sinai.

Minutes before the stabbing, she sent her husband a joyous text: The baby just moved.
< br /> The wounded officer, on the force six years and assigned to the 23rd Precinct, spent most of Wednesday sleeping, his wife said.

He woke up when their daughter stopped by the room to comfort her daddy, and again to tell his wife that all he wanted was a kiss, Dina said. And he said, I love you.

Loors partner, who captured the knife-wielding suspect, echoed the doctors assessment.

Its a miracle, said Officer Luckson Merisme outside his North Baldwin, L.I., home. Thank God. Im glad that hes doing fine.

When Loor emerged from surgery, he was already able to speak and move his limbs without a problem. His only complaint was some facial numbness that should pass, Bederson said.

The surgery involved cutting out a portion of Loors skull to remove the clot. Surgeons also repaired a large vein in the Sylvian fissure, an area of the brain that holds major blood vessels.

I know that hes in Gods hands, h is wife said after standing vigil at Loors bedside. I know that were very optimistic, and were hoping for the best. Hes doing great.

A number of Loors police colleagues visited, and his father-in-law said the family endured a tough time in the hours after the stabbing.

Hes hanging in there, the father-in-law said. But it was a very long night.

Bederson said Loor was awake and alert when he was wheeled into the hospital Tuesday morning. But his condition quickly began to deteriorate.

Just 30 minutes earlier, Loor and Merisme responded to a Third Ave. co-op after the mother of 26-year-old Terrence Hale called 911 for an ambulance.

The mother who said her bipolar, schizophrenic son was off his meds on doctors orders offered a word of advice to the operator about her stressed-out child.

She said it might be a good idea to have backup to the ambulance, meaning send police, according to a source.
< br /> The two cops arrived on the scene before the ambulance.

Authorities say an unprovoked Hale wound up like he was throwing a punch, and then slammed his fist and the knife into the side of Loors head.

Loor, with blood gushing from the hole in his skull, fell to the sidewalk as Hale casually strolled away.

Wheres my wife? the injured officer asked Merisme. Find my wife.

In Loors first stroke of good luck, the ambulance called for Hale arrived and began tending to the wounded cop.

Eleven-year veteran Merisme, after making sure his partner was all right, chased and cuffed Hale.

Police dispatched cars to Loors Orange County home, where Dina Loor received an odd call from one of her husbands colleagues telling her the police were on their way.

When I saw them coming (with) sirens, my heart stopped, she said. I had to pull myself together.

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly s aid dealing with the emotionally disturbed is one of the departments biggest dangers. Police handle about 100,000 calls each year involving patients like Hale.

It puts officers at great risk, Kelly said. They dont know who is taking their medications or not.

The NYPD has a program in which officers are notified about mental illness concerns at certain addresses but only if there are three serious events there within the last year.

The last call from the Hale apartment came in 2010, a nonviolent event in which Terrence Hale was reportedly suicidal.

Hale, who had a long criminal and mental illness history, was charged with attempted aggravated murder and remained under psychiatric watch at Metropolitan Hospital.

Under the terms of his March 2008 release for a stabbing two years earlier, Hale was required to attend a taxpayer-funded treatment program through March 19, 2011.

The suspects mother said he r son was stressing before she called 911. But Vearry Hale declined to discuss the case Wednesday as Loor continued his amazing recovery.

Dina Loor said she expected her husband to be back on the beat once he fights through his recovery.

This is his passion, this is what he lives for, she said. Hes a go-getter. He doesnt quit.

With Rocco Parascandola, Erik Badia, Clare Trapasso and Greg B. Smith

jkemp@nydailynews.com