Account of Richard Donohue's Rescue

A pair of Watertown, Mass. firefighters are being credited with rescuing a police officer with Exeter ties who was seriously hurt in a gunfight with the Boston Marathon bombing suspects.

Richard "Dic" Donohue, 33, was hit in the leg early Friday morning in Watertown, Mass., authorities said.

Donohue is a police officer with the Massachusetts Bay Tranportation Authority. His wife, Kim, is from Exeter and graduated from Exeter High School in 2000. 

Authorities said Donohue lost a massive amount of blood. At one point, he went into cardiac arrest, according to Dr. Russell Nauta, a doctor at Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, Mass. where Donohue is being treated. 

Watertown Fire Chief Mario Orangio said two of his department's firefighters, Patrick Menton and James Caruso, drove a rescue truck to pick up Donohue the night he was shot.

"They quickly assessed Officer Donahue's condition, applied immediate care to stop his bleeding, performed effective CPR and most importantly made the life saving decision to rapidly extricate and transport him to the nearest hospital," Orangio wrote in a letter to Watertown Patch.

"Other than Officer Donahue's own incredible will to live, the actions of firefighers Menton and Caruso are the reason that he survived," Orangio said.

Doctors said Sunday Donohue was on a breathing tube and characterized his condition as critical but stable.

The Boston Globe reported Monday that Donohue was breathing on his own and wanted to speak with his wife.

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