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Joe O'Donnell, 41, was shot on August 19 following an argument over where he parked his bicycle on Roatan Island, off the coast of the Central American country. The bedridden ex-policeman and chemist said he was lucky to be alive, but was struggling ...
A Sydneysider shot in the spine in Honduras has undergone a third operation as he waits for his alleged attacker to face court tomorrow.
Joe O'Donnell, 41, was shot on August 19 following an argument over where he parked his bicycle on Roatan Island, off the coast of the Central American country.
The bedridden ex-policeman and chemist said he was lucky to be alive, but was struggling with constant pain and rising medical bills.
"If it was a millimetre to the right, it would have hit a major artery and I would have died in 30 seconds," Mr O'Donnell said in a phone interview with smh.com.au from his hospital bed.
Mr O'Donnell has been under the knife three times. Surgeons removed bullet shrapnel from his organs during the first operation. In the second, they removed bullet fragments in his back and screwed on a titanium plate.
Surgeons told him they thought the pain was a result of the metal plate putting pressure on his nerves. They wanted to re-adjust it and move some of the screws.
Just days before Mr O'Donnell was shot, he told his mother Yuri he was "so happy" in Honduras, had many friends there and was setting up a local business.
Mr O'Donnell worked as a chemist in Wetherill Park and briefly as a policeman in Eastwood before he left Sydney about three years ago.
Mr O'Donnell, who is single, ended up staying for two-and-a-half-years. He became a dive instructor and a bartender, and planned to open up a dive shop.
He did not have insurance, and his friends set up a Facebook page to appeal for donations to help fund his return back to Australia.