CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – “God is everything, for me to be able to be here tonight is nothing short of a miracle”, said Danville City Councilor Lee Vogler on his return to Council at Tuesday night’s meeting.
“I think back two-and-a-half months ago, I was being airlifted in a helicopter with burns over half my body, and… uh… I was in really bad shape.”
The gallery was full, including his family, and numerous media crowded Council Chambers to see his return.
Wearing a blue blazer and khaki pants, with wrappings around both his hands, he told his story at the end of the meeting. He credited “an amazing team at UNC Health” for helping him get back to this point, but mostly “through the power of prayer, the thousands of prayers, I mean we got folks from all over who were praying for me”.
Indeed, it was major national and international news when 39-year old Shotsie Michael Buck-Hayes entered Vogler’s workplace July 30, doused him with gasoline and set him on fire. A criminal complaint filed in Danville General District Court states Buck-Hayes admitted in an interview “his intention was to kill Vogler”.
Vogler told his story that he was basically asleep for three weeks with infections over 90% of his body, than turned a corner after a certain period of time.
“Once I woke up, it was just day-by-day, little by little,” Vogler said.
“It was walking one lap around the floor, the next day it was two, then it was three, then I was able to start eating some normal food, one day I walked four laps, the following day I did 24, then I woke up the next day and did 70 and I never looked back.”
He thanked his family, his wife Blair “who was there every step of the way… and when she wasn’t at the hospital with me, she was back home taking care of the kids and doing all that.”
His mom helped as she and Blair took turns being at the hospital and home taking care of the kids.
He also thanked his fellow councilors for reaching out to his family.
“I feel blessed to be here at all, and to be here about six months earlier than what they thought I would be, again, that’s God,” Vogler said to applause by those present.
He said step one is being back home, and he said he still has a lot of work to do.
Some of that work is getting his hands back to full function.
“I’m still your middle school baseball coach, and my next goal as I keep telling the doctors and nurses is I gotta get a baseball glove on that left hand and a baseball in my right hand and get back on that field with those kids, so I’m going to keep working.”
Councilor Madison Whittle was called on after Vogler in last comments before the meeting adjourned, “I can’t go after that. Lee, my prayers and miracles have come true to see you sit here.”
Mayor Alonzo Jones wrapped the meeting up recognizing Vogler’s wife, Blair, and in welcoming Vogler back at the beginning of the meeting said, “Oftentimes when new businesses come into our community, we say ‘welcome home’.”
“When new persons come into our community, we say ‘welcome home.”
“When persons return to our community, we say welcome home.”
“Councilman Vogler, you know these terms,” Jones said, “and we’ll simply say ‘welcome home’.”
