{"id":137753,"date":"2026-01-30T16:03:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T16:03:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/137753\/"},"modified":"2026-01-30T16:03:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T16:03:07","slug":"psl-sgt-returns-to-hospital-standing-tall-after-surviving-2-gunshot-wounds-to-the-face","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/137753\/","title":{"rendered":"PSL Sgt. returns to hospital, standing tall after surviving 2 gunshot wounds to the face"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>FORT PIERCE, Fla. (CBS12)  \u2014 When<a href=\"https:\/\/cbs12.com\/topic\/Erik%20Levasseur\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"> Sgt. Erik LeVasseur <\/a>walked back into <a href=\"https:\/\/cbs12.com\/topic\/HCA%20Florida%20Lawnwood%20Hospital\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">HCA Florida Lawnwood Hospital<\/a> on January 28\u2014upright, steady, and with his wife firmly holding his hand\u2014the moment carried a weight that everyone in the room felt.<\/p>\n<p>It was a stark contrast to the day he first arrived here, when he was rushed in with devastating injuries after being shot twice in the face during an ambush in Port St. Lucie on<a href=\"https:\/\/cbs12.com\/news\/local\/port-st-lucie-officer-shot-near-town-park-community-in-tradition-taken-hca-florida-lawnwood-hospital-florida-december-2-2025\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"> Dec.1, 2025<\/a>, an incident widely documented during his<a href=\"https:\/\/cbs12.com\/news\/local\/port-st-lucie-sergeant-returns-home-after-37-days-in-hospital-multiple-surgeries-following-two-gunshot-wounds-to-face-port-st-lucie-police-department-florida-news-january-8-2025\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"> 37-day hospitalization<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>His return wasn\u2019t a press conference, nor a celebration, but a quiet, powerful reunion with the physicians, nurses, and staff who treated him through multiple surgeries\u2014an experience detailed in CBS12\u2019s coverage when he was first released on Jan. 7, 2026. Photos from that day showed him walking out of the same hospital with his wife at his side.<\/p>\n<p>See also: <a href=\"https:\/\/cbs12.com\/news\/local\/second-florida-nurse-disbarred-loses-rn-status-after-posts-saying-hed-refuse-anesthesia-to-maga-patients-president-donald-trump-attorney-general-james-uthmeier-white-house-press-secretary-karoline-leavitt-erik-martindale-board-of-nursing\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Second FL nurse loses RN status after posts saying he&#8217;d refuse anesthesia to MAGA patients<\/a><\/p>\n<p>This week&#8217;s visit felt different. The same people who cared for him at his most fragile now saw a man who had fought his way back with a determination that medical teams and police colleagues have repeatedly described as remarkable. Much of the community first learned about the <a href=\"https:\/\/cbs12.com\/news\/local\/port-st-lucie-police-officer-hold-conference-on-status-of-sergeant-shot-in-face-twice-florida-news-december-3-2025\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">severity of his injuries<\/a>\u2014bullets striking near and beneath his nose, narrowly missing major arteries and brain tissue. Multiple surgeries that followed, including eye procedures and the removal of bullet fragments. <\/p>\n<p>His medical journey isn\u2019t over\u2014his vision remains impaired, and additional surgeries are expected, as <a href=\"https:\/\/cbs12.com\/news\/local\/port-st-lucie-police-department-to-give-update-friday-on-sergeants-recovery-after-getting-shot-twice-in-the-face-south-florida-st-lucie-county-officer-involved-shooting-fatal-injuries-critical-injury-january-9-2026\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">previously reported<\/a>\u2014but his presence back at Lawnwood was proof of the resilience that stunned even veteran first responders and surgeons. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FORT PIERCE, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 When Sgt. Erik LeVasseur walked back into HCA Florida Lawnwood Hospital on January&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":137754,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[171,173,172],"class_list":["post-137753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","tag-port-st-lucie-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137753"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137753\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/137754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}