N.H. Officer: Looking Gunman in the Eye a Victory

Doctors later said that if the officers didn't render aid and apply the tourniquet when they did, Doherty wouldn't have made the ride to the hospital -- which was only two blocks away.

The Recovery

For the first three days, Doherty was in a medically induced coma.

When he first woke up, he was on a breathing machine and wasn't sure if he still had his leg or not, wasn't sure what the extent of the injuries were and couldn't stay awake long enough to hear what had happened.

As the days went on, he started to stay awake longer and heard the details of the incident.

"The recovery was an extremely hard task," he said.

Doherty was in the hospital for just under a month undergoing extensive rehab, which is still ongoing today.

His tibia bone was replaced by a titanium rod and learning how to walk again took some time.

"It's a very uplifting experience to go from not being able to walk to walking on my own power, barely with a limp," he said.

He just started to run, something he calls a "very big feat."

When asked when he hopes to return to duty, there was little hesitation:

"The sooner the better. Hopefully in the next 30 to 60 days I'll be back out there."

The Importance of Training

Doherty credits his survival to the instincts ingrained in him through training.

"I don't even remember going for my gun. It was just in my hand," he said. "Muscle memory is a real thing because I didn't have to think about it. It just happened."

A lot of his superior officers have said that if Doherty didn't fire back as Webster was advancing on him, the gunman would have eventually had the kill shot.

"Me shooting back scared him off," he said. "One of those 14 rounds was meant for my head."

It was later discovered that one of Webster's bullets hit the barrel of Doherty's gun.

"That bullet was meant for my face."

When reliving what occurred that day, he invoked the phrase "fight or flight."

"I could have very easily laid there and not fought back because of the pain. But because of the training I was able to," he said.

"Training is a very essential part to this job and sometimes we all look at each other and ask 'I don't understand this piece of training or I don't believe this is important,' but I have a new outlook on it.

"Train as though it's real."