5 months and 8 surgeries later, Wawa shooting victim finally returns home

Aya Dufour · CBC News

· Posted: May 05, 2025 7:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 12 minutes ago

WARNING: This communicative contains graphic details. 

Bridgette Hagen is the benignant of idiosyncratic who doesn't similar to beryllium successful the spotlight – but she ended up successful the headlines precocious past twelvemonth erstwhile she became the unfortunate of a gunman who randomly opened occurrence astatine her workplace, the Northern Credit Union successful Wawa.

"I'm a mom, I'm a wife, I pb a precise quiescent life," she tells CBC News. 

She remembers each item of the onslaught she suffered, but the communicative she wants to stock now is 1 of recovery, resilience and family. 

Hagen says aft being changeable doubly and sustaining beingness threatening injuries, she had to beryllium airlifted retired of Wawa to person intensive attraction and aggregate exigency surgeries successful Sudbury. 

At that point, the doctors couldn't accidental whether oregon not she would marque it.

"They were hopeful, that's each they could archer my husband," she remembered.

She was enactment into a medically induced coma and regained consciousness astir 5 days later, surrounded by her loved ones.

A agelong roadworthy to recovery

"Recovering is the hardest happening I've ever had to do," she said. "But it's made maine stronger than I've ever thought possible." 

The shooting near Hagen with scars, a shattered hip, an amputated close arm, a spread successful her feature and crippling post-traumatic accent disorder. 

"It was precise hard for maine to recognize that I had mislaid my arm, due to the fact that what my encephalon knew and what my eyes saw were 2 antithetic things," she said.

Eventually, drainage tubes and staples started to travel out, and she could commencement learning caller skills, similar however to constitute with her near hand. 

"Me and my youngest girl are learning however to constitute astatine the aforesaid time," she said. "She's going to beryllium my teacher successful this caller adventure."

While she's approaching this with a affirmative attitude, she's besides alert that elemental day-to-day things similar dressing, bathing, cooking, texting and tying shoes person present go a batch much complicated. 

"I person to try, different I'm not mounting a bully illustration for my girls," she said. 

"If I don't effort to bash thing arsenic elemental arsenic fold my pants, however tin I effort to bash the hard things similar trying to walk?"

Hagen is presently getting astir with a wheeled walker, but hopes to 1 time beryllium capable to locomotion with a cane. 

The wounded has permanently damaged nerves successful her near foot, meaning she's mislaid sensations successful that limb, but she's taking it measurement by step. 

"I'm conscionable trying to get backmost to a small consciousness of normal, adjacent if it's conscionable walking from my furniture to my bathroom." 

Back location for Mother's Day

One of the astir challenging things astir the rehabilitation process has been to beryllium hundreds of kilometers distant from her daughters and husband. 

But she's present acceptable to instrumentality to them close successful clip for Mother's Day. 

"All I privation to bash is beryllium with my girls, my mom, my brothers and my husband, and conscionable beryllium unneurotic arsenic a household similar we utilized to, get backmost to a caller normal." 

She is disquieted astir what it mightiness beryllium similar to beryllium retired and astir successful Wawa again, due to the fact that it's returning to wherever the shooting happened. 

"Having that memory, having flashbacks, it's thing that volition ne'er spell away," Hagen said, anticipating she'll request immoderate intelligence wellness supports to usher her done this.

"What I went done is thing you don't spot successful tiny towns. I person to find a mode to woody with it, determination on, judge it – due to the fact that I inactive haven't." 

"But, I'm grateful that I'm here, that I'm alive, and that I tin archer my communicative and beryllium the champion mom, wife, girl and sister I tin be."

In a quality merchandise pursuing the onslaught connected Hagen, constabulary said 1 person, whom they judge was the shooter, was recovered dormant astatine the scene.