Growing up in Philadelphia, Ashley Hoggard knew he wanted to be a cop. Almost four years into his career, he got shot in the line of duty on June 14, 2009, two weeks before his 27th birthday. The bullet nearly killed him.

“It ripped my lung in half. I died three times that night. I was in a coma. I lost six pints of blood in the time it took my partner to get me to the hospital and they were operating on me,” he said.

Blood transfusions helped save his life.

On that summer night, Officer Hoggard was responding to a call to assist other police officers around 2:47 a.m. He remembers crowded bars were letting out, people were rowdy, and three shootings were happening at the same time when he was hit.

“It seemed like it was going on forever, but it really happened in a matter of seconds.”

The last thing he remembers is saying a prayer.

A nurse later told Officer Hoggard she had never seen someone lose that much blood and live. He spent 27 days in the trauma and intensive care units (ICU) at Temple Hospital.

Over the next several years, he endured 15 surgeries. Doctors tried to repair the nerve damage on his left side and restore feeling in his dominant hand. In one grueling nine-hour operation, surgeons removed the bullet that nearly ended his life.

“I worked 12 years with the bullet still lodged in my body.”

When Officer Hoggard was a child he learned he had O negative blood, the universal blood type. After getting shot, he received so many blood transfusions that his blood type actually changed from O negative to O positive. O positive blood is the most transfused blood type.

One day while watching a commercial for St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital, he was deeply moved by the sight of sick children.

“It broke my heart. I was just sitting there watching these children fight. I got up, and then I started donating blood.”

Now Officer Hoggard donates as often as possible. When he’s donating, he thinks about the people he’s helping.

“I started donating platelets and I started donating plasma and stuff like that.” He said, “I try to give as much as I can.”

He also makes Power Red donations, where a donor can give two units of red blood cells during one donation. Plasma and platelets get returned to the donor along with saline during that process.

Officer Hoggard tells people about what he’s been through in the hopes it will inspire them to donate blood. He said before he was shot, he never took his life for granted, but he may have taken the “little things” for granted.

“The fact that you can just wiggle your fingers right now. Or the fact that you could drink wine and read a book, or you can drive with one finger,” he said. “I never knew one bullet would cause that much damage.”

After retiring from the Philadelphia Police Department after 18 years, he went to work for the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5. He runs the Injury Division.

“This is the best job I have ever had. I love what I do. I love the people I work with.”

He doesn’t take anything in life for granted now.

“People are scared of death. I died three times in one night and the good Lord brought me back. The best way to beat death is how you live.”

For Officer Hoggard, that means living each day striving to be a better person than the day before and continuing to donate blood.

“The night I got shot, I needed six pints of blood just to stay alive. It came from six different strangers. Six people that I never met. Six people that I can’t even say thank you to. They saved my life.”

To make an appointment to donate blood, visit RedCrossBlood.org, use the Red Cross donor app or call 1-800-RED CROSS. That’s 1-800-733-2767.

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- Written by Jenny Farley