When President Barack Obama visited Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on Tuesday, he did not just tour a neighborhood that had been damaged in last week’s historic flood. He also met privately with families who have been touched by the other tragedies that struck the city this summer — including the family of Alton Sterling, the black man who was fatally shot by police on July 5, and the families of law enforcement officers who were ambushed by a racially motivated shooter just 12 days later.
Three officers were killed in the July 17 attack, and three wounded. James Tullier, whose son Nick was critically injured and is still unconscious, said that when he met Obama Tuesday at the Baton Rouge airport, he told the president that he was concerned about finding the rehabilitation facility best suited to address his son’s particular injuries. The president responded by introducing his own physician, according to Tullier.
“Obama’s doctor will talk with Nick’s doctors and then get back to me with their recommendations. Hopefully that works out,” Tullier wrote early Wednesday morning on Facebook, where he provides regular updates about his son’s condition.
The White House confirmed the account, which was first reported by The Advocate.
Nick Tullier, 41, has served 18 years as a deputy with the East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office. He was shot in the head and in the stomach on July 17. When he arrived at the hospital, doctors told his family that he probably wouldn’t make it 24 hours. Then they said he wouldn’t make it 48 hours. Then they said at five days, he would start to deteriorate. Then he came off the breathing machine.
Now it has been 38 days, and he is still alive.
Nick’s parents have been by his side 24 hours a day, certain that he can feel their presence. They lost their home in the floods that swept through southern Louisiana last week, but they hardly care. “It’s just not our priority,” his father told The Washington Post last week. “Nick is our priority.”
James Tullier said his son’s progress so far has been a miracle, and he asks for people in Louisiana and around the world — those who know Nick, and those who don’t — to keep praying for his recovery.
(c) 2016, The Washington Post ยท Emma Brown
