TODAY – Nearly a month after being injured in a deadly shooting on live television that claimed the lives of two others and left her as the lone survivor, Vicki Gardner has remained in high spirits during her recovery.
"It's a day-by-day recovery and hard to know what to expect as each day goes by,'' she told Savannah Guthrie in an exclusive interview on TODAY Thursday. "When you combine up the physical and the mental, I feel like I'm the poster child for recovery, so I'm feeling good."
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Vicki and her family continue to post updates on her Recovery Page on Facebook.Â
Gardner was injured in a shooting on Aug. 26 that claimed the lives of WDBJ7 reporter Alison Parker, 24, and cameraman Adam Ward, 27. Parker was interviewing Gardner, the executive director of the Smith Mountain Lake Regional Chamber of Commerce, at around 6:45 a.m. in a shopping center in Moneta, Virginia, when gunman Vester Flanagan opened fire. Flanagan, 41, a disgruntled former employee who had been fired by the station, took his own life during a police chase later in the day.
Gardner curled up in the fetal position and played dead before Flanagan shot her in the back and then fled the season before authorities and paramedics arrived. She underwent two surgeries and lost her right kidney and a portion of her colon during a two-week stay at Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital. She is expected to make a full recovery.
During her recuperation, she made it a point to watch the video of the shooting.
"Your mind can conjure up all sorts of things, and I wanted to make sure that what my mind is thinking and reality kind of match up,'' she said. "I think it's very important. This is not something you can suppress. You just really to need to face it and piece together those pieces of the puzzle. I think it's helpful for everybody."