Just two and a half months ago, David and Rachel Fauber of Dayton, Ohio experienced a nightmare no parent ever wants to go through. Their son, Michael, was over 500 miles away and had just been the victim of an unprovoked shooting, his body riddled with bullets.
At the time, 18-year-old Michael Fauber was serving as a full-time missionary in the Alabama Birmingham Mission. He was seriously injured after being shot in a meetinghouse during a basketball game with other missionaries and investigators. The shooter fired at Fauber six times, with five bullets hitting their intended target.
“I got the overwhelming impression that it all was going to be okay,” Fauber said, remembering the plan of salvation that he had been constantly teaching others as a missionary. “Option A is I survive this and keep doing what I’m doing—recover and continue with the work here on Earth. Or I die and do work on the other side of the veil. So, either way, it’s going to be okay; either way, things will work out.
“And that just increased my testimony of the plan of salvation. That’s something I’ll never forget—I’m there, possibly bleeding to death, but just being relatively calm. Just thinking, ‘Well, whatever happens is going to be okay.’ … For those who don’t have the gospel in their life, I doubt they would have been able to feel that.”
You can read the initial story of Elder Michael Fauber and the December 3 meetinghouse shooting here.
In the weeks following the incident, none of the five bullets that entered Michael Fauber’s body—in his collarbone, shoulder, brachial plexus nerve, lung, and liver—have been removed. None of them pose problems or poisoning threats, but stent blocks and metal plates were strategically put in place to prevent further complications and help with his recovery. Still, Michael has pain taking deep breaths that put pressure on his broken rib, very limited mobility in his arm and shoulder as his collarbone and shoulder continue to heal, and serious nerve damage that may result in permanently limited motion in his arm and hand.
“[The nerve damage is] the worst injury so far,” said Fauber, who initially experienced paralysis in his arm and hand after the shooting. “Two months in, I’ve been able to wiggle my fingers. I go to physical therapy, getting motion in my shoulder, trying to loosen things up and help the healing process as best as I can. ... They told me it’s very possible that if I do get full motion back in my arm and hand—and I may not—that it will likely take at least a couple of years.”
Fauber returned home to Dayton, Ohio with his parents on December 21 after nearly three weeks in the ICU and trauma center at Birmingham’s UAB Hospital. A couple of days later, Fauber was released as a full-time missionary, just five months after he started his at-home missionary training.
“I thought I was going to be upset by it,” he said. “I realized that the Lord has a plan for me—He knew this was going to happen, He obviously saved me, so clearly there’s work I need to be doing.”
But of his experience—both as a missionary and a shooting victim—Fauber shared, “Well, it has changed my life, and I’ve been lucky enough to have—I believe—at least helped change the lives of others through sharing the gospel.”
You can read the full story and update on Elder Fauber’s recovery on Newsroom.
