Shooting survivor starts residency at hospital where doctors saved his life

Nearly a decade after he spent 50 days as a patient at Detroit's St. John Hospital, Kevin Morton Jr. is back — this time as a doctor.

In 2007, Morton was a college student studying to go into the pharmaceutical business. He worked at an Arby's in Detroit, and one night after he locked up the restaurant, a would-be robber approached him as he got into his car and shot him in the stomach. Doctors at St. John Hospital gave him a 10 percent chance of making it through the night, and his family was warned that the odds were against him. Morton's doctor in the trauma unit, Dr. Dharti Sheth-Zelmanski, told NBC News she knew he wasn't going to give up, and doctors weren't, either. "Whether we call it intuition, experience, or a miracle ... we put some extra sutures in and the bleeding stopped," she said.

Morton went on to spend 50 days recovering in the hospital, and it inspired him to change the course of his life. Last week, the 31-year-old, now married with a daughter, graduated from Michigan State University's College of Osteopathic Medicine. He is still close to Sheth-Zelmanski, and will soon begin his residency at the hospital where she helped save his life. "The compassion and drive that Dr. Sheth has shown in trying to save me life ... I just wanna pay that forward," Morton told NBC News.

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