Correction: The initial version of this post only included the first half of the article. It has now been updated with the complete story.
Danville residents heard Lee Vogler’s voice again for the first time since the Danville City Council member was attacked and set on fire at his workplace in July. Vogler spoke on a halftime radio program during the city’s high school football game Friday.
He spoke from his hospital bed in the burn unit of the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill’s medical facility, where he was airlifted immediately after the attack.
“Just give us an update, man, how are you doing?” asked Chuck Vipperman, who hosted the show. Vipperman also runs Southside News Today, an independent online news program.
The first words the public has heard from Vogler in almost three months: “I’m feeling great.”
“Chuck, I’m getting better each day,” he said. “I feel incredibly blessed. First of all, it’s great to hear your voice and speak with you. If I wasn’t in this hospital bed, I’d be at the game.”
The halftime radio program for the George Washington High School Eagles has been called the Lee Vogler show since the summer, before the attack. Vipperman said that Vogler wanted to sponsor the halftime show “to have a chance to talk to people periodically about city issues.”
“He hasn’t had a chance to talk much lately, but who better to have on the Lee Vogler halftime show than Mr. Lee Vogler, talking to us live from Chapel Hill, North Carolina,” Vipperman said on air Friday.
Vogler spoke about being airlifted to the burn unit, saying he was “in really bad shape” after the attack, with second- and third-degree burns to over half of his body.
“The folks that saw me that day and in the days immediately after, they told me, ‘We didn’t think we’d ever be able to speak to you again.’ It was that bad,” he said. “Just for me to be able to talk to you right now, it’s just nothing short of a miracle.”
Vogler, 38, was at his workplace on July 30 when a man identified as Shotsie Buck-Hayes, 30, entered the office, doused him with gasoline and lit him on fire, police said.
Buck-Hayes was taken into custody and charged with attempted first-degree murder and aggravated malicious wounding later that day.
A criminal complaint filed in Danville General District Court says that Buck-Hayes “during an interview admitted that he had dumped gasoline on Vogler” and that “his intention was to kill Vogler.”
Police have said that Vogler and Buck-Hayes knew each other and that the attack stemmed from a personal matter and not from Vogler’s work with the city.
Vogler remained in critical condition for weeks after the attack, and he described the first few weeks in the hospital as “kind of hazy,” to Vipperman. At one point, he had infections to about 90% of his body, he said.
“My family was told on a couple occasions that they weren’t sure if I’d make it through the night,” Vogler said. “But there came kind of a turning point.”
He described waking up one day, starting to eat more food and to walk laps around the hospital floor. It started with one lap, and gradually increased every day. One day he walked 70 laps after only 24 laps the previous day, Vogler said.
“I must’ve slept really good that night,” he joked. “It just kind of took off from there.”
Vogler said he’s been re-learning to do basic things like feed himself and use his hands. On Thursday, he ate a protein bar without any assistance, he said.
“It doesn’t sound like a big deal in normal life, but when you haven’t been able to reach your face for almost three months, it’s a pretty big step,” Vogler said. “I just keep pushing hard. You know me, Chuck, if I have a goal I want to meet, I’m going to plow straight ahead to try to do it.”
Vogler was moved out of the intensive care unit sooner than expected, according to an update from his wife Blair Vogler via a fundraising page.
He was initially projected to be in the hospital until the spring, Vogler said on the show.
“Because of the progress, they said they think I probably could make it home by Christmas,” he said. “I’ve made so much progress in the past several weeks that folks should be seeing me fairly soon.”
Vogler said he’s dying to get to one of his son Kingston’s middle school football games before the season ends.
Kingston, who is in 6th grade, and Vogler’s daughter Ava, who is in 2nd grade, have been visiting him in the hospital with their mother and grandparents on a regular basis, he said.
His family has been his motivation to recovery, Vogler said. He said he “couldn’t do this” without Blair, who has both held down the fort at home and been with him at the hospital.
Many others have been supportive during his recovery process as well, Vogler said, expressing his thanks to Danville and Pittsylvania County residents who have been rooting for him — alongside people further away whom he may never meet.
“We’re getting cards from all over the country, different states,” Vogler said. “The Miami Dolphins, for example, mailed me a care package.”
Vogler and his family have always been big fans of the Dolphins, he said, and after a friend reached out to the team, Vogler received gifts and well wishes from the organization.
“I can’t put it into words,” he said. “God has really blessed me through this situation and allowed me to appreciate the little things in life, maybe even more than I did before.”
Getting back to everyday life in Danville, to his family and to city council and other local organizations, is a big part of his motivation during his recovery, Vogler said.
Within the past week or so, Vogler said he has gotten back onto social media, which he had not checked for most of his hospital stay. He made his first Facebook post since the attack on Oct. 11.
Residents have taken up calling Vogler “the comeback kid,” a reference to the city councilman’s nickname for Danville, “the comeback city.”
“I’m getting caught up with all of the folks cheering me on,” he said. “Maybe by the time I get out of here, I may go from being the comeback kid to the miracle man.”
Both of the charges against Buck-Hayes were certified in a preliminary hearing in Danville General District Court in September.
During the preliminary hearing, an officer who questioned the suspect after the attack testified that Buck-Hayes claimed Vogler was having an affair with his wife.
The case is scheduled to be heard Oct. 27 by a grand jury, which will decide whether there is enough evidence to indict Buck-Hayes and send the case to trial.