Paul Rousseau was accidentally shot in the head by his best friend and flatmate. When Paul met Mark in the first year of university in the US, they quickly became close. They moved in together, and spent most of the next four years in each other's company. But Paul did not know that Mark had been keeping a collection of guns in his bedroom. In April 2017 one of Mark's guns accidentally went off, the bullet passing through two walls before striking Paul in the head. In the months and years that followed, Paul had to deal not only with his brain injury, but also the devastating impact the event had on his friendship with Mark. Presenter: Shahidha Bari Producer: Rebecca Vincent Get in touch: liveslessordinary@bbc.co.uk or WhatsApp: 0044 330 678 2784
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Hello, Jackie Leonard here from the Global News Podcast.
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I don't hear anything, I don't see anything.
But all of a sudden I'm knocked into these, like, chairs on the wall behind me and I'm on the ground and my first inclination was like a bomb went off.
That was my first thought.
And then Mark comes out of his room and he's holding a gun and I'm like, well, that's, that's weird.
What's he doing with that?
And you know, his, his jaw's on the floor, he's cursing, swearing a lot.
And then he comes rushing to me on the ground and he's just like, you have to stand up.
And then he's saying, oh, sorry, sorry, etc.
You know, he's sort of going through that and my first thought is, oh, oh no.
Like, I think, I think he just shot me.
This is Paul Russo, then, a final year student at a Midwest university in the us.
The man with the gun, whom we're calling Mark, is his flatmate and best friend, the best friend Paul has ever had.
Paul and Mark have spent the last four years in each other's pockets, forming a bond so tight and, and so intense that they were even beginning to speak like each other.