Fort Hood shooting suspect paralysed
Monday, 23 November 2009 13:20The US Army major charged with killing 13 people in an attack at Fort Hood army base in Texas earlier this month is paralysed from the chest down.
Doctors believe his paralysis will be permanent, the Washington Post has reported.
'He has no sensation from the nipple area down,' Major Hasan's civilian attorney, John Galligan, told the newspaper.
During a closed-door hearing in Major Hasan's hospital room on Saturday that lasted about an hour, a magistrate ruled that he be confined until his military trial, the report said.
'In the middle of this hearing, he started to nod off and go to sleep,' Galligan said. 'When I've spoken with him, he's coherent, but your ability to have any meaningful exchange with him is limited in time and subject.'
Major Hasan has been recovering from gunshot wounds at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, where he is in intensive care.
The Post said he had been receiving letters and cards, which the government had been copying before delivering.
Now under pre-trial confinement, Major Hasan faces greater restrictions on visitors, and the military can transfer him to another hospital or jail.
Major Hasan will remain in confinement until his court-martial, a date for which has not been set.
