A chance moment of shopping at 7-Eleven on Capitol Hill. Your iPhone is stolen. On your way out, he’s waiting. Next thing you know, you’re waking up in a hospital room. You’ve been in a coma for five days. You’re lucky to be alive.

Such is the story today in The Hill on David Mercer, a Democratic Strategist who often appears on Fox News. He is a former TV producer for the Christian Science Monitor. The crime happened last summer in July at the height of the presidential election. According to the story by Managing Editor Bob Cusack, Mercer “was struck in the face and knocked unconscious, falling back on his head. [He] was rushed to Howard University Hospital and put into a medically induced coma.”

The story states that the man who beat him was not indicted in the case. Due to the secretive nature of these types of proceedings, it’s unclear why. Police and news reports on the incident are conflicting. While Mercer maintains the man took his cell phone and a police report states as much according to a surveillance video, another account insists Mercer was mistaken and that no phone was taken. And still another story says the man who beat Mercer claimed self defense. See here and here.

Whatever did happen, Mercer says he has no bitterness about it.

He has made a complete recovery and looks and sounds as he always has. He was struck by the countless displays of bipartisan compassion that came his way during his recovery, including personal efforts by President Clinton and then-Sec. of State Hillary Clinton. He said they helped him make his way back.

“Imagine yourself out of play in your life for almost four months and then coming back. I had to find myself back to my own world,” he said.

Photo credit: NYT.