Great West Chrysler shooting survivor speaks publicly for the first time

When a disgruntled employee walked into the Great West Chrysler dealership on March 12, 2010, it seems no one was meant to survive.

Armed with a sawed-off shotgun, 54-year-old Dave Burns gunned down two co-workers before turning the gun on himself. Parts manager Garth Radons was killed, but assistant parts manager Michael Dymichkowsky survived.

"I was hit by a 12-gauge shotgun blast from about four feet away," Dymichkowsky recently told Global News - speaking publicly for the first time since the shooting. "If I hadn't have been partway through the door I would have died."

The gunshot damaged Dymichkowsky's ribs, pancreas and liver. He spent two months recovering in hospital. But even after 15 months, his emotional wounds are far from being healed.

"It's a photographic memory is what I have. So all of the pictures are there, all of the time," Dymichkowsky said.

In his own words:

"I hear the three shots. I feel myself moving. The flash from the gun and the intense pain and slipping on my own blood. Falling on the floor and looking down and seeing my insides outside and the gunman reloading, and after a bit taking his own life."

Dymichkowsky still struggles with the loss of Radons - his coworker and friend, and finds himself anxious in public places. He no longer works, devoted instead to his emotional and physical recovery.

"I kinda look at the more simple things now as more important than work," Dymichkowsky said. "Before I lived to work and now i work to live."

Despite the trauma of the past, Dymichkowsky is already looking towards the future, hoping to someday become an architect; something he always wanted to do but had put off. He's now looking forward to making the most of a second chance.

"Your perspective changes completely when you've basically faced your own mortality and known that you had to be resuscitated," he said.

With files from Laurel Clark.