'They're gonna need it for sure': Fundraiser planned for Danforth shooting victim with N.L. partner

"What if that was my family?"

That was Evan Bursey'sfirst thought when he heard his former co-worker, Jerry Pinksen, was now spending his time in a Toronto hospital,waiting for his girlfriendto wake up.

Danielle Kane, a nursing student from Ontario, was shot where she stoodin the emergency exit of a Greektownrestaurant, while runningto help victims of the Danforth shooting.

That act was something that stuck with Bursey.

"These people were running to help strangers.If we can't help people we know I mean, that's what it's all about."

• Northern Peninsula man came face-to-face with Danforth shooter

Burseyowns the Fort Amherst Pub, a restaurant in Churchill Square in St. John's. On Aug. 6, he's having a fundraising dinner there to raisemoney forPinksenand Kane.

"They're gonna need it for sure," Burseysaid.

Pinksenis fromStraitsview, on the Northern Peninsula of Newfoundland. Bursey worked with Pinksen in downtown St. John's in 2013, in the kitchen ofBlue on Water.

"He was the definition of a good teammate," Bursey said of Pinksen.

All of the fundraiser's proceeds will go to Pinksenand Kane, Bursey said, and local businesses have donated gifts to put into acare package for the couple.

Still in coma

Kane is in a coma at St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto. The bullet went through her diaphragm, chest wall, stomach, and shattered herT11vertebra which caused compression and a contusion in her spinal cord.

• What sparked Danforth shooting? Police chief says investigators 'aggressively' trying to understand

Pinksen, an emergency room nurse in Toronto, was able to duck out of the way of the shooter's bullets. He held Kane after she was shot, trying to stop the bleeding from her back, where the bullet exited her body, and telling her to keep breathing through the pain.

He told CBC'sSt. John's Morning Show that Kane's doctors were hoping totake her off the ventilator Monday afternoon, and to bring her out of the coma.

"This isquite a dangerous process so we have to make sure we're as cautious as possible so she doesn't have any setbacks," he said.

"I want to make sure she gets all the support she needs to help her live the most independent life that she wants, because she was such an independent woman."

Pinksen said it's still unclear what challenges Kane will face when she recovers.

Overwhelmed by the support

Pinksen said support from family and friends like Bursey have been helping him stay strong for himself and "for Danielle, for when she finally wakes up."

"It's been overwhelming," he said.

"Sometimes I feel like I'm not deserving of it."

Bursey doesn't agree. Working in a kitchen is difficult, requiring long hours in sweltering temperatures, he said, and Pinksenalways made it better.

"It makes a big difference when it's a smiling face, when it's a funny comment to get you through the heat," he said.

"He's just a very thoughtful person. And when you receive that, you can't help but reciprocate."

A campaign on fundraising site, GoFundMe, for Kane was only a few thousanddollars shy of its $150-thousand goal as ofmidday Monday.