Lady Gaga's Dog Walker Says He Was 'Bleeding Out' After Shooting but Worried About 'Best Way' to Save Dogs

Ryan Fischer suffered a collapsed lung on five different occasions following the Feb. 24 shooting

Ryan Fischer. Photo: Saint Rocque/ instagram

Ryan Fischer, the man who was shot and critically injured while walking Lady Gaga's French bulldogs, is speaking out on the fateful night that nearly cost him his life.

Fischer, 40, opened up to Rolling Stone about the Feb. 24 incident and the effect it's had on him as he continues to recover ahead of a healing road trip.

Fischer said he was fresh off a successful first date when he headed home that night, celebratory champagne bottle in hand, to walk Miss Asia, Gustav and Koji, three French bulldogs belonging to his client Lady Gaga.

Shortly after turning down a quiet residential street, two men hopped out of a white Nissan Altima yelling, "Give it up," he recalled.

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Though Fischer said Miss Asia escaped the scene into some bushes, Gustav and Koji were snatched, and Fischer himself was shot once in the chest before his attackers drove away.

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"My mind started working really quickly," he told Rolling Stone. "I really had to weigh my options – do I say who the dogs belong to? Because if I do, it adds more media attention."

Despite his injuries, Fischer told the outlet he could focus only on making sure that each of his next moves would ensure the best possible outcome: getting the pups home safely.

"I was bleeding out and that was the thought that was going through my head," he recalled. "'What's the best way to do this so the dogs can be found?'"

Ryan Fischer. saint rocque/instagram

As he was rushed to the hospital in an ambulance, Fischer said he tried to keep a sense of humor about the incident, even as his blood pressure dropped.

"I was totally aware and totally cracking jokes, like, 'That sounds bad,'" he told Rolling Stone. "When I'm in an absurd situation, I do better finding humor in it. And this has got to be the most absurd situation."

Gaga, 35, was publicly grateful to Fischer, and after the attack, released a statement in which she called him "forever a hero," and said that he'd "risked [his] life to fight for our family." Both Gustav and Koji were returned days after the incident.

Fischer said the star was privately supportive, too, offering up her home to him after he was discharged from the hospital, and sending a trauma therapist to work with him for multiple days at a time.

Lady Gaga. Raymond Hall/GC Images

"They're my friends, and I love them and they're absolutely there for me," he told the outlet of his former employers, a group made of Gaga and her creative team called the Haus of Gaga. "I have nothing but gratitude for everything. It's just a weird situation just because of how it's evolved in the media. But I'm very grateful for my friendships."

Though Fischer was discharged from the hospital within a week of the attack, he was forced to return multiple times after his lung collapsed on five separate occasions. He eventually had to have more than a third of the organ removed, as doctors said the bullet had burned his lung and it was not healing properly, according to Rolling Stone.

As he continues to heal, Fischer is raising money to fund a road trip across the U.S. that he hopes to take in a 1991 Ford Falcon.

In a description on a GoFundMe page he set up earlier this month, Fischer explained that the trip is a quest "devoted to strengthening my emotional and mental health" by seeking out "retreat centers, trauma programs, queer healers, creatives and spiritual leaders."

Though several fans questioned his decision to crowdfund money, as they believed that Gaga should be supporting him, Fischer said that pointing fingers was not the point of his journey, and that it's "all love."

"Everyone thought that I was setting a blame on someone, when it was all love," he told Rolling Stone. "It's what happens in trauma — all your loved ones, all your family, everyone: you feel alone. You don't feel supported because this is your journey."

Police in Los Angeles arrested five suspects in connection with the incident in April.