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Officer Ricardo Ramirez, flanked by his fellow officers, walked out of NYU Medical Center in Kips Bay, Manhattan for the first time since being shot in East New York, Brooklyn on October 17.

Ramirez, who was on duty at the time, nearly lost his right leg in the shooting. When asked how he felt heading home for Christmas, he sounded upbeat.

"I feel good," said Ramirez.

Family members expressed their excitement at the prospect of finally having Ramirez back home.

"It's the greatest feeling in the world,” said Ramirez’s brother-in-law Michael Fuentes. “From day one, we didn't know what was going to happen. But to see him walk out today, it’s historic. It’s a devastating thing for the family, but now we feel so much better and we love him and thank God he's going to be home. It’s going to be the best Christmas ever. He's going to be home and the whole family is going to be together. It’s amazing because I love him so much."

Ramirez was working in plainclothes on the night of October 17, when he and two other plainclothes officers tried to question Elijah Foster-Bay, 17. The teen suspect ran off and the officers chased him.

Police say Foster-Bey fired an illegal handgun when he was cornered by the police officers in a stairwell.

All three officers returned fire, hitting Foster-Bey, who underwent surgery.

Ramirez was hit twice in the leg, and one of the bullets severed an artery. One of the officers fashioned a homemade tourniquet with his belt to stop Ramirez from bleeding to death.

"He didn't have enough blood flow in his leg for healing and fighting off the infection," said Dr. Neil Cayne, a vascular surgeon. I did a bypass with a vein from the other leg, and worked along with plastic surgeons and the rehab doctors to get him to the point where he was walking out of the hospital today."

Foster-Bey is out on $100,000 bail, and is facing a charge of second-degree attempted murder of a police officer. He made bail just before Thanksgiving, a fact that angers President Pat Lynch of the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association.

"While Officer Ramirez was recuperating in a second hospital, this mutt was allowed to go home and have turkey. There is never, ever a reason to allow an attempted cop-killer to have bail," said Lynch.

Foster-Bey will next appear in a Brooklyn court on January 7.

As for Ramirez and his family, the days ahead will hold an extra special meaning.