On October 31, 2009, Carlos Henrique decided to stop by a marble store in downtown Rio de Janeiro. “I needed to buy two marble door frames for the bedrooms at home,” recalls the teacher.

Out of the blue, an armed man entered the store and advanced on the owner of the store, Edinei César. Desperately, the victim who didn’t survive latched on to Carlos Henrique’s neck. But the “human shield” knew Jiu-Jitsu, freeing himself of the rear-naked choke and throwing him to the ground. Even so, he took three bullets.

“When the guy came into the store screaming, I turned around. That was when the victim grabbed me in a rear-naked choke. I don’t even know how I freed myself of the hold, I just know I got out and threw him to the ground. Upon being shot, the owner of the store landed on me; that was when I took three shots from the thug, who kept shooting,” he recounts. Carlos was shot in the spleen, diaphragm and spine, where the bullet is lodged to this day.

“When the bullet goes in it doesn’t hurt, at least it didn’t hurt. I ran out of the store and passed out far away, where a passing ambulance rescued me,” he says.

After forty days in the hospital, seven in intensive care and four minutes in nearly-fatal cardio-respiratory arrest, Carlos Henrique won his private fight to survive. And he promised friends and students he would return to competition.

At the last International Master and Senior tournament on July 24, there he was against Roberto Gordo in the black belt heavyweight/senior 1 divisional final.

“You go on to value a lot of things in life, like a simple training session, the air you breathe, and those hours your son calls on you to play a video game and you say you’re busy,” reflects the teacher and one of the leaders of Brazil 021, already with thirty-three years of Jiu-Jitsu and more than twenty students promoted to black belt.

Carlos won his first match at the Tijuca Tennis Club by 2 to 0. However exhausted, he returned for the final and lost to Gordo. The next day, he didn’t settle for a W.O. and showed up in the absolute.

“He’s a great example to us all. While still in the hospital, he would always say that he would give himself the present of competing again. There you have it, a side show: second place but feeling like first,” says friend and student André Negão, of Brazil 021.

“I taught a seminar in south Texas last weekend, as well as doing a Jiu-Jitsu demonstration at a US Army event at the Fort Lee base (Richmond, Virginia). We held gi and no-gi activities for the American soldiers stationed there. It was an honor to receive a certificate of services rendered to the American army, and it was also really cool to interact with the soldiers,” he says.

Bruno with American army soldiers

Beyond the recent excitement, the black belt is also motivated by his results as a coach. His student, blue belt Nicolas Nuila, won the Las Vegas Open and Asian Open, and his team took second place overall at last month’s Grapplers Quest in Texas. Bruno is excited and has only winning gold at his next outings on his mind.

“It’s hard to believe that, after all I’ve been through to get here, all this has happened in so little time (ten months). But I’m also sure this is just the beginning. Now I’m going to turn my attention to the competitions coming up and will try to win both my weight and the absolute weight groups. I’m thirty years old, but I’m still fighting in the adult division. I only compete in the master division at the International Master and Senior, which is a really important event. I’ll give people a hard time for a while yet! I’m training hard and will continue to represent Nova União well,” he says.

Bruno at seminar in Harlingen

And finally, so as not to say everything is pure joy, Bruno laments not being able to compete at the Brazilian Team Nationals to take place this coming weekend in Rio de Janeiro.

“I’d like to take this opportunity to wish the gang competing at the Brazilian Team Nationals good luck. I’d like to be with them, but now I have commitments here in the USA. Thiago Gaia will captain the team along with my cousin, André Bastos, and some others who are going to cause some havoc in the heavyweight brown and black belt division. I know the team will be well represented,” he says in closing.

Do as Bruno Bastos does and register for the No-Gi Pan. Sign-ups end on the coming 25^th. Find out more by clicking here.