‘LONG ROAD’ TO RECOVERY FOR VICTIMS INJURED IN ATTACK
Associated Press
LAS VEGAS — Their concert turned into a siege, and now their lives may become a battle.
The staggering count of people injured in the shooting at a Las Vegas music festival means their recoveries are likely to be as varied as the victims themselves. Some injuries are as simple as broken bones, others gunshot wounds involving multiple surgeries and potential transplants, and all come with the added emotional scars of enduring the deadliest shooting in modern U. S. history, with 59 killed.
At least 130 people remained hospitalized Tuesday, with 48 listed in critical condition. Hospitals said 185 others had already been released. At Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center alone, the count of those treated included 120 people who were struck by gunfire, a glimpse of the amount of ammunition unleashed in the attack.
Rehabilitation for the most seriously hurt victims will take far longer than many may realize.
“Years,” said Dr. Thomas Scalea, physician- in- chief at the University of Maryland’s Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore, one of the nation’s largest trauma centers. “It’s not days or weeks.”
Edward Leon raced to Las Vegas from Palm Springs, California, after learning his niece was shot in the stomach. He said he cried the whole way there. Although she survived an initial operation, he worries about what will come next.
“She’s out of surgery,” he said, “but it’s a long road ahead.”
At the site of the attack, people fashioned stretchers out of fence posts and tarps, and tourniquets from belts. At area hospitals, the scene was similarly grave.
“It was like a war zone,” said Dr. Jay Coates, a trauma surgeon at University Medical Center of Southern Nevada, who operated on three people with gunshot wounds.
Coates said ambulances were parked four and five deep. Dozens of wounded filled the trauma bay inside. There were people with injuries to their lungs, liver and spleens, some with huge wounds torn open by bullets. Eight or nine surgeons made flash assessments.
“At this point, I’m still processing. I have no idea who I operated on,” Coates said. “They were coming in so fast. … Wewere just trying to keep people from dying.”
Mike Kordich, a firefighter from Rancho Cucamonga, California, was giving CPR to a severely injured person at the concert when he was hit in the arm by a bullet.
“I kept doing chest compressions with one arm until I noticed I was starting to bleed a lot,” Kordich recalled. He ran for cover, jumping fences, and said he could hear the bullets whizzing by.