Las Vegas shooting survivors and health care providers reunite

LAS VEGAS — Bullet fragments are still lodged in Robert Aguilar's back, but almost a year after he was wounded in the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history, he can walk with the help of a cane and has a very special group of people to thank: the health care providers at a Las Vegas area hospital.

Aguilar and other survivors did just that Friday, when they reunited with the doctors, nurses and other health care professionals who cared for them at Sunrise Hospital. They shared emotional stories in person or prerecorded videos of their days and weeks at the hospital and the time since they were discharged.

"I can't thank them enough," said Aguilar, who was temporarily paralyzed from the waist down after being shot in his right side, a bullet stuck in his spine. "It feels weird to be back... (But) it is good to see everybody up and about and moving after seeing them hurt and bandaged."

Aguilar, a resident of Rancho Cucamonga, California, texts and talks on the phone with his surgeon at least once a month.

He is among the more than 200 victims the hospital handled the night of Oct. 1, when a highstakes gambler broke the windows of his Las Vegas Strip casino-resort suite and opened fire into a crowd at an outdoor country music festival. He killed 58 people and injured hundreds more before taking his own life.