Dozens slowly heal in Vegas
The bullets are still there.
For the dozens of people who remain hospitalized in Las Vegas from the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history, the onslaught isn’t over. The pain lingers. They remain haunted by the uncertainty of their recovery.
“My fear is that I won’t progress, you know. I want to be able to walk again. I want to be able to function normally,” said Michael Caster, who was paralyzed in the shooting. “I’m happy to be alive, that I got out of there, but I want to have a good life going forward, too.”
The hospital worker from the Palm Springs, California, area is one of about 45 people still hospitalized in four Las Vegas hospitals after the shooting that left 58 people dead and more than 500 wounded, most with gunshots.
Loved ones linger at their bedside, offering comfort and a familiar face in an unfamiliar place. They, too, face challenges in caring for family members away from home.
The Oct. 1 shooting left the world grieving for those who died, in awe of the ordinary people and the first responders who took heroic life-saving actions, and mystified over why gunman Stephen Paddock perched himself on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay casinohotel tower and unleashed more than 1,000 bullets on an outdoor country music festival concert site.
About a third of those still hospitalized remain in critical condition nearly two weeks later. Grateful to have survived, they and their families must face the reality that the recovery will be difficult, and, for some, incomplete.
Dr. Sean Dort, a trauma surgeon and trauma center medical director at the Dignity Health-st. Rose Dominican Hospital’s Siena campus, said many of his patients have life-changing injuries.
“The longer you are in critical condition, the higher chance of poor outcome,” Dort said. “But as long as they are continuing to get better and not worse, I don’t mind which day it is.”
Caster, 41, plans to leave Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center in the coming days after being shot through his left side at the Route 91 Harvest Festival on the Las Vegas Strip. The bullet blew through his lung, near his heart, and either it or bone fragment ended up in his spine. He has lost all feeling and function from the waist down.
The fragment is still there, too risky to remove. Caster is eager to start a two-month program at a Colorado hospital specializing in spinal injuries.
He pauses with emotion when reflecting on the road ahead and the frightening prospect that he may never walk again. His demeanor turns from laid-back to grim.
“There’s no way of really telling, so we’ll just kind of take it day by day,” he said. “I got to stay positive, you know. Pray. Hope for the best. That’s what we’re going to do.”