Las Vegas Mass Shooting Leaves Hospitals Inundated With Patients
LAS VEGAS (CBS13) - Hospitals across the Las Vegas area have been inundated with patients. Over the last 48 hours, hundreds of doctors and medical staff have been overwhelmed by the sheer number of people needing aid after Sunday night's mass shooting.
Sunrise Hospital & Medical Center, one of the main Vegas hospitals, took in the most patients Sunday night.
Two hundred and fourteen victims arrived in droves, brought to the emergency room in private cars and ambulances
"I trained in Detroit and I saw a lot of trauma but never to this capacity," said emergency room doctor Daniel Inglish.
As of Tuesday morning, 68 people are still being treated, 33 remain in critical condition at Sunrise hospital. Doctors and staff are doing everything they can to make sure the death count doesn't climb.
"We saw a massive influx of patients coming up on gurneys, bleeding everywhere with severe injuries, just non stop patients everywhere," said Inglish.
Dr. Inglish was called in to work that night along with dozens of other doctors and medical staff who quickly triaged the more critical patients getting them into the operating room.
"We had all the surgical patients on one side, the less critical on the other," he said.
One of those patients was an off-duty firefighter from San Bernardino who was shot while risking his own life helping a total stranger who had fallen unconscious after being shot in the neck.
"We could hear the gunshots, and the whizzing of bullets over our heads, so we'd take cover over the individual we were helping. And this went on for several minutes. Eventually, I got up and started doing chest compressions again, and that's when I got shot in the arm," said Mike Kordich.
Despite being shot, Kordich and his friend continued to provide aid.
"It kind of knocked me to the ground but I still wanted to help this man, we were trying to get him out of there," he said.
In the same patient room, another innocent concertgoer who was trying to get his family to safety when he was shot in the back, not once but twice.
"We took off running, and that's when I got hit a second time, three inches away from the other one," said Justin Burton.
Realizing the devastating death toll, Justin Burton credits the physicians and first responders for saving him.
"I'm grateful I can walk, grateful to be alive, grateful my family wasn't hurt, I'd rather be the one to take the bullet," said Burton.
"It was a well-directed team, we all worked quickly and did the best job possible," said Dr. Inglish.
Meanwhile, after the deadliest shooting, the recovery efforts continue leaving these patients with a sense of gratitude.
"My nurse, my surgeon, they've been phenomenal, I've just been telling them thank you, thank you," said Kordich.
The support of family, friends, community members, fellow fireman have kept these patients strong. Both are expected to make a full recovery.
