She was one of the doctors who performed triage, assigning priority to critically injured people so those whose lives were most in danger could be treated first and foremost.
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A little more than 48 hours after the mass shooting in Orlando killed 49 people, left the gunman dead and sent 44 of the wounded to the Orlando Regional Medical Center, Cheatham said he still hadn’t had a moment to reflect on being a part of the tragedy.
But its emergency department staff had none of the usual warnings about incoming severe cases. He was just shooting. He sat in a wheelchair beside the team of trauma surgeons that saved dozens of lives early Sunday after Mateen opened fire in the nightclub, killing 49, in what has been described as an act of terrorism and the worst mass shooting in USA history. “I said “This is not a drill”. “Heartless, ruthless, I don’t know how you could do something like this”. Since the shooting, many survivors have come forward to tell harrowing stories of the shooting and heroic stories about saving others. Normally, he said, it might be two to six operations.
Dr. William Havron, another surgeon who received a phone call and immediately reported to the hospital, concurred. He called it “surreal”.
“And out of nowhere, we just hear a big shotgun”, he said. Then, the gunman went into another room, but came back.
“The trauma bay was very full”, Dr. Joseph Ibrahim said. Some had wounds from both large and small ammunition, suggesting the gunman used both his assault rifle and pistol. “I shattered and broke the bones in my left leg, so by this time I couldn’t walk at all”, Colon said. “And then he shoots me again, but it hits the side of my hip”. He faked being dead until he was taken out of the nightclub by a policeman, who dragged him across the floor littered with glass from the shooting spree.
At the hospital’s news conference yesterday, Mr Colon turned to the doctors and nurses and said: “I will love you guys for ever”.
Others weren’t ready to talk publicly. By around 7 a.m., he said, he began directing traffic inside the trauma center – identifying which victims needed more assistance.
For the 49 won didn’t make it, they’re being remembered at memorial sites around the city.
Of the rest, 27 remained hospitalized Tuesday, including six in intensive care, one of whom was shot in the head.
Twenty-seven victims of the Pulse shooting remain at ORMC.
Colon was among the dozens of people wounded when gunman Omar Mateen opened fire inside the gay nightclub early Sunday morning. He was stabilized with two units of blood, and expressed deep gratitude to the staff. “After seeing what occurred, I don’t even know how I’m alive today”, he said.
But the victims kept coming in in waves.
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“I don’t feel pain, but I just feel all this blood on my from myself, from other people”, he said and added that he wished he could thank the police officer who rescued him.
