“I hear him come back, and he’s shooting everyone that’s already dead on the floor, and making sure they’re dead”, he said. “And I’m just there, laying down and I’m thinking, ‘I’m next, I’m dead, ‘” said Colon.
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Five patients are in “guarded condition” and 16 are considered stable.
Speaking from a wheelchair, Angel Colon said he was shot three times in the leg and could not run. The gunman, identified as Omar Mateen, shot a woman next to Colon, then fired twice at Colon.
“I can hear the shotguns closer and I look over and he shoots the girl next to me”, Colon said.
Dr Cheatham said a number of the dead had gunshot wounds to the head.
The shooting continued, Colon said, until police who burst into the building traded fire with the gunman and rescued the survivors, three hours after the start of the ordeal. I tried to get back up, but everyone started running everywhere.
Choking up a bit, Dr. Chadwick Smith described how he and others called for reinforcements. “That happened and we just grabbed each other”.
Angel Colon, who previously lived in the Boston area, shared his story Tuesday morning alongside the doctors, nurses and staff of Orlando Regional Medical Center. He said nine patients died at the hospital on Sunday and that since then most of the rest have steadily improved.
“This was the largest disaster that we probably could have imagined”, he said.
Doctors at the Orlando hospital that treated nightclub massacre victims are describing a chaotic night of patient after patient arriving for trauma treatment.
It was around 2 a.m. on Sunday when Orlando Regional Medical Center received notice of gunshot victims coming in. I shattered and broke my bones on my left leg. Hospital staff said they have eight surgeries scheduled for Tuesday and that six patients remain in critical condition.
Eventually, a police officer entered the club and dragged Colon through broken glass to safety.
She said she heard Mateen on the phone with 911 when he was in the bathroom. “‘I need you as fast as I can.’ Every answer I got was, ‘I’ll be right there'”. “We stopped what we were doing and it keeps going”. He then took another shot and struck the hip of Mr Colon. “I didn’t feel pain, but I just felt all this blood on me, from myself, from other people”, Colon said.
‘No drama, just smiles, just laughter’.
The FBI has said it was investigating whether Mateen had been scouting out other potential targets, including Disneyworld.
Henson did not say whether those guns were used in the massacre, but an Orlando Police Department news release indicated the Sig Sauer.221 assault weapon and Glock 17 handgun used in the shooting were purchased within the past two weeks.
Colon said he wants to know who that officer was. The Democrat said he will not attend moments of silence for mass shooting victims any more. She described him as fearless, and Colon told her and the other staff gathered, “I love you guys”.
‘He looks at me, he makes sure that I’m alive.
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In a tearful expression of gratitude, Colon told the room full of medical staff at Tuesday’s press conference “I will love you guys forever for doing that for me”.
