Dr. Gary Parrish was scheduled to leave at 3 a.m. on Sunday when the first wave of victims poured in.
“We didn’t quite know what was about to hit us,” said Parrish, the ER medical director for Orlando Regional Medical Center.
Within 30 minutes, surgeons, nurses, and other hospital staff who were off that night, rushed in to help.
“We’re used to gunshot wounds,” said trauma surgeon Dr. William Havron. “But this was somewhat of a surreal experience.”
The hospital usually sees four to five gun-related injuries a night—44 shooting victims arrived from Pulse nightclub that night.
A health official said she saw five victims brought in and thought that would be it—but patients kept coming, not only by ambulance, but by truckloads. Vehicles carrying victims were driven by police and ordinary citizens.
Havron recalled seeing patient after patient come in as operating teams rushed from one operating room to another.
The doctors and a victim spoke at a media conference at the hospital on Tuesday.
A Victim’s Nightmare
Angel Colon was not among the first wave of victims, he was playing dead on the nightclub floor.
“It’s still fresh to me,” said Colon, while sitting in a wheelchair Tuesday morning.
Colon, 26, said he was at the club on Sunday enjoying dancing and having fun with his friends. It was about 2 a.m. and he was saying goodbye to his friends, ready to go home.
“Out of nowhere we just hear a big shotgun,” he said. Gunman Omar Mateen, 29, opened fire in the nightclub, eventually killing 49 and injuring 53.
Colon was shot three times in the leg and fell to the floor.
