Two EMTs and a group of a police officers carried a wounded man down multiple flights of stairs after a gunman opened fire at Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center.
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — Two EMTs and a group of a police officers carried a wounded man down multiple flights of stairs after a gunman opened fire at Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center.
EMTs Robert Maldonado and Rafael Shimunov of Assist Ambulance were already at the hospital tending to another patient when they said they were called into action by a report of an active shooter.
Joined by police officers, they carried the man carefully down stairs from the ninth floor to the emergency room.
“When we approached the stairway, the patient was already on the floor, so his T-shirt was already up, and he was bleeding. I immediately put pressure on the exit and the entrance wound. My partner assisted me. The Police Department helped us lift him and carry him all the way down to the emergency room, ” Maldonado said.
The EMTs maintained pressure to the wounds as police officers grabbed the man’s shoulders and leg. They carefully carried him down the stairs to the trauma room, where doctors took over.
“Extremely careful, but at the same time, I cannot let go, so the pressure must be stayed in, ” Maldonado said. “That was the most important thing, that he did not bleed out.”
Shimunov said it was just part of the job.
“We did the best we could. We tried to help. Nothing else at this point. That’s what we try to do and this is our training, and this our certification, ” he said.
“It was quick, it wasn’ t easy, but we did it, ” added Maldonado.
The gunman was identified as Dr. Henry Bello. He brought an AR 15-type rifle into the hospital underneath a white lab coat, authorities said.
A woman was killed and six other people were hit, five of them receiving serious wounds, according to authorities. One was hit in the leg.
