Daniel Hernandez, the 20-year-old intern who attended to Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in the immediate aftermath of the shooting in Arizona yesterday, told ABC News that “the congresswoman was alert” after she had been shot in the head.
Hernandez told This Week‘s Christiane Amanpour: “When I heard gunshots, my first instinct was to head toward the congresswoman to make sure that she was okay. Once I saw that she was down, and there were more than one victim, I went ahead and started doing the limited triage that I could with what I had.”
He continued:
When this happened, I kind of just shut off all emotion because I knew I wouldn’t be any good to anyone if I had a breakdown,” Hernendez remembered. “I had to lift up the congresswoman because she was severely injured, and I wanted to make sure that she was able to breathe okay because there was so much blood.
Hernendez used smocks from the grocery store to bandage the wounded victims.
“The congresswoman was alert. She was able to hold my hand when I asked her if she could hear me,” said Hernendez. “I wasn’t able to get any words from her. She may have been trying, but because of the way that I was having to hold her it was a lot easier to just ‘if you can hear me Gabby just grab my hand to let me know that you’re okay.'”
[TPM SLIDESHOW: Across the Nation, Vigils Held for Rep. Gabrielle Giffords]
