By EMS1 Staff
LAS VEGAS — One year after the Las Vegas shooting, a responder spoke out about how he still deals with the traumatic memories of responding to the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.
Community Ambulance Special Operations Director Glen Simpson, who was one of 20 Community Ambulance responders who jumped into action and treated those in need at the Route 91 Harvest music festival, said he’s still processing what happened, according to Las Vegas Now.
“A lot of my memories from that night are watching people die,” he said. “Never in my wildest dreams did I think someone would be shooting from above.”
Simpson said fear of getting hurt himself was also running through his mind.
“Knowing that okay, if I run and get hit in the back of the leg, I wonder what that is going to feel like,” he said.
The special operations director said it’s “difficult” because it was his job to coordinate the response team that was covering the event that night.
“It’s difficult for me because I was the one that assigned all 15 employees to work that event. That was all me,” he said. “We had five employees that were off duty that they could have left; they chose not to, they chose to help us. They chose to take roles I wouldn’t wish upon anyone.”
Simpson said he’s still healing from the traumatic event.
“You see things you never thought you would see in your life,” Simpson said. “You hear things, you feel things, you smell things. I said I’ll be alright in three weeks, then three weeks happened, four weeks happened, five weeks happened, six weeks happened, even to this day I’m still processing a lot of it. I wonder in 15 years, in 20 years, am I going to have those same feelings.”
Still, Simpson added that he also gained a sense of pride after the incident.
“We’re not going to let some power that decided to do something so evil shut us down and keep us from what we all come here to do,” he said.