'I haven't slept in 2 days': Las Vegas shooting victim recounts his experience

LAS VEGAS, NV — Michael Caster and Tawny Temple were just two of the 22,000 concert goers who were just enjoying a night of fun and country music at the Route 91 Harvest Festival until shots rang out from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel.

As people ran for their lives, one of the hundreds of bullets that flew through the crowd hit Michael in the lung.

"I was in and out of consciousness the whole time, she was trying to keep me awake," Michael tells Boston 25 News reporter Jacqui Heinrich.

Tawny didn't run with the crowd, even when the shots kept coming. Michael needed to go to a hospital, and since there was no use in running, she screamed for help.

"We flagged down a random car and I said 'you're taking me to the hospital, my boyfriend's been shot,'" Tawny said.

The driver was a retired police officer. He threw Michael in the trunk and brought him to Sunrise Hospital where Medical Director Scott Scherr was already dealing with the deadliest shooting in modern U.S. history and a volume of patients the hospital had never seen before.

Michael's injuries were like the other 500 plus injured that night by high velocity weapons.

The weapons used by gunman Stephen Paddock were semi-automatic riffles modified with a bump stock to make them fully automatic.

Scherr says the carnage was unspeakable and the damage caused by those bullets is challenging to treat.

"They can explode and basically what they call a 'yaw' changes the direction of it," Scherr explains.

In the wake of that shooting, victims and first responders alike are struggling to understand the motivations behind such a gruesome attack.

"Some type of coward, you know. Why would someone want to do this just to injure other people, to take lives and then take your own life. It's just a senseless act," said Caster.

Cox Media Group