When the first paramedics arrived on the scene of the Pulse nightclub shooting, they could still hear gunfire coming from inside the club.
In active-shooting cases, recent federal guidelines call for medics to put on body armor and go into potentially dangerous situations alongside police officers when possible. But paramedics Josh Granada and Carlos Tavarez didn't have bullet-proof vests and they never made it inside the nightclub. Instead, they treated the wounded across the street in the parking lot of a bagel shop.
In all, they made five trips to the emergency room, taking 13 victims to a hospital just a few blocks away. Could they have saved more lives if they had body armor and went inside the gay Orlando nightclub, where 49 people were killed and 53 wounded in the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history? It's tough to know, they told The Associated Press. Since the Columbine High School massacre in 1999 in Colorado, paramedics have struggled with how close they should get to active shooter scenes when they know there are wounded victims who need help. The federal guidelines suggest that victims' chances of survival improve when paramedics go into "the warm zone."