As Madeleine Wilford bled out from multiple gunshot wounds outside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, the first responder struggling to keep her alive was faced with a choice.
Coral Springs Fire Department Lt. Laz Ojeda could follow guidance to rush the high school student to a hospital 30 miles away, where policy dictates most child patients should go.
The second option: Head for the closer urgent care-focused Broward Health North, about 12 miles away from where a gunman had just killed 17 people on Valentine’s Day.
The decision, he told the Washington Post on Monday, had serious implications. Police officers had already mistakenly believed she was dead before they shook her and discovered she was alive. Her blood pressure was dropping and a lung was collapsed.