EUSTIS, Fla. (WFLA) — The flying nurse and her police fiancée were in the right place at the right time as the traumatic ordeal unfolded Sunday.
According to NBC affiliate WESH, the couple desperately knocked on their door Sunday morning when their neighbor found a gun and accidentally shot them in the head.
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“We’re both asleep and she’s like, ‘My baby was shot,'” the nurse said.
Soon, nurses who specialize in providing care to patients during emergency air transport went into work mode.
“I grab him from his dad and get him in the car and start assessing his injuries. I looked at his head and put pressure on the wound,” she said.
She instructs her fiancé to grab a medical kit from his police cruiser, and he gives her supplies and starts dialing 911.
“I called the dispatch and said they needed a helicopter. They said, ‘We’re on the phone, we’re taking them to you,'” the nurse said.
The boy was taken to Arnold Palmer Hospital where he had surgery. As of Tuesday, he remained in danger, according to the Eustis Police Department.
Police reports obtained by Wesh said the boy’s wounds appeared to be self-harm.
When police arrived, both parents were desperate, but the officers interviewed them and the boy’s sister. The family told police that they usually store firearms on the top shelf of their bedroom closet in the original manufacturer’s lockbox.
The family said, “I believed that. [redacted] He should have access to the weapon and he normally slept in the same room as his father,” the officer wrote in the report.
Police said there was no charge Tuesday and no arrests were made. However, the investigation remained active. The Eustis Police Chief asked the community to keep the child in their own thoughts and prayers.
“It will take a long time before life becomes normal, but I hope it will be longer and shorter,” the nurse told WESH.
