Orlando survivor: ‘The guilt of being alive is heavy’

ORLANDO, Fla. — Patience Carter, suffering from gunshot wounds to her legs. lay on the bathroom floor in a pool of blood and fear.

Then the gunman entered. And he was shooting.

'We were all scrambling in the bathroom, screaming at the top of our lungs,' said Carter, 20, at a news conference Tuesday at Florida Hospital Orlando. 'People were getting hit by bullets. Blood was everywhere.'

Then, the shots stopped.

For three hours, Carter and her friends Akyra Murray and Tiara Parker were held hostage by Omar Mateen, 29, the Florida man who killed 49 people, including Murray, inside Pulse nightclub early Sunday. He also wounded Carter and Parker and more than 50 others.

Survivors being treated at Florida Hospital Orlando and Orlando Regional Medical Center spoke with reporters, recounting their horrifying, near-death stories.

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At ORMC, patient Angel Colon said the attack happened as he and friends were wrapping up a fun night.

'We were saying our goodbyes. I'm hugging everyone. It was a great night ... and out of nowhere, we just a heard a big shot. We stopped what we were doing and it just kept going. We started running,' Colon said.

He got shot three times in the leg. He fell as he was trying to flee and got trampled. The shooter killed the person next to him. He tried to kill Colon, too, but those bullets struck his hip and hand.

A police officer eventually dragged Colon out of the club, his body getting cut with shards of glass.

'At first I was hesitant to come out here, because it's all so fresh for me,' Colon said Tuesday, surrounded by his siblings. 'But I wanted to get my story out so everyone would know what is going on now in this community.'

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ORMC treated most of the patients as the Orlando region's Level 1 trauma center.

The injured started arriving at the trauma center shortly after 2 a.m. Sunday.

Many were quickly wheeled into operating rooms. Doctors there had performed more than 36 operations by Monday night and were planning to do eight more Tuesday.

Twenty-seven shooting victims remain at ORMC. Six are in critical condition. Five other patients are in a guarded condition and 16, including Colon, are considered stable. Another 6 are at Florida Hospital Orlando.

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At Florida Hospital Orlando, Carter described how Mateen, a U. S. citizen whose parents are from Afghanistan, in phone calls with police pledged allegiance to the Islamic State and said he was doing it because America was bombing his country.

Then he addressed his hostages: ''Are there any black people in here?'' he asked, according to Carter.

She was too afraid to answer. But another man spoke up and said there were.

''I don't have a problem with black people,'' he replied, according to Carter. ''This is about my country. You guys have suffered enough.''

At one point, his handgun jammed so he put down his assault-style rifle so he could fix it. He told his hostages to keep off their phones.

'Every time a phone rung or every time a text message went off, he would say, 'Where is it? Give it up.''

After what felt like 'hours and hours,' she heard police yell to get away from the wall. Then she heard three explosions as police broke through the concrete.

Mateen shot two people before trying to flee and being shot dead by police.

Carter said she was able to crawl out of the stall.

'I was able to sit up and pull my leg up from the person who just was shot dead,' she said.

She talked with Parker, who was shot in the side. They then saw Murray, who was unconscious but still breathing. She later died.

Carter said she and Murrey actually went back in to try to save Parker.

'The guilt of being alive is heavy,' Carter said.

The women were visiting from Philadelphia. They searched the internet to locate the best clubs. And Pulse had popped up.