The first medical personnel arrived on the scene at 10:16 a.m., the sheriff’s office said. Initially, though, the victims and the witnesses were on their own.
“I worked at hospitals, so I knew basic triage and basic first aid,” Mr. Hernandez said in an interview. Ms. Giffords was in danger of choking on her own blood, he said, so he pulled her into an upright position. He then used his hand to stem the bleeding until some Safeway employees gave him some clean butcher smocks.''