Gay intern credited with saving US congresswoman

Gay intern credited with saving US congresswoman

An openly gay intern for US congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords is being credited with saving her life after she was shot in Arizona on Saturday.

Daniel Hernandez Jr, who confirmed to gay and lesbian newspaper the Dallas Voice that he was gay, had only been working as an intern for five days when the shooting took place. He is also a member of the City of Tucson Commission on Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Issues.

Hernandez spoke on America’s ABC News this morning, recounting how he used smocks from the grocery store to bandage the wounded victims and had to use his hand to apply pressure to the entry wound on Giffords’ forehead.

“I had to lift up the congresswoman because she was severely injured, and I wanted to make sure that she was able to breathe okay because there was so much blood,” he said.

“The congresswoman was alert. She was able to hold my hand when I asked her if she could hear me. I wasn’t able to get any words from her.

“She may have been trying, but because of the way that I was having to hold her it was a lot easier to just say ‘if you can hear me Gabby just grab my hand to let me know that you’re okay.'”

Hernandez said Giffords had been a great ally to the LGBT community during a short radio interview at the weekend.

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3 responses to “Gay intern credited with saving US congresswoman”

  1. Cheers Boris. This is from the Huffington Post:

    “Doctors initially thought the bullet entered the back of the skull and exited the front, but after reviewing X-rays and brain scans, two outside physicians brought in by Giffords’ medical team now believe that Giffords was likely shot in the front of her head.”

  2. You may want to verify the following: “Hernandez spoke on America’s ABC News this morning, recounting how he used smocks from the grocery store to bandage the wounded victims and had to use his hand to apply pressure to the entry wound on Giffords’ forehead.” The wound on the forehead was most likely the exit wound, not the entry wound. See here, for instance:

    http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2011/01/10/bullets_path_is_key_to_giffords_recovery/?p1=News_links

    This makes more sense: the shooter approached Giffords from behind and fired a shot without her seeing the weapon. Matches other reports too stating that the shooter was behind her, at point-blank range (about 3 ft).