Manitoban shot in Las Vegas tearfully reunites with man who carried her to safety
Emotional video shows Jan Lambourne meeting Las Vegas bartender who carried her to safety
The Manitoba woman who survived being shot in the stomach during Sunday's mass shooting at a Las Vegas music festival had an emotional reunion Wednesday with the bartender she credits with saving her life.
Jan Lambourne broke down when Justin Uhart walked through the door and into her Las Vegas hospital room Wednesday.
"Thank you," she said through tears as he leaned over her hospital bed and the pair embraced. "It was a hell of a night."
Justin Uhart, 26, who was bartending at the Route 91 Harvest country music festival when the shooting started, found Lambourne shortly after she had been hit.
Lambourne, from Teulon, proudly introduced Uhart to members of her family, who had flown down to be by her side, before asking him how he has been holding up since the tragedy.
Uhart helped carry her to safety, then stayed with her throughout the ambulance ride to the hospital and until she went into surgery. He also called her family to let them know what had happened.
Uhart has told CBC News he "couldn't just leave" Lambourne after finding her injured and hiding inside a merchandise tent on the festival grounds.
"I just saw the blood and … I just had to stop and help her, and try to get her some help, any way I could," he said. "She didn't know anybody and she was just terrified. She's from Canada and didn't know the area.
"I would have been terrified. Everybody was scared."
Lambourne was at the festival with her friend, Jody Ansell, from Stonewall, Man., who was also shot.
The shots were fired from the window of a 32nd-floor suite in the Mandalay Bay casino hotel. The gunman, identified by police as 64-year-old Stephen Paddock, took his own life before police made their way into his suite.
At least 59 people, including Paddock, were killed and nearly 500 injured (officials have lowered the number of injured from the original estimate of more than 525).
"She was losing quite a lot of blood"
Scans taken at a Vegas hospital show the bullet that hit Ansell passed through her right arm, just below the elbow.
As well, X-rays didn't show breaks to any bones, she told CBC News earlier this week. As a result, she didn't require any major surgery and was discharged from hospital on Monday.
Her son, Darren Sherlock, told CBC that Ansell is now back in Canada, spending a few days in Vancouver before she comes home to Teulon this weekend.
Ansell and her husband had been working on a pipeline project in British Columbia for the past eight months, and that's where she was before she went to Vegas for the music festival.
Sherlock said he can't wait to give his mom a big hug when she gets back.
He's still trying to shake the terrible feeling that washed over him after hearing a voice message from Ansell, who'd called just after she'd been shot.
"I definitely wouldn't want to wish that on anybody that's for sure — waking up to a couple voice mails from your mom, basically not knowing whether or not she's going to be all right or not and saying goodbye just in case," said Sherlock, 24.
"She was losing quite a lot of blood and she was crying. It's pretty scary."
Sherlock took to Facebook on Wednesday, sending thanks to everyone who has helped his mom and his family get through the days since the shooting — not just those around the family in Manitoba's Interlake but also the people he may never meet in Las Vegas.
"If you know me very well I'm really not much one for talking, but I can definitely send an emotional message out there, especially in a time like this," he said about the post.
"It was definitely a group effort from everybody. Obviously others didn't get off so lucky, but we're very thankful for everybody who came together so two women I know will be coming back to us."
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