First responder describes saving Parkland shooting victim initially sent to hospital 30 miles away

A first responder choked up as he described saving Madeleine (Maddy) Wilford after she was shot three times at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

Lt. Laz Ojeda of the Coral Springs Fire Department said he was initially told to take her to a hospital 30 miles from the Parkland high school because she appeared to be 15.

But he rubbed the shocked student’s sternum several times in the speeding ambulance, asking how old she was.

“She came around,” Ojeda said, fighting back tears. “She told me she was 17.”

At that point, he told the ambulance driver to head to Broward Health North hospital just 10 miles away, where doctors immediately took her in.

“Perhaps if we had gone 30 miles away, she wouldn't have made it,” he said at North Broward Monday. “Something made me disregard a faraway voice saying she needs to go to Broward General. We brought her here.”

Despite her bullet wounds — including one that ripped through her lung and into her stomach — Wilford has made a miraculous recovery, doctors said Monday.

“I’d just like to say that I’m so grateful to be here,” a recovering Wilford said at a news conference alongside Ojeda and medical staff.

She was shot inside a classroom at the high school, which gunman Nikolas Cruz attacked with an AR-15, killing 17 students and staff.

“At first sight it was believed that Maddy had deceased,” Ojeda said. “She looked very pale.”

But an officer shook her and Wilford “made signs of life.”

Doctors performed three surgeries on Wilford over the course of 40 hours, said Dr. Igor Nichiporenko.

“She kept on bleeding,” he said, confirming the teen still had fragments of Cruz’s bullets in her.

“She is very lucky,” Nichiporenko told reporters of her recovery. “Because we're talking about large-caliber bullets penetrating through the chest and the abdomen.”

Nichiporenko said Wilford can physically return to school by next week, although she may have difficulty writing because of existing damage to two upper-body tendons.

The school will resume classes Wednesday, although the portion Cruz shot up will remain closed.

Wilford said the support she’s received has eased the recovery process.

“I just love the fact that we’re sticking together at this,” she said. “I’m just glad that I’m making a full recovery and everything’s going so smoothly.”