Pulse nightclub survivor recalls shooting

FORT MYERS, Fla. It’s been nearly a year since 49 people lost their lives in Orlando’s gay nightclub shooting massacre.

However, the memory of that night is still vivid for survivors like Patience Carter.

The 20-year-old was visiting Florida from Philadelphia with her friends, Akyra and Tiara Parker, who were cousins.

It was the trio’s first time in Florida and they decided to go to Pulse nightclub. As they were preparing to leave around 1:58 a.m., they heard the gunshots.

Carter and Akyra Parker dropped to the ground and had made it outside when they realized Tiara wasn’t with them.

The two then went back into the club and found Tiara. Once inside, they were trapped and were forced to run into the bathroom with dozens of others to hide.

Moments later, gunman Omar Mateen entered and opened fire.

“Everything just became real to me,” Carter said. “Now I understood that we weren’t getting out.”

Carter was shot in the leg, but the wound wasn’t nearly as painful as watching Akyra die on the bathroom floor.

She and Tiara, who had been shot in her side, were pinned underneath piles of bodies until police arrived and killed Mateen.

The pair were rescued and transported to the hospital. The bullet shattered Carter’s right femur and traveled through her left leg.

While it’s been a long physical and emotional recovery since the shooting, Carter is finally starting to feel like herself again.

“I’m back 100 percent to where I used to be right now, so I’m happy about that,” she said.

Although Carter is not part of the lawsuit filed against Mateen’s wife and employer, she plans to help the families of those who were killed in the shooting.