By Molly Hennessy-Fiske, Los Angeles Times –
AURORA, Colo. — Best friends Allie Young, 19, and Stephanie Davies, 21, sat in Young’s hospital room on the ninth floor of the University of Colorado Hospital on Monday and described how they survived a massacre.
The women shared part of their story with President Barack Obama when he visited the hospital on Sunday. He, in turn, told the nation.
(PHOTO: Allie Young, 19, left, recounts how her best friend Stephanie Davies, 21, saved her life during the mass theater shooting. The two friends are seen at the University of Colorado Hospital in Aurora, Colorado, on Monday, July 23, 2012.)
The next day, Young lay in her hospital bed, with Davies scooched in beside her.
Young was shot in the neck and liver. Visible above her hospital gown were two bullet wounds in her neck and below that a freshly-stitched four-inch wound over her carotid artery. Pellets and bullet fragments remain in her right side, and about 32 fragments are embedded in her back. Nerves are damaged in her right arm, which feels “dead” she said. She rubbed her upper arm, feeling the fragments inside.
As she prepared to tell the story, she lifted her long brown hair into a ponytail and pinned it into a bun, with Davies propping up the wounded right arm.
They had gone to the movies on a lark, arriving at the Century 16 theater last Thursday night just in time to grab some food — they shared a soda — and two seats together.
Both were exhausted from work — Young, 19, at her father’s insurance office, Davies, 21, at Earl’s, a local restaurant. They had met through work, just six months before at Victoria’s Secret, but Davies was already calling Young “the glue to my life” on her Facebook page.
The pair, who call themselves “eternal optimists” had planned a road trip to Kansas State University the next day. Young had attended KSU for a time before moving home in January. She figured they would go home after the “Dark Knight Rises” premier and crash.
“Nice, quiet evening,” Young said. “Low and behold … ”
Going to the movies had been Young’s idea and she picked their seats: on the left side of the theater, up at the back, so they wouldn’t have to shimmy past people to get in. (She knows Davies hates that.)
As the movie started, Davies said, “We were just chowing down like a typical Allie and Stephanie night.”
“And we looked over and there was this guy,” she said.
“In a gas mask!” Young added. “All I hear is ‘Ssssss!’ and this grenade of smoke lands two or three rows behind us.”
They didn’t move, thinking it was a joke. Young shut her eyes for a moment. When she opened them, she said, “I’m on the ground and I just hear her saying, ‘Allie, get up!’ I can’t.”
She had been shot in the neck, damaging her carotid artery and knocking her into the aisle.
“I was getting trampled over,” Young said. “There was blood everywhere from my carotid artery.”
She pointed to the stitches in her neck.
Davies, who had no first-aid training, called 911 and applied pressure to the wound in the carotid artery with her fingers.
“There’s rounds going off and she says, ‘Allie, stay down,’” Young said.
Davies also managed to call 911.
“I’m holding 911 in one hand and her artery in the other and praying,” she said.
As the bullets flew, Young said she urged her friend to leave. “But in the back of my mind, I knew she wouldn’t.”
As Young lay prone, Davies watched the shooter move around the room, shouting and targeting fellow moviegoers.
“He would shout, ‘What are you doing? I said stand up!’ And he would pick people up. I saw him stand over someone, I just see hair and him holding the shirt and boom,” she said.
“We were laying there in the mouth of hell — there’s smoke and explosions and guns, bats flying across the screen because the movie’s still playing, it’s dark — it’s every child’s worst nightmare,” Davies said.
It seemed like hours until a SWAT team arrived. By then, Young was spitting up blood.
“We had to crawl over dead bodies” to escape, she said.
They stumbled out of the theater, and a stranger helped Davies carry Young across two parking lots to an ambulance.
As they waited to leave, Davies cradled Young in her lap and called her parents to tell them what had happened.
“I’m just seeing so much blood, so many wounds, so much punctures,” Davies said.
Young could feel her lungs filling with blood and had to concentrate on breathing.
Davies was not injured.
“I was covered head to toe in blood,” Davies said. “None of it was mine.”
Paramedics separated them. Davies wasn’t sure which hospital they were taking her friend to.
Soon after, Davies received a text from Young’s father telling her they were at University of Colorado Hospital. Young went into surgery.
Davies wasn’t sure if her friend would survive.
Young awoke Saturday morning, still thinking it was Friday. She had tubes draining her lungs and could not talk.
When nurses brought her a tablet, she wrote, “Where’s my Steph?”
“She was there in the next couple hours,” Young said, and has been visiting since.
On Sunday, Young’s father stopped the president at the hospital visit and urged him to visit the young women. Davies was impressed, calling Obama “charming” and “very genuine.”
Young was more circumspect.
“Seeing the president was exciting. But I was more excited to see her,” she said of Davies. “As great as he is, he doesn’t come close to her in my eyes. … She singlehandedly saved my life.”
Young said the tubes were removed from her lungs on Monday and she was moved out of intensive care, her condition upgraded to fair. Doctors are X-raying her chest to track bullet fragments lodged near her heart. But she’s hoping to go home next weekend.
She said she watched the accused gunman, James E. Holmes, 24, during his televised court appearance on Monday, wondering what drove him to this.
“It’s awful to imagine what’s going through his mind,” she said.
Young said she was angry at Holmes at first, but now she just doesn’t want to think about him.
“Whether he’s dead or alive, it’s not relevant to me. What’s important is the victims,” she said.
In all, 12 people were killed and 58 wounded.
She said she understands why some victims don’t want Holmes’ name mentioned, and she’ll oblige “if that’s going to help their healing process.”
“I don’t think he deserves any recognition for this act,” Davies said. “I would prefer if we put him in a corner and ignored him forever.”
The young friends said they learned some important lessons about each other from the ordeal.
“You’re not as strong as I thought — I thought you would be able to carry me!” Young joked, before turning serious. “She’s a great friend for staying by my side, but that’s not something I just recently found out. She just proved it.”
“You never really know how close you are to someone and how much they matter until that friendship’s tested,” Davies added.
