When shots rang out during a Las Vegas concert, a Tacoma doctor did not run. He stayed behind with panicked people in the crowd to treat their wounds.
According to a viral Facebook post, Dr. James Sebesta was at the Route 91 Harvest festival when a gunman fired hundreds of rounds from his Mandalay Bay hotel room into the 22,000 people below him.
At least 527 people were injured, and 59 victims died -- including a Seattle woman.
“When shots fired he looked at his wife and told her to get out with their friends to safety and he would meet them back at the hotel,” his sister-in-law Crystal Graham wrote.
“He, in the midst of chaos and fearful, went out and started finding the wounded and medically helping them … He carried victims to safety. He carried bodies of those victims that didn't make it off the field," she wrote.
"He could have left with his wife. He could have escaped to safety. He made a choice to do what he knows best, be a good person. He is a hero.”
Nearly 7,000 people have reacted to Graham's Facebook post about Sebesta staying with victims.
Graham shared the below photo with KIRO 7 News, saying that she feels lucky James and her sister, Janelle Sebesta, are safe.
According to a professional biography page for MultiCare Health System in Tacoma, Sebesta is a surgeon who specializes in bariatric surgery. He completed his residency at Madigan Army Medical Center, located on Joint Base Lewis-McChord.
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