YUKON, Okla. – An Oklahoma airman is thankful to be alive after accidentally shooting himself in the leg.
“I was just hoping that they could save my leg and then realized that my life was in danger,” said Christopher Griffin.
In the audio recording, you can hear Griffin tell 911 operators, “I need an ambulance I just shot myself in the leg. Oh my God!”
Officer Dave Carroll, who was nearby, raced over to help.
Once he got there, Griffin took his finger out of the wound and Carroll used his.
He said it was like a scene from a movie.
“Blood was everywhere. The floor board was covered with blood. It looked like a little pond. Blood was all over the dash, all over the door, me, him and the fire guys,” said Carroll. “I used this [index] finger, put it in the hole all the way to the knuckle just like that and then just basically pushed on his leg.”
Carroll applied pressure for ten minutes until an ambulance arrived.
“Another five minutes he would have bled out and that’s just the amount of blood he lost. It was pumping big time. I’ve never seen it other than the movies,” he said.
Griffin needed 14 liters of blood after the bullet struck his popliteal artery.
“They actually had to take a vein from this leg and replace it over here in order to restore blood flow down to my lower extremities.” said Griffin.
Although Officer Carroll was first to arrive and slow the bleeding, he doesn’t consider himself a hero.
He credits the firemen and paramedics who also helped.
The airman says he’s just blessed to be breathing.
“I’m alive. I’m super blessed, and God obviously has bigger plans for me because it wasn’t my time to go,” said Griffin. “These people are miracle workers and they did such an amazing job.”
Griffin also thanks the staff at OU Medical.
He is expected to make a full recovery.
Warning: The images in the gallery below are graphic.
