Sitting in a hospital bed after hours of surgery on both of his broken legs, Jeremi Sensky began putting together the pieces of a life that was shattered on New Year’s Day.
The 51-year-old Pennsylvania dad was ring in the new year in New Orleans when a gunman barreled down Bourbon Street, killing 14 people and injuring dozens more. In the chaos, Sensky — who was paralyzed from the waist down several years ago in a car accident — got knocked out of his wheelchair, breaking both his legs.
“I didn’t know if I was going to make it here, and everyone helped me out. I’m all put back together again,” Sensky told ABC News’ Whit Johnson. “I’m happy to be alive, man.”
As the white pickup truck began barreling down the street, Sensky said he couldn’t figure out what was causing the commotion. He said he initially thought it was an explosion.
“Someone was yelling behind me, and I turned around and heard a loud noise,” he said.
“The next thing I remember, I was laying on the ground, and my leg was all floppy, like it was broken,” he said. “I was lifting up my leg with my hand. It was like bending the pieces, and I didn’t know what was wrong.”
While the fall broke multiple bones and ultimately required hours of surgery, his position on the ground might have saved his life as the gunman began firing at bystanders.
“I heard gunfire, and I kept thinking, I hope I’m out of the way from the gunfire. I hope I’m low enough on the ground that I wasn’t in the way of the gunfire,” he said.
Still lying on the ground as the shooting ceased, Sensky said he was “screaming as loud as [he] could” for help and struggling to determine the extent of his injuries.
