Rachel Sheppard was one of the many people injured in the shooting at the Route 91 concert in Las Vegas on October 1, 2017.
She was shot in the aorta, liver and spleen. Doctors said she should have died from injuries that severe, but she survived. She credits a stranger named Jake with saving her life. He saw her after she was shot and helped take her to a hospital.
One year after the shooting, Rachel is still recovering, both mentally and physically. She still has stomach, back and chest pain from areas where the bullets entered her body. She also struggles mentally from the uncertainty of what health problems could arise in the future from her injuries.
"It's definitely scary and if I'm struggling now I can't imagine what the future could be life possibly physically. It's hard," said Rachel.
One way she's kept her mind off the shooting is planning her wedding. Shortly after the shooting, her boyfriend proposed. She's spent a majority of the past year planning the celebration.
The wedding was in Nebraska in August. It was a helpful tool then, but she said now that it's over, she's lost a happy distraction, especially as the one year anniversary of the shooting drew close.
"I think when I was so busy with the wedding I was doing really well because I had no lulls to think about everything but with the last month approaching it's been super hard. I think I've cried every day and I didn't think I would at all," said Rachel.
She's been on disability and unable to work since the shooting. She hopes to be back to work with the start of next year.
