ORLANDO, Fla. — In the hours and days after Pulse, unsung heroes emerged.
Forty-nine people -- mothers, fathers, sons and daughters -- were killed that horrible night.
Urgency was a top priority for Dr. Joshua Stephany at the medical examiner’s office for Orange and Osceola counties.
WATCH: Channel 9 presents ‘Pulse: 5 Years of Healing & Hope’
He wanted to provide answers for the hundreds of family members who had questions about their loved ones.
He made a decision when he was at the scene that impacted and impressed thousands.
Stephany walked into the club, and it’s as if time stood still.
READ: UCF hosts Pulse memorial ceremony ahead of 5-year mark
Club lights were still moving, drinks were still on the bar. Phones were ringing, dinging constantly.
But Stephany had to identify the victims quickly. And when he was in there looking around, taking it all in and thinking up a plan, he made a choice that he said just felt right.
He had to recover, identify and do autopsies, and get the individuals back to families.
READ: Exhibit marking 5 years since Pulse shooting open at Orange County Regional History Center
But there’s something else the medical examiner does that’s not required by Florida law: Officer comfort, care and compassion to family members of the deceased.
Stephany said he made sure to provide the deepest compassion when he got to the scene of the Pulse nightclub terror attack, and saw the victims lying so close to the man who took their lives.
“I’m not sure why or where it came from. I called my transport and my forensic investigator and said, ‘We’re going to transport them separately, we’re going to hold them separately, store them separately.’”
The meant the shooter would never again be around the victims during the medical examiner’s identification and autopsy process. It’s a decision he made on the spot, not realizing how much it would really resonate with people and show them the humanity, the empathy behind the medical examiner’s office.
“I don’t think in my mind, I want anybody else to have that vision of one individual who just took 49 people’s lives in the same room together,” Stephany said.
It took Stephany and his team less than 48 hours to identify the victims, and by hour 72 he had all the autopsies done.
“The earlier we can get through the process, the earlier we get them back to their families,” Stephany said.
Stephany never announced or publicized the fact he took it upon himself to keep the 49 victims and the shooter apart. But people found out.
“We started getting letters, for what was a horrible, horrible event, they will take some kind of solace in that, in some kind of humanity,” Stephany said.
READ: Photographer shares dozens of new images taken at Pulse, aftermath
As for how Pulse affected Stephany? “I don’t know. I think I’m still trying to discover the answer to that question.”
“We always just say it’s our job,” Stephany said. “For the longest time, it’s just that’s what you do, suck it up, do it. But now, you’re realizing it can have long-term effects.”
Stephany and his team received mental health counseling and visits from therapy animals after the tragedy.
At the time of the mass shooting, Stephany was working as interim chief. After he led his team through the tragedy, the county named him chief medical examiner.
©2021 Cox Media Group
