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After fallen mirror severs Aurora man's artery, girlfriend's veterinary training saves his life

An Aurora couple hopes their story about a freak accident inside their home is a reminder to get educated about the use of tourniquets.
Credit: KUSA
Josh Gilmore and Brittani Bain hope their story will teach people about the importance of tourniquets.

KUSA — Josh Gilmore’s 30th birthday has come and gone, but he’s now celebrating every day after his girlfriend saved his life following a freak accident inside their home.

Gilmore and his girlfriend Brittani Bain just moved into a new house in Aurora. Bain said it’s a fixer-upper, but because Gilmore’s an electrician, they’re able to do a lot of the work themselves. And that’s what was happening two weeks ago on Gilmore’s 30th birthday, when he was working on the bathroom and accidentally knocked down a mirror.

“I hear him screaming ‘what do I do? What do I do?’” Bain said. “I went running into the bathroom, and he’s not exaggerating. It was squirting blood out of his arms, all over the walls.”

The mirror shattered, and when it hit Gilmore in the arm, it sliced open an artery.

“I panicked for I don’t know how long,” Gilmore said, adding that there was some cussing, and a lot of panic.

Credit: Brittani Bain
Josh Gilmore is alive after his girlfriend used his belt as a tourniquet following a freak accident.

That is until Bain came into the bathroom. She’s a veterinary technician, and this background might have saved her boyfriend’s life.

“What do you do when an animal is bleeding out?” she said. “You need a tourniquet. I saw he was wearing a belt, so that’s what I used.”

Bain said she said knew she had to get it together or Gilmore would die.

“I could have lost him,” she said.

But she didn’t.

Bain held onto the tourniquet until paramedics arrived and took Gilmore to the hospital.

The couple said this whole situation has brought them closer and has reminded them how quickly life can change. But, they really want to push how crucial Bain’s actions were.

"I just want everyone to be educated and I want people to know what to do in this situation,” she said. “I know it's hard to put your emotions to the side, but fight or flight, you just have to do it."

Dr. Omid Jazeri was the vascular surgeon Gilmore saw that night at the Medical Center of Aurora. He said without Bain, Gilmore might not be here.

"For her to be involved in it, I think it was extremely crucial to control the bleeding and to stop it, really I think it saved his life even before we got involved,” he said.

It’s something Gilmore said he will never forget.

"She saved my life,” he said. “She's the one of many that did, but without her, I wouldn't be here."

You don't have to have a medical education to know what to do. One way you can get educated is through the Stop the Bleed Campaign. It's a free federal program that teaches people how to correctly apply pressure, bandaging and how to apply tourniquets.

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