GUY RAZ, Host:
NPR's Jeff Brady talked with two medics who treated Giffords and others at the scene.
AARON ROGERS: This is our patient care area, and...
JEFF BRADY: Paramedic Aaron Rogers is back at work and showing off his ambulance. He had four days off after the shooting, but the gruesome details of January 8 still run through his head.
ROGERS: One thing that stood out for me was smell.
BRADY: What kind of smell?
ROGERS: It was blood. And there was so much blood on-scene and it being warm, from the sun, that that's what I smelled, that iron-y smell.
BRADY: EMT Wes Magnotta is Rogers' partner on the ambulance.
WES MAGNOTTA: The thing that probably got me the most was stepping in the blood because it was pretty thick to the ground too. So, I mean, you step over and, you know, you'd pick your boot up and all you see is your footprint of your boot in blood.
BRADY: Magnotta and Rogers work for Southwest Ambulance. The company checked in with the two men over the following couple of days and offered counseling.
ROGERS: I'm not big on counselors and things of that nature. I'd rather talk to a friend or relative.
BRADY: Rogers and Magnotta say they rely on each other for support, and they do things to take their minds off that day.
MAGNOTTA: I play video games.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
BRADY: For at least one of the shooting victims, getting back to work was important for her recovery. Giffords staffer Pam Simon returned to her office Friday and seemed comfortable recalling the events that left her with gunshot wounds to her wrist and chest.
PAM SIMON: The shots rang out almost simultaneously. I saw Gabby be shot. I saw Ron, and I think I was probably the next one shot.
BRADY: Simon and just about anyone else in front of the Safeway store that day will be at risk for posttraumatic stress disorder, but it's difficult to predict who will be affected, according to University of Arizona psychiatry professor Steven Herron.
STEVEN HERRON: The event, actually, is not necessarily the important thing, believe it or not. It's actually somebody's predisposition.
BRADY: Neal Cash heads the Community Partnership of Southern Arizona, a regional mental health agency. He suspects the stigma surrounding mental illness is partly to blame.
NEAL CASH: If somebody stands up in that same meeting and starts ranting and raving, either they'll be thrown out of that meeting or people may actually run away from that person.
BRADY: Jeff Brady, NPR News, Tucson.