Two Manitoba women who survived the mass shooting in Las Vegas Sunday night are both giving credit to others for saving their lives.

Friends Jan Lambourne of Teulon and Jody Ansell of Stonewall spoke to CTV News Tuesday, at the hospital where Lambourne is still receiving care for being shot in the abdomen. Ansell was discharged from another hospital Monday night after being treated for a gunshot wound to her arm.

“I’m feeling not too bad, I still have a lot of pain, obviously,” Ansell said. “But for the most part, I think I’m doing rather well, considering what we’ve gone through.”

Ansell said she and Lambourne were taking in the final performance of the evening Sunday when she heard first gunshots, which she dismissed.

“Then all of a sudden, we heard another set of shots, so we looked up in the sky thinking it might be fireworks, and there was no fireworks. So then we started realizing, okay, something is going on.”

Ansell said people began to run and try to take cover.

That’s when she noticed Lambourne had dropped to the ground. When she bent down to check on her friend, she noticed she too had been shot.

“And I was bleeding so badly, everywhere, on my arm, it was going down my legs.”

Ansell said everyone around her was running, so she took off and followed people to a parking lot, where she tried to wave down help.

“Vehicles weren’t stopping,” she said. “So I figured, the next car that comes, I’m just going to either let them hit me, or they have no choice to stop.”

Ansell said two women she later learned were locals who had been at the music festival came to her rescue.

“The one girl took off her shirt, and she wrapped my arm to try and stop the bleeding. And I was bleeding all over her car, and she didn’t care.”

Ansell said the woman stayed with her until she was taken to hospital from a helicopter hanger area, hours later.

Lambourne also grateful to a rescuer

Lambourne said after she was shot, she fell to the ground.

“At that point everybody was running, like it was just chaos.”

Lambourne said she placed her hand on her abdomen and felt blood.

“But then I started realizing, I’m in an open field, there’s nobody around, so I got to get up. And I did.”

Lambourne said she ran, not knowing how badly she was hurt, until she reached a merchandise area, where she sat down on something metal.

Unfortunately, it turned out to be a wheel barrow that flipped on top of her, hiding her for what she said was about ten minutes, until someone moved it off of her.

“And then somebody said, you know, ‘Are you shot?’”

Lambourne said she now knows the man who found her was named Justin, and that he stayed with her until an ambulance arrived, and even after she got to hospital, she said, adding that he used her phone to make sure her family knew what had happened to her.

“Yes, he did save my life,” she says, also commending the doctors who treated her.

“I’m very lucky. Very grateful.”

Thoughts of family, home provided strength

Both women said thinking of family, and going home again, gave them strength throughout the ordeal.

“I was going home. That’s all I kept telling myself,” Lambourne said, adding that she was especially motivated to get home to see a new grandson.

“When I get back to Canada, I’m going to hug my kids,” said Ansell. “Yes, absolutely, spend some time with my family, and just try to take it all in, focus on myself, moving forward.”

Ansell reunited with Lambourne at the hospital Lambourne is staying at Tuesday. She said it’s unfortunate her friend won’t be discharged as quickly as she was.

“But we’re both here,” she said. “We’re both alive, that’s the main thing.”

With files from Will Dugan