Doctor faints while trying to perform CPR on his wife after California synagogue shooting

Amid the deadly rampage of the San Diego synagogue shooting on Saturday, a doctor ran to perform CPR on a woman laying unconscious on the floor and fainted when he realized the victim was his wife, according to witnesses.

Lori Kaye, 60, died from her injuries after a gunman opened fire when about 100 people were worshipping at the Chabad of Poway synagogue in San Diego. Three other people were injured.

READ MORE: Lori Kaye died in the Poway synagogue shooting trying to save her rabbi’s life

Kaye was at the service with her husband, Dr. Howard Kaye, and their 22-year-old daughter Hannah.

According to Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein, the family was there for a Jewish prayer for the dead, known as the “Kaddish” for her mother, who recently passed away.

Goldstein, a longtime friend of Kaye’s, said after the shots were fired, he walked into the synagogue’s lobby to find Kaye laying on the floor unconscious.”

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Dr. Roneet Lev told the San Diego Union-Tribune, that people at the synagogue screamed for help and called on Kaye’s husband, a physician, to try and save the victims.

The doctor ran over and began trying to resuscitate a woman laying on the floor until he realized it was his wife. He then fainted, Lev said.

“Her dear husband, Dr. Howard Kaye, who’s like a brother to me, is trying to resuscitate her,” Goldstein told reporters outside the synagogue. “And he faints and he’s laying there on the floor next to his wife. And then their daughter, Hannah, comes out screaming, ‘Daddy and mommy, what’s going on?’”

“It’s the most heart-wrenching sight I could have seen. I was frozen in time,” the rabbi said while choking back tears.

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Goldstein was also injured in the attack — his right index finger was blown away by the gunman.

He said he has talked with Kaye right before the shooting started.

A friend of Kaye’s, Audrey Jacobs, said on Facebook that Kaye died while “taking the bullets,” trying to save the rabbi’s life.

“Here we are in the lobby, on one of the holiest days of the year, the last day of Passover, smiling at each other, and I walk into the banquet hall to wash my hands. I walk two, three, footsteps when I hear a loud ‘bang,’” he said. “I thought Lori may have fell or the table tipped over in the lobby.”

“I turn around and I see a sight that I — undescribable. Here is a young man standing with a rifle, pointing right at me. My first concern was, ‘What’s with Lori? Where did that noise come from — what’s happened to Lori?”

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Goldstein said Kaye was one of the synagogue’s founding members and was a deeply caring member of the community. When one congregant developed breast cancer, Kaye drove her to every appointment and helped take care of her children, Goldstein said.

“In this horrific, terrible event that has occurred here, in my own interpretation, Lori took the bullet for all of us. She died to protect all of us. She didn’t deserve to die. She’s such a kind, sweethearted, just a good human being. She doesn’t deserve to die right in front of my eyes,” he said.

“This is her legacy. It could have been so much worse. If the sequence of events didn’t happen the way they happened, it could have been a much worse massacre,” he said.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "This is her legacy. It could have been so much worse. If the sequence of events didn't happen the way they happened, it could have been a much worse massacre," he said.

— With files from the Associated Press and Reuters