Charles Dharapak, Associated Press
	Suzanne Grimes, right, cries while her husband Randy Sterne talks with reporters at the Montgomery County Regional Hospital in Blacksburg, Va., yesterday. Their son Kevin Sterne was injured in the shooting massacre at Virginia Tech on Monday
	Alan Kim, The Roanoke Times
	Kevin Sterne is carried out of Norris Hall at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Va. Monday. Mr. Sterne tied an electrical cord around his leg where one bullet severed his femoral artery.

Kevin Sterne's Eagle Scout training may have saved his life Monday as he bled from gunshot wounds on the floor of a classroom at Virginia Tech.

The picture of the 22-year-old senior from Eighty Four, Pa., instantly became a symbol of the horror that unfolded at the sprawling campus. Mr. Sterne was shot four times by gunman Cho Seung-Hui during Monday's two-hour rampage.

Four police officers -- each holding one of Mr. Sterne's limbs -- carried him to safety on Monday. There he was, sprawled out between the hulking policemen, with his shirt rising above his chest and an electrical cord wound tightly around his thigh.

His quick thinking with the electrical cord helped stop the flow of blood from his femoral artery. He suffered an inch-long bullet wound to his right leg.

"He knew what to do to save his own life before the ambulances arrived," said his uncle, Mark Sterne, of Cumberland, Md. He said his nephew was in stable condition yesterday.

"He knew what to do with his life on the line."

Kevin Dolinar, scoutmaster for Boy Scout Troop 1313 in Washington County, said Mr. Sterne's training as a Boy Scout and then as an Eagle Scout played a central role in his survival.

"The practice is to not use a tourniquet, unless it's a last resort," said Mr. Dolinar. "You first apply direct pressure to the wound and then if the bleeding does not stop you use a tourniquet."

The action likely saved his life, doctors and parents acknowledged yesterday at a news conference at Montgomery Regional Hospital in Blacksburg, Va.

Mr. Sterne, an electrical engineering major who was set to graduate this year, was also a well-liked chief engineer at WUVT 90.7 FM, the student-run radio station on campus.

A colleague and special events coordinator at the station, Rana Fayez, said Mr. Sterne had worked at the station for more than three years and was one of the most seasoned radio employees. Ms. Fayez said she and other members of the station visited him in the hospital and said "his spirits were high."

"We are still trying to fathom what happened," said Ms. Fayez. "We all thought it was safe in little Blacksburg."

Mike Masilunas, 22, of McMurray, a friend and a member of his Boy Scout troop, said it definitely looked like Mr. Sterne's lanky frame in the pictures that ran on a number of front pages in U.S. newspapers. He praised the training he and Mr. Sterne received as Eagle Scouts.

"You can't just panic," said Mr. Masilunas. "Kevin realized he's got to stop the bleeding, otherwise [he could] die."

He said he never thought he would hear about an old friend involved in such a tragic story.

"It blows your mind," said Mr. Masilunas. "You never know when you're going to have to use your tourniquet training. "