Trauma center workers see increase in gun violence first-hand
Content warning: This article contains descriptions of gun violence and trauma care.
The ambulances wail down Jefferson Avenue by the hundreds. The gurneys bearing hundreds of bullet-riddled bodies — about 1,400 each of the past three years — follow. The shootings often lead the evening newscasts. Residents grow accustomed to the daily chaos. Then, it is forgotten. The next day’s violence fills the void.
What people don’t see is the blood on the floor. Bag after bag that’s used to save lives. They don’t see the doctors and nurses with soaked scrubs. They don’t see the gore left for janitors to clean up.
“They don’t realize that sometimes we’re giving 20, 30, 40 units of blood. And when we finish the case, the floor is covered in blood, and our shoe covers are covered in blood. Our gowns are soaked. Sometimes the blood soaks through the gowns and gets on our arms,” said Dr. Andrew Kerwin, the head of trauma surgery at Regional One Health’s Elvis Presley Trauma Center.
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Samuel Hardiman
Samuel Hardiman is an enterprise and investigative reporter who focuses on local government and politics. He began his journalism career at the Tulsa World in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where he covered business and, later, K-12 education. Hardiman came to Memphis in 2018 to join the Memphis Business Journal, covering government and economic development. He then served as the Memphis Commercial Appeal’s city hall reporter and later joined The Daily Memphian in 2023. His current work focuses on Elon Musk’s xAI, regional energy needs and how Memphis and Shelby County government spend taxpayer dollars.
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