Point of impact: Increase in gun violence most visible inside hospital trauma centers
Regional One Health treated 804 gunshot-wound patients through the first six months of 2023, and 767 in the same time frame this year. (Mark Weber/The Daily Memphian)
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. A native Rhode Islander who lives in Midtown, he enjoys tennis, golf and reading.
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