Current:Home > ScamsDoctors and nurses at one of the nation's top trauma centers reflect on increase in gun violence -Golden Horizon Investments
Doctors and nurses at one of the nation's top trauma centers reflect on increase in gun violence
View
Date:2025-04-23 23:51:12
Miami's Ryder Trauma Center sees about 400 gunshot wound victims a year.
On the night CBS News was at the hospital, doctors and nurses treated several patients with bullets embedded in their legs or with literal holes in their hands.
"You see people on their worst day, and they're on death's door," nurse Beth Sundquist said.
Sundquist told CBS News that those who can make it to a level one trauma center such as Ryder have a better chance at survival.
"In a matter of minutes, you can have your trauma surgeon here, and it's the same one that walks back into the operating room," she said. "And if you went to a small hospital, you wouldn't survive."
What strikes Dr. Gabriel Ruiz is how young many victims of day-to-day gun violence are.
"It's the biggest killer of children in our country, and that impact we don't even know how big it is," Ruiz said. "But we think that it might be bigger than cancer and cardiovascular disease, smoking and obesity, things that we as a society actually work on. I think the impact of gun violence is greater than those diseases."
The wounds are also becoming more severe due to the availability of high-powered guns, according to Ruiz.
"We see also patients that have very, very serious injuries with very high energy weapons that actually mimic those that are seen in war in, you know scenarios where there's active war going on," he told CBS News.
In fact, Ryder Trauma Center is where the U.S. Army trains some of its trauma surgeons before they're deployed.
"I think that it gives them the ability to really work on their team dynamics and hopefully better prepare them for if they're about to deploy or any type of activation that they may be having in the future," said Dr. Ian Fowler and army major who serves as one of the trauma surgeon instructors.
But it's these doctors and nurses at Ryder who are deployed to the front lines of America's gun violence epidemic.
Manuel BojorquezManuel Bojorquez is a CBS News national correspondent based in Miami. He joined CBS News in 2012 as a Dallas-based correspondent and was promoted to national correspondent for the network's Miami bureau in January 2017. Bojorquez reports across all CBS News broadcasts and platforms.
Twitter InstagramveryGood! (78382)
Related
- Man can't find second winning lottery ticket, sues over $394 million jackpot, lawsuit says
- This week on Sunday Morning (August 13)
- Toyota recalls: Toyota Tundra, Hybrid pickups recalled for fuel leak, fire concerns
- The Complicated Aftermath of Anne Heche's Death
- Senate begins final push to expand Social Security benefits for millions of people
- $8.5 billion acquisition puts fashion giants Versace, Coach and Michael Kors under one company
- Atlantic ocean hurricane season may be more eventful than normal, NOAA says
- Atlantic ocean hurricane season may be more eventful than normal, NOAA says
- NFL Week 15 picks straight up and against spread: Bills, Lions put No. 1 seed hopes on line
- Hawaii's historic former capital Lahaina has been devastated by wildfires and its famous banyan tree has been burned
Ranking
- Have Dry, Sensitive Skin? You Need To Add These Gentle Skincare Products to Your Routine
- 15-year-old boy killed by falling tree outside grandparents' South Carolina home
- Federal judge will hear arguments on potential takeover of New York City’s troubled jail system
- Social Security COLA 2024 estimate didn't increase with CPI report. Seniors still struggle.
- Opinion: Gianni Infantino, FIFA sell souls and 2034 World Cup for Saudi Arabia's billions
- Netherlands' Lineth Beerensteyn hopes USWNT's 'big mouths' learn from early World Cup exit
- Police arrest man accused of threatening jury in trial of Pittsburgh synagogue gunman
- Tory Lanez maintains his innocence after 10-year prison sentence: 'I refuse to stop fighting'
Recommendation
From family road trips to travel woes: Americans are navigating skyrocketing holiday costs
Statewide preschool initiative gets permanent approval as it enters 25th year in South Carolina
Visiting gymnastics coach denies voyeurism charge in Vermont
50 Cent, Busta Rhymes celebrate generations of rappers ahead of hip-hop's milestone anniversary
Trump suggestion that Egypt, Jordan absorb Palestinians from Gaza draws rejections, confusion
Lil Tay says she’s alive, claims her social media was hacked: Everything we know
Maui Humane Society asking for emergency donations, fosters during wildfires: How to help
'Transportation disaster' strands Kentucky students for hours, cancels school 2 days