Logo

Log In Sign Up |  An official publication of: American College of Emergency Physicians
Navigation
  • Home
  • Multimedia
    • Podcasts
    • Videos
  • Clinical
    • Airway Managment
    • Case Reports
    • Critical Care
    • Guidelines
    • Imaging & Ultrasound
    • Pain & Palliative Care
    • Pediatrics
    • Resuscitation
    • Trauma & Injury
  • Resource Centers
    • mTBI Resource Center
  • Career
    • Practice Management
      • Benchmarking
      • Reimbursement & Coding
      • Care Team
      • Legal
      • Operations
      • Quality & Safety
    • Awards
    • Certification
    • Compensation
    • Early Career
    • Education
    • Leadership
    • Profiles
    • Retirement
    • Work-Life Balance
  • Columns
    • ACEP4U
    • Airway
    • Benchmarking
    • Brief19
    • By the Numbers
    • Coding Wizard
    • EM Cases
    • End of the Rainbow
    • Equity Equation
    • FACEPs in the Crowd
    • Forensic Facts
    • From the College
    • Images in EM
    • Kids Korner
    • Medicolegal Mind
    • Opinion
      • Break Room
      • New Spin
      • Pro-Con
    • Pearls From EM Literature
    • Policy Rx
    • Practice Changers
    • Problem Solvers
    • Residency Spotlight
    • Resident Voice
    • Skeptics’ Guide to Emergency Medicine
    • Sound Advice
    • Special OPs
    • Toxicology Q&A
    • WorldTravelERs
  • Resources
    • ACEP.org
    • ACEP Knowledge Quiz
    • Issue Archives
    • CME Now
    • Annual Scientific Assembly
      • ACEP14
      • ACEP15
      • ACEP16
      • ACEP17
      • ACEP18
      • ACEP19
    • Annals of Emergency Medicine
    • JACEP Open
    • Emergency Medicine Foundation
  • About
    • Our Mission
    • Medical Editor in Chief
    • Editorial Advisory Board
    • Awards
    • Authors
    • Article Submission
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Subscribe
    • Privacy Policy
    • Copyright Information

Injuries from Inner-City Guns Reignite Plea to Stop the Violence

By Benjamin Thomas, MD | on July 10, 2017 | 2 Comments
Images in EM
  • Tweet
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email
Print-Friendly Version
PHOTO: Benjamin Thomas

“Don’t let me die,” he told me. As I provided supplemental oxygen to him at the head of the bed, I told him, “You are in good hands. Everything will be OK.” But everything wasn’t OK. He had multiple gunshot wounds to his abdomen and died on the operating room table 30 minutes later. He was only 27 years old, not much younger than I at the time, and his last words were a plea to save his life.

You Might Also Like
  • Gun Violence Is Studied Less than Other Major Causes of Death
  • U.S. Doctors Call Gun Violence a ‘Public Health Crisis’
  • ACEP Now Readers Weigh in on Firearms, Gun Violence
Explore This Issue
ACEP Now: Vol 36 – No 07 – July 2017

To his family and friends, this would be a tragic loss that would change their lives forever. To the greater world around him, he is sadly another unfortunate statistic of inner-city gun violence. The photos shown this month are not of this particular patient but of those who shared the same fear, pain, and stress of being a victim of violence.

PHOTO: Benjamin Thomas

PHOTO: Benjamin Thomas

This topic of inner-city violence strikes a chord with me. Being an African-American physician, I cannot help but lament over the loss of life in the community I serve. Normally, I try to place some mental and emotional distance between myself and the tragic events that I frequently encounter in the emergency department to preserve my humanity. However, that distance becomes hard to place when you are continually treating peers who look like you and come from a similar background as you. I cannot help but feel something. Despair? Anger? Guilt? Maybe all of the above? Whatever the feeling is, it drives the question of how we, as a society, can stop the violence.

Injuries from gun violence account for nearly 37,000 emergency department visits annually. Firearms are the second leading cause of death among youths (14–24 years of age) in the United States and disproportionately affect youth and adult populations in minority communities stricken by poverty and neglect.1 Individuals victimized by firearms are at higher risk to be reinjured and rehospitalized, especially within the first year after their injury. They experience higher rates of functional disability, PTSD, and depression.2 Furthermore, the societal costs associated with firearm violence, injury, and death are not trivial. Every year, an estimated $630 million is spent on acute medical care alone, and there is approximately $32 billion in lost wages and productivity.3

A handful of interventions such as blight remediation and therapist-delivered interventions have been shown to decrease firearm and non-firearm violence.3,4 However, there is still a paucity of medical literature and validated interventions on how we as a medical community can ameliorate the effects of gun violence. As emergency physicians, we are on the front lines of this epidemic and have a unique but powerful capacity to make change. I am by no means advocating for the infringement on people’s Second Amendment rights. My plea is that we do more in curtailing this epidemic by supporting more research around this issue, investing in community-based interventions, and advocating for future victims who may become nameless statistics.

References

  1. Ranney ML, Fletcher J, Alter H, et al. A consensus-driven agenda for emergency medicine firearm injury prevention research. Ann Emerg Med. 2017;69(2):227-240.
  2. Fahimi J, Larimer E, Hamud-Ahmed W, et al. Long-term mortality of patients surviving firearm violence. Inj Prev. 2016;22(2):129-134.
  3. Carter PM, Walton MA, Zimmerman MA, et al. Efficacy of a universal brief intervention for violence among urban emergency department youth. Acad Emerg Med. 2016;23(9):1061-1070.
  4. Branas CC, Kondo MC, Murphy SM, et al. Urban blight remediation as a cost-beneficial solution to firearm violence. Am J Public Health. 2016;106(12):2158-2164.

Pages: 1 2 | Single Page

Topics: African AmericanCityDeathEmergency DepartmentEmergency PhysiciansFirearmgunMortalityPatient CarePublic HealthShootingTrauma & InjuryViolenceYouth

Related

  • Dr. Joe Sachs and “The Pitt” Are Redefining Public Health Education Through Storytelling

    June 11, 2025 - 0 Comment
  • Employ a Trauma-Informed Approach to Care

    December 7, 2024 - 0 Comment
  • Traumatic Coronary Artery Dissection Diagnosis Tips

    November 7, 2024 - 1 Comment

Current Issue

ACEP Now: June 2025 (Digital)

Read More

About the Author

Benjamin Thomas, MD

Dr. Thomas is an attending physician in the emergency department at Kaiser Permanente (Greater Southern Alameda area).

View this author's posts »

2 Responses to “Injuries from Inner-City Guns Reignite Plea to Stop the Violence”

  1. July 24, 2017

    Ms. Williams Reply

    There is so much to be said until my only comment is ‘What can I say’?…

  2. July 24, 2017

    Susan Buren, MD, FACEP Reply

    Dear Dr. Thomas,

    I work in a suburban ED in northern California, and it is not usual that we have patients who are victims of gun violence, but I completely support the idea of advocating for research in this area. Fortunately our congress people are of a similar mind, and vote that way.

    Your article struck a chord for me especially when I was reminded recently how gun violence can occur at unexpected times – one month ago, our daughter stood beside a physician whom she did not know, in a restaurant, when he was shot and killed by a gunman. She is doing well, though is now a witness in a murder trial and the experience will be with her indefinitely. As she came so close to this senseless killing, I can better imagine the heartache of families who have lost loved ones this way.

    Thank you for the work you do, and I also hope, as you help patients and families who are victims of gun violence, that you will continue to protect your own wellbeing as well.

Leave a Reply Cancel Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *


*
*

Wiley
  • Home
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy
  • Terms of Use
  • Advertise
  • Cookie Preferences
Copyright © 2025 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved, including rights for text and data mining and training of artificial technologies or similar technologies. ISSN 2333-2603