Trauma surgeon who treated young Annunciation shooting victims grapples with horror of day
Nearly two weeks after two children were killed and 21 others were injured in a shooting during a school Mass in Minneapolis, a trauma surgeon who treated several victims is opening up about her experience.
Children's Hospital trauma surgeon Dr. Trish Valusek says she's still upset by the pain and loss those small patients faced.
"Children don't get shot in the head at 8:30 in the morning. This is going to be a mass casualty event," she said.
That chilling thought came immediately to her. Five children arrived almost simultaneously at Children's by ambulance.
"All of them were bleeding," Valusek said.
None of the children were accompanied by an adult. Doctors, nurses and trained social workers met with each child to help explain what was happening.
"You know, trying to find out who they are, what their concerns are. That is critical in the children that are awake and talking to us," Valusek said.
The wounds were significant, coming from a semi-automatic weapon.
"Higher velocity is definitely a big deal," Valusek said. "That is much harder to deal with because those are the ones that will scatter and fracture and go multiple directions."
She says many of the children were close to being more severely injured.
"You are talking about a small body; millimeters make a difference in several of these kids, whether or not I needed to take them immediately to the operating room," Valuesek said.
All of the students treated at Children's are now home.
Valusek, a mother of two teenagers, can't rid herself of the overwhelming horror and suffering she saw that day.
"I was honestly angry," she said. "I was angry because my first thought when we got that page that day was, 'This isn't going to be a single gunshot wound patient.' And my second thought that day was, 'We knew this would happen to us someday.' How do we live in a society where we knew this would happen to us someday?"
Only one student from Annunciation is still being treated in the hospital: 12-year-old Sophia Forchas remains in critical condition at Hennepin Healthcare. Last week, her doctor said he saw "rays of hope" for her recovery.