'This should never happen to children': Docs who tried to save 9-yr-old Nashville victims recall ordeal
NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE: The tragic Nashville shooting that occurred at The Covenant School took the lives of three nine-year-old children - Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs and William Kinney. The doctors who treated the children have now revealed their experiences with the horrific situation.
Three other people were also killed, including Cynthia Peak, Mike Hill, both 61, and the school's headmistress, 60-year-old Dr Katherine Koonce. The shooting occurred Monday morning, March 27, at The Covenant School, a private Presbyterian school in Nashville with about 200 students from preschool through sixth grade. A former student at the campus, Audrey Hale, has been identified as the suspect.
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What did the doctors reveal?
Dr Joseph Fusco of Monroe Carell Jr Children's Hospital and Dr Alex Jahangir, who works at Vanderbilt's Center for Trauma treated the children. "You're in a bit of shock when you get something like that.This should never happen to children," said Fusco. "The wounds that are present on these children's bodies — I mean, not to be gruesome, but I think suffice to say that injuries from those weapons are essentially unsurvivable for children," he added.
"As a trauma surgeon, I can tell right away if somebody has been shot with a handgun versus a high-powered assault rifle," said Dr Alex Jahangir, who heads the Vanderbilt Center for Trauma, Burn and Emergency Surgery. The rifle "is exponentially worse, obviously," he added."It goes against all of the training that I've had for so long. Throughout residency, and fellowship, you see thousands and thousands of patients. You're taught to help and do everything you can to help them. You're so geared up. We're so well-prepared to help. We've had nurses drive in from home to the emergency department. Everyone is there," he said. Instead, all they were left with was "the feeling of sheer helplessness when you have patients that come in with injuries that are just completely unsurvivable. We said, you know, we're not immune to this." Further, he added, "It became evident that this was serious and this was maybe a little different from what we've experienced before, in that it's what I think many of us, especially those of us with young children, always dread." "I've been a physician for 20 years. You're trained, especially back then, to kind of just be tough, and just deal with it. And I think we've realized that's not the right way to approach it," Jahangir said. "We're not immune to the emotions that happen."Everyone is still shaken up in the hospital just like we are in the community," Jahangir said. "It hits home, "as per NPR.
What happened at The Covenant school on March 27?
Six people were killed in a shooting on Monday, March 27. The entire city is mourning the victims of the heinous act of violence that turned Covenant School's lively day into an unforgettable nightmare. In the bodycam video released by the police, the officers can be seen chasing the suspect. The perpetrator is Hale, a 28-year-old transgender man. He was biologically female but preferred the pronouns 'he/she' and was an illustrator and graphic designer. The gunman's profile says he attended Nossi College of Art, where he earned a bachelor's degree in illustration and graphic design. He worked as a 'grocery shopper' at Shipt, freelanced, including as an illustrator at Nossi College of Art, worked as a 'cat sitter" at Music City Cats, LLC, and was a freelance graphic designer at Sora Entertainment, according to his Linkedin.