A pediatric surgeon helps reduce the number of children affected by gun violence in Cincinnati.Dr. Victor Garcia is the founder and director of the pediatric hospital’s trauma program. During his tenure, he said there was a 300 percent increase in child shooting victims over a 10-year period. It lit a fire in him to save lives before they reached his operating table. “It’s devastating. It’s heartbreaking. And it’s also a source of PTSD, not just for those of us caring for these children, but also people on the streets,” Garcia said. “If we as individuals could see what’s happening, the carnage that that’s wreaking on a human body, I hope we’d be a little less complacent.” Monday’s shooting in Covington, in which three minors were sent to hospital, gave the whole community pause. “What really disturbed me and made me emotional and when I saw the little 12-year-old on TV with dried up tears in her eyes… We must not allow this to continue,” Garcia said. said, “My grandma tells me if you hear gunshots, you’re going down. So I went down.” Garcia refers to the trauma that occurs in underprivileged neighborhoods where many shootings occur as “ongoing traumatic stress.” mental scars can be much more devastating than the physical ones, if the patient survives. “You are changed forever, Jatara. It’s just something that doesn’t leave you,” he said. The Children’s Hospital treated 39 young people for gunshot wounds in 2021 and 44 in 2020. The highest recorded year is 2016. The hospital treated 54 young people for gunshot wounds that year. “One of the things that has happened is history is repeating itself. We see it increasing further,” Garcia said. “We need to do something different than what we’ve been doing for the past 30 years. We believe there is a solution to this.” Garcia believes the solution will include an evidence-based approach. He said other major cities are seeing success in prevention efforts by targeting disinvested neighborhoods and youth already traumatized by violence in their neighborhoods. Years ago, Garcia helped set up CIRV, the Cincinnati Initiative to Reduce Violence. That program is made around adults. Garcia said leadership needs a very different approach to reach young people, who are increasingly being targeted and gunmen. Garcia is working with a trauma surgeon from the University of Cincinnati Medical Center to create a plan and present those plans to the city council.
CINCINNATI —
A pediatric surgeon ensures that fewer children are affected by gun violence in Cincinnati.
dr. Victor Garcia is the founder and director of the pediatric hospital’s trauma program. During his tenure, he said there was a 300 percent increase in child shooting victims over a 10-year period. It lit a fire in him to save lives before they reached his operating table.
“It’s devastating. It’s heartbreaking. And it’s also a source of PTSD, not just for those of us caring for these children, but also people on the streets,” Garcia said. “If we as individuals could witness what is happening, the carnage that is wreaking on a human body, I hope we would be a little less complacent.”
Monday’s shooting in Covington, in which three youths were sent to hospital, brought peace to the entire community.
“What really disturbed me and really made me emotional and when I saw the little 12-year-old on TV with dried up tears in her eyes… We must not allow this to continue,” Garcia said.
The 12-year-old said, “My grandmother tells me if you hear gunshots, you’re going down. So I went down.”
Garcia refers to the trauma that occurs in deprived neighborhoods where many shootings occur as “ongoing traumatic stress.”
He says the mental scars can be much more devastating than the physical ones, if the patient survives.
“You are changed forever, Jatara. It’s just something that doesn’t leave you,” he said.
The Children’s Hospital treated 39 young people for gunshot wounds in 2021 and 44 in 2020. The highest recorded year is 2016. The hospital treated 54 young people for gunshot wounds that year.
“One of the things that has happened is history is repeating itself. We see it increasing further,” Garcia said. “We need to do something different than what we’ve been doing for the past 30 years. We believe there is a solution to this.”
Garcia believes the solution will include an evidence-based approach. He said other major cities are seeing success in prevention efforts by targeting disinvested neighborhoods and youth already traumatized by violence in their neighborhoods.
Years ago, Garcia helped set up CIRV, the Cincinnati Initiative to Reduce Violence. That program is made around adults. Garcia said leadership needs a very different approach to reach young people, who are increasingly being targeted and gunmen.
Garcia is working with a trauma surgeon at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center to create a plan and present those plans to the city council.
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