Two weeks later, the doctors who treated gunshot victims from the Sutherland Springs church shooting are still amazed at the damage that was done by one person, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
"The injuries and the devastation to the body are very similar to what I saw at war. These were war injures," Col. Kurt Edwards tells Newsradio 1200 WOAI.
They had prepared to receive more than one dozen victims from the massacre, but ended by getting eight. Six of them were adults. Two were kids. They had all been shot by a gunman wielding an AR-15, military style weapon.
Col. Edwards, who is the Chief of Trauma, served in a war zone, and had seen innocent civilians hurt. And he says it's not unusual to get gunshot victims in San Antonio, even multiple ones on the same night. This was different, he says, because we're not at war.
"This is really sad that I'm seeing the same kind of trauma that I've seen in a combat zone, and these people were in church," he explains.
But the bigger story, he says, is the way the hospital reacted to the massacre. By the time the patents arrived, word had already spread that a gunman had walked up to the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs and sprayed the side with semi-automatic fire. He then burst through the church doors, executing parishioners.
He says they ended with more medical staff in the emergency department than they know what to do with.
"They didn’t come in to look or to stand around," he smiles. "They came in and, if there was not something for them to do, they went and found something they could help out with."It's an attitude, he believes, that likely saved lives.
He also praised the Southwest Texas Regional Advisory Council, which coordinates emergency responses. Just months ago, before the Las Vegas Massacre, there was a massive active shooter drill. It was so big, he questioned at the time why it needed to be so big. At the time, he was told it was to stress the system, which now seems like an eerie prediction.One patient has been discharged. Seven remain, and they range from good to critical condition.
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