KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Trauma surgeons are seeing a steady and increasing number of victims of gun violence in the Kansas City area.
The most recent numbers from Kansas City, Missouri, police show there are 328 living victims from gun violence in 2020 so far. In 2019, there were 255 living victims.
University of Kansas Health System trauma surgeon Dr. Rob Winfield said the violence is sending more people into the emergency room.
“We continue to see high numbers and increasing numbers over the last several years. We saw over 200 people sustain gunshot wounds last year during the calendar year and it feels like, I haven’t looked at the numbers lately, but it certainly feels like it has the feel of another year where we’re seeing an increase in volume," he said.
Winfield said the age of victims varies, but a large number of patients tend to be young people between 15 and 24.
“We all see these and we’re just heartbroken, particularly when we talk about the fact that a lot of these patients are very young and we’re talking about people who are teenagers or people in their early 20’s that have their whole lives ahead of them. And we’re seeing their lives and the lives of those patients around them just devastated by gunshot wounds and injuries that we saw,” Winfield explained.
The surgeon explained they rely on traditional tools and methods to keep people alive.
“Tourniquets are a big thing. The way that we resuscitate patients is very different now than it used to be. We focus, we used to give patients a lot of IV fluid when they came in if their blood pressure was low. Now we give early blood products. We give medication, a very old medication, tranexamic acid. It helps stabilize blood clots," Winfield explained.
He said a lot of the injuries they treat are caused by handguns that cause severe damage to organs and tissue.
