As gun violence increases, a lack of trauma care in rural America puts millions at risk
A crash course in treating trauma patients at smaller hospitals aims to save lives.
Gun violence in America is increasing, not only on crowded city streets, but in small towns in remote parts of the country that lack resources to save people from life-threatening gunshot wounds.
It was 2 a.m. in late November 2020 when intruders kicked open the door of Timothy Stephens’ home in Laurinburg, North Carolina, a small farming community that grows cotton and tobacco and raises hogs.
Stephens, then 44, was already awake when the men came in waving guns and demanding money. His son, 2-year-old Tymir, had woken up moments earlier to ask for a glass of water.
As the chaotic scene unfolded, Stephens was shot five times in the abdomen while trying to protect his son from gunfire.
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Stephens survived, even though he lived hours away from a Level 1 trauma center equipped with appropriate staffing and resources to save him from the damage left by the bullets that ripped through his spleen, spine, pancreas and intestines.
His life was saved because the surgeons at the local medical center had undergone specialized training in how to stabilize trauma victims long enough for them to reach a larger center.
