Wow! Dr. Janis Orlowski tells Reporters what its like to treat gunshot victims day after day in a large American Trauma Center.
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Watch Dr. Janis Orlowski's Moving Plea Against Gun Violence After Navy Yard Shootings
MedStar Washington Hospital Center Chief Medical Officer Janis Orlowski added a powerful plea to take action against gun violence in the U.S. to the end of a Monday afternoon press conference. Orlowski was updating the press on 3 injured victims at her hospital after the mass shooting at the Washington Navy Yard that killed 13, including the gunman. Towards the end of her time in front of the mic, Orlowski's tone changed in response to a question about what stands out to her after Monday's violence.
And the transcript of her remarks:
You know what, we see a lot of trauma. And you know, sometimes it's just, you know —accidents that occur that we get to help people with, because they're accidents. And then you see what I call senseless trauma. And there is — there's something evil in our society that we as Americans have to work to try and eradicate.
I — I have to say, I may see this everyday, I may, you know, be the Chief Medical Officer of a very large trauma center. But there's something wrong here when we have these multiple shootings, these multiple injuries. There is something wrong. and the only thing that I can say is we have to work together to get rid of it.
I would like you to put my trauma center out of business. I really would. I would like to not be an expert on gunshots and not to be an expert on this. We are — we do it well. Very experienced surgeons. But, quite frankly, I would rather they were doing their surgery on other things. And you know, it's a great city. It's a great country. And we have to work together to get rid of this. Because we just cannot have, you know, one more shooting with, you know, so many people killed.
We've got to figure this out. We've got to be able to help each other. We're dealing right now with three innocent people. But my prayers and my thoughts go out to those people who have died as a result of today. And, you know, their families and what they're going to have to go through. So I have to say, you know, it's a challenge to all of us. Let's get rid of this. This is not America. This is not Washington D.C. This is not good. So we have got to work to get rid of this.
Dr. Janis Orlowski was a guest on the Today Show this morning. She said that waen reportors asked her the question what was different in this case the first thing that came to her mind was there was nothing especially different about this case at all. The routine nature of treating gunshot wounds day after day struck her as so absurd she said exactly what was on her mind about having to cope with our uniquely American epidemic of gun violence as a physician in a large American trauma center.