Dr. Mikael Petrosyan, affiliate chief of common and thoracic surgical procedure, poses for a portrait in his workplace at Kids’s Nationwide Hospital in Washington, D.C. on November 13, 2023.
Eric Lee for NPR
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Eric Lee for NPR
Dr. Mikael Petrosyan, affiliate chief of common and thoracic surgical procedure, poses for a portrait in his workplace at Kids’s Nationwide Hospital in Washington, D.C. on November 13, 2023.
Eric Lee for NPR
Treating gunshot wounds on kids was not what Mikael Petrosyan anticipated when he entered pediatrics.
Petrosyan has been working as a pediatric surgeon on the Kids’s Nationwide Hospital for greater than a decade, and he has handled many kids injured by weapons.
He hasn’t been capable of save all of them and has needed to inform mother and father that their kids have died from gunshot wounds.
“It is a devastating factor to do, to lose a baby for one thing that has been brought on by weapons,” Petrosyan mentioned. “It isn’t an accident. It was completely preventable in some ways.”
Final yr, 106 juveniles had been registered as gun shot wound victims in Washington D.C., and 16 of these incidents had been deadly, in keeping with the Metropolitan Police Division. Legislation enforcement in D.C. additionally recovered greater than 3,000 firearms in each 2022 and 2023.
Petrosyan says having to inform a mum or dad their little one has died from gunshot wounds is among the most tough elements of his job.
Gun violence, together with homicides, suicides and unintentional accidents, is the main reason behind loss of life amongst American kids and youths, ages 1-19, in keeping with the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention. Final yr, 1,682 kids and youths had been shot and killed and 4,512 had been injured — excluding the variety of gun associated suicides.
As Petrosyan sees it, the bodily injury is only the start.
“There’s a whole lot of injury, not simply bodily, however psychological and emotional,” Petrosyan mentioned. “I am speaking about households and folks which are concerned, not solely mother and father, household, but additionally people who find themselves treating the youngsters. They’re psychologically impacted considerably.”
His colleagues are additionally feeling the pressure to the purpose that some have stopped working briefly for reduction. Some are even contemplating early retirement or leaving the sphere altogether.
D.C. is seen from a window from Dr. Mikael Petrosyan’s, affiliate chief of common and thoracic surgical procedure, workplace at Kids’s Nationwide Hospital in Washington, D.C. on November 13, 2023.
Eric Lee for NPR
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Eric Lee for NPR
D.C. is seen from a window from Dr. Mikael Petrosyan’s, affiliate chief of common and thoracic surgical procedure, workplace at Kids’s Nationwide Hospital in Washington, D.C. on November 13, 2023.
Eric Lee for NPR
Petrosyan sat with Morning Version‘s Michel Martin to debate his expertise as somebody who commonly witnesses the results of gun violence on U.S. youth as a part of our ongoing sequence, We, The Voters.
This interview has been edited for size and readability.
Michel Martin: Little children aren’t — they are not purported to be injured.
Mikael Petrosyan: They don’t seem to be purported to be injured. Plenty of instances they’re bystanders. More often than not they’re harmless bystanders, 99.9% of the time. I am not a politician, however we have now to do higher than what we have now proper now. It isn’t steady. It isn’t proper. There’s one thing we’re not doing proper.
Martin: Most individuals do not go into pediatrics considering we’ll be treating gun violence. I imply, it is simply I believe that is honest to say, proper?
Petrosyan: Right.
Martin: So, are you able to simply discuss the way it impacts you and the individuals you’re employed with, your colleagues, the nurses, the workers, the opposite docs?
Petrosyan: It does have an effect on us, working on children. It is a job that comes with stress. I’ve three younger children and I am going residence day-after-day, and I fear about this day-after-day. And I textual content my spouse, ‘Are they OK? Was the college OK?’ It would not matter the place you reside. On daily basis I give it some thought. I drive right here day-after-day, I give it some thought. So, these are issues that can by no means go away me. I want it did. And it causes stress on everybody. Folks suppose you are a surgeon, you are powerful, however there’s a whole lot of issues related to it.
Martin: Is there one thing you notably need individuals to know who do not see what you see?
Petrosyan: Folks have to grasp that we created this downside. It wasn’t there earlier than. We have created it. So we have now to do one thing, not simply lock the weapons. It isn’t simply that. It is schooling. It is neighborhood involvement. It is enhancing the socioeconomic standing of individuals, communities. We have now to do higher as Individuals, as everybody, as a household.
The pediatric intensive care unit at Kids’s Nationwide Hospital in Washington, D.C. on November 13, 2023.
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Eric Lee for NPR
The pediatric intensive care unit at Kids’s Nationwide Hospital in Washington, D.C. on November 13, 2023.
Eric Lee for NPR
While you lose a baby on an working desk in an emergency room, it is devastating. You possibly can’t even discuss or eat or do something, many days. It is devastating, and I would not need to want on anybody. And picture, as a mum or dad, shedding a baby. How are you going to say to the mum or dad that you simply misplaced their little one? It is one of the crucial tough issues I’ve accomplished in my profession. It is if you go on the market after the trauma resuscitation or an operation, and inform the mother and father, I am sorry I could not save your little one. It wasn’t me that triggered it, however I really feel the duty that I wasn’t capable of save.
Martin: Can I ask you in the event you’ve ever considered it? For those who’ve ever thought, ‘I can not, I can not do it. This has to cease?’
Petrosyan: Not but. But it surely’s getting there.
Lindsay Totty produced the audio story, and Jan Johnson edited the audio model. Destinee Adams wrote the digital story, and Obed Manuel edited the digital model.
