Dr. Mikael Petrosyan, affiliate chief of normal 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 normal 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 in a position to save all of them and has needed to inform dad and mom 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 attributable to 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 line with the Metropolitan Police Division. Regulation enforcement in D.C. additionally recovered greater than 3,000 firearms in each 2022 and 2023.
Petrosyan says having to inform a father or mother their youngster has died from gunshot wounds is among the most troublesome components of his job.
Gun violence, together with homicides, suicides and unintentional accidents, is the main explanation for demise amongst American kids and youths, ages 1-19, in line 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 numerous injury, not simply bodily, however psychological and emotional,” Petrosyan mentioned. “I am speaking about households and other people which are concerned, not solely dad and mom, household, but in addition people who find themselves treating the kids. 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 normal 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 normal 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 frequently witnesses the results of gun violence on U.S. youth as a part of our ongoing collection, We, The Voters.
This interview has been edited for size and readability.
Michel Martin: Little children aren’t — they don’t seem to be presupposed to be injured.
Mikael Petrosyan: They don’t seem to be presupposed to be injured. A variety 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 now have to do higher than what we now have 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 will 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 speak about the way it impacts you and the folks you’re employed with, your colleagues, the nurses, the employees, 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 dwelling day by day, and I fear about this day by day. And I textual content my spouse, ‘Are they OK? Was the college OK?’ It would not matter the place you reside. Day by day I give it some thought. I drive right here day by day, I give it some thought. So, these are issues that can by no means depart me. I want it did. And it causes stress on everybody. Folks suppose you are a surgeon, you are powerful, however there’s numerous issues related to it.
Martin: Is there one thing you notably need folks to know who do not see what you see?
Petrosyan: Folks have to grasp that we created this drawback. It wasn’t there earlier than. We have created it. So we now have to do one thing, not simply lock the weapons. It isn’t simply that. It is training. It is neighborhood involvement. It is enhancing the socioeconomic standing of individuals, communities. We now have to do higher as People, 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
Once you lose a baby on an working desk in an emergency room, it is devastating. You may’t even speak or eat or do something, many days. It is devastating, and I would not need to want on anybody. And picture, as a father or mother, dropping a baby. How will you say to the father or mother that you just misplaced their youngster? It is one of the vital troublesome issues I’ve achieved in my profession. It is while you go on the market after the trauma resuscitation or an operation, and inform the dad and mom, I am sorry I could not save your youngster. It wasn’t me that prompted it, however I really feel the duty that I wasn’t in a position to save.
Martin: Can I ask you if you happen to’ve ever thought of it? Should you’ve ever thought, ‘I am unable to, I am unable to do it. This has to cease?’
Petrosyan: Not but. However it’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.
