The American College of Physicians in Philadelphia says caring for patients with gunshot wounds puts those in the medical profession on the front lines of dealing with gun violence. That’s contrary to the National Rifle Association’s position. (dolgachov/BigStock)
Nina Feldman reports for WHYY News:
As the director of orthopedic trauma at Penn Medicine, Dr. Samir Mehta treats a lot of gunshot victims. He doesn’t always see them in a crisis setting, like an ER doctor would, but he’s dealing with the long-term impacts. One of his patients, who was shot trying to break up a dispute over traffic, suffered a spinal cord injury and paralysis. He will likely enter hospice care soon.
Along with thousands of doctors across the country, Mehta said caring for patients like these puts those in the medical profession on the front lines of dealing with gun violence.
To assert that position, doctors have taken to social media recently in response to a tweet from the National Rifle Association that demanded doctors stop speaking out about gun control and “stay in their lane.”
Thousands of doctors reacted to the tweet, describing their experiences treating patients with gunshot injuries, and maintaining that the topic is, in fact, very much in their lane. Now, the Philadelphia-based American College of Physicians has issued a statement affirming the role of doctors in treating gun violence as a public health crisis.
Mehta says that, if his patient’s injury had been caused by say, bacteria, the public would demand that doctors know how such an illness could have been prevented.
“We could have given him an antibiotic, or we could’ve prevented disease, or we could’ve given a vaccination,” Mehta hypothesized. “But when we say that about guns, then it’s a different conversation.”
A dearth of research
The debate between doctors and the NRA unfolded online in the interim between the shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh and the subsequent shooting at the Thousand Oaks bar. The timing inevitably politicized the debate and framed it as a Second Amendment issue, but Mehta and the American College of Physicians both say that their principal concern is supporting research that will lead to evidence-based practices for doctors to help prevent gunshot injury.
“We’re not anti-gun, we’re anti gun injury,” said Dr. Christine Laine, an internist at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital and the co-author of the ACP editorial.
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