HARTFORD, Conn. (WTNH) — The United States Surgeon General declared gun violence a health emergency, and News 8 is taking a look at how these acts of violence impact healthcare workers in the state.

While Connecticut leads the rest of the United States in terms of gun laws, communities are still experiencing high rates of gun violence.

Firearms are the number one cause of death for youth in Hartford, according to Jennifer Martin, M.D., an emergency medicine doctor at Saint Francis Hospital.

“It is taxing on the entire medical staff,” Martin said. “From everyone who works in the emergency departments, the operating rooms, the surgical floors. Every single person it touches touches violence in that way and it wears on everybody.”

At Connecticut Children’s Medical Center, they have staff who will meet with families and victims of gun violence while they are still receiving medical care to discuss what happened and help them through the recovery process, Dr. Kevin Borrup, executive director of the hospital’s Injury Prevention Center, said.

Borrup said that the most effective time to intervene with a gun shot victim is at the bedside shortly after the incident, calling it the “golden hour” where people are more likely to receive help.

Saint Francis also has efforts to educate the community on gun violence prevention.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn) said that while the surgeon general’s declaration was a step in the right direction, he hopes that it is followed by action.

“We need real action to ban assault weapons, provide for better liability on the part of the gun manufacturers, red flag statutes,” Blumenthal said.

WESTMINSTER, Vt. (WCAX) – They may be considered a pest in Lake Champlain, but state wildlife officials say sea lamprey call the Connecticut River home.

While the population in Lake Champlain is controlled as a nuisance species, lampreys make up an important part of the Connecticut River ecosystem. Every year, sea lampreys spawn in the river as far upstream as Wilder Dam in the Upper Valley, and in many of the tributaries including the West, Williams, Black, and White Rivers.

In this week’s Wildlife Watch, Ike Bendavid traveled to Westminster, where Vermont Fish and Wildlife biologists are working to protect spawning habitat on the Saxtons River.

Copyright 2024 WCAX. All rights reserved.

A New Yorker has turned his new home in Connecticut into a pop-of-color “dollhouse” after dreaming of such a space ever since he was a child. 

Jonny Carmack, 31, bought his Danbury, Connecticut, home in 2020 after needing to escape Manhattan during the pandemic.

He said that this particular three-bedroom, one-and-a-half bathroom home was the first space he toured — and that it was the perfect size but didn’t have the perfect look, SWNS reported. 

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However, he’d been dreaming of turning a property into his personal “dollhouse” ever since he was a kid, he said. 

“When I bought this house, I knew I wanted to use it as a landing pad for my creativity,” he said. 

Today, after spending roughly $20,000 on renovations, Carmack has a color-filled space that is hard to miss. 

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Thanks to some help from Facebook Marketplace and HomeGoods, Carmack bought unique secondhand items to turn his new space into something special. 

Carmack has multiple rooms in his home that are full of colorful items. (SWNS / SWNS)

“I knew what I wanted the themes of my home to be, and now I have been finetuning them to push my personality out there more,” he told SWNS. 

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Carmack has a fruit room, a bakery dining room, a blue lounge, a pink parlor, a pop art bathroom, an ice cream bathroom and more themed spaces within his Connecticut home. 

The homeowner said he added over $100,000 in value to his home thanks to the colorful renovations and decorative items.

The dining room of the home features shades of green, pink and blue throughout.  (SWNS / SWNS)

Carmack noted that his favorite space in the home is his kitchen.

He said it has the best lighting, and that he loves to use it for cooking and hosting. 

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Carmack told Fox News Digital that his rooms were inspired by special people and places he idolized. 

“Each room is designed around the vintage 1980s furniture I curated over the last 3 to 4 years,” he said. “And my biggest inspirations have been Dolly Parton, Barbie and colorful Floridian tack.”

Carmack, who moved to Connecticut a few years ago, said he’s dreamed of creating a real-life dollhouse for as long as he can remember. (SWNS / SWNS)

He also told Fox News Digital that he’d always been drawn to “dollhouse aesthetics” as a child and would often imagine himself living in such a place. 

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He said, “I tried to force myself into the more tame and modern stylings as an adult and decorated many spaces in various shades of beige and white before being brave enough to go bold!”

A man has added $100,000 worth of value to his Connecticut home thanks to renovations and items he bought secondhand.  (SWNS/Jonny Carmack / SWNS)

Carmack has posted about his unique space on Instagram, where he has over 177,000 followers.

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He told Fox News Digital he’s grateful to the creative community online that loves his home space as much as he does.