The impact that gun violence has on hospitals and health care workers in Connecticut

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.