Trauma & Acute Care Surgery

Selwyn O. Rogers, Jr., MD, MPH

Gun Violence in America as a Public Health Crisis

Gun violence is the leading cause of premature death in the US according to the American Public Health Association. Guns are responsible for more than 38,000 deaths a year and over 85,000 injuries. While the debate over firearms remains fierce, many in the public health sector are attempting to reframe the conversation from a political or ideological one to addressing gun violence as a public health crisis. One such person is Selwyn O. Rogers, Jr., MD, MPH, Chief of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery. Dr. Rogers, founding director of the University of Chicago Medicine’s Trauma Center, told a congressional panel that the federal government must view America’s gun violence epidemic as a public health threat.

Speaking before nine members of Congress during a field hearing of the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s health subcommittee, Dr. Rogers said he has seen the “devastating toll” of gun violence firsthand as he leads the trauma team at the South Side academic medical center.

Rogers testified at the October 3, 2019, hearing at Chicago’s Kennedy-King College, where he was joined by five other speakers who discussed the public health impact of gun violence, the role of gun violence public health research and prevention approaches.

UChicago Medicine opened its Level 1 Adult Trauma Center in May 2018, which joined the Level 1 Pediatric Trauma Center at UChicago Medicine Comer Children’s Hospital. The comprehensive program treated about 3,400 patients during its first year, which averages out to about eight adult trauma patients a day. About 40 percent of adult trauma patients suffered penetrating trauma—typically gun or knife wounds—often from intentional violence.

“At our hospital, we work to the absolute limits of our abilities to save people,” Rogers said. “But far too often, the bullets lead to death despite all our efforts. When that happens, we have a moment of silence to mourn the loss. As a trauma surgeon, I know that moment will soon be pierced by screams of anguish—and sometimes anger—at a life that has extinguished too soon.”

Rogers answered lawmakers’ questions about the impact of intentional violence on communities, what steps the federal government should take and UChicago Medicine’s efforts to build a hospital-based violence intervention program. About a quarter of the medical center’s trauma patients are referred to the violence recovery program.

See an excerpt from Dr. Rogers’ prepared testimony below. Watch the field hearing here.

This article appeared on the UChicago Medicine website on October 6, 2019, and was written by Venus Brady. Dr. Rogers’ testimony is reprinted with his permission.

Selwyn O. Rogers, Jr., MD, MPH, Director of the UChicago Medicine Trauma Center (seated second from left)

Excerpt from Dr. Rogers’ Testimony

When we think of gun violence in the United States, we tend to think of the horrific recent mass shootings in places like Dayton, Ohio, or El Paso, Texas. But in Chicago, we see smaller examples that are no less devastating.

• We see the 22-year-old man driving with his girlfriend, shot and killed in a carjacking. His crime: He owned a nice car. His name is Alexis Andrade.
• We see the 36-year-old mother of three shot and killed in front of her children in a cellphone store. Her name is Candice Dickerson.
• We see the 11-year-old girl killed by a stray bullet in her living room while she planned her birthday party the next day. Her name is Kentavia Blackful.

I am here to testify today that we, collectively, need to find answers to the intentional gun violence that killed over 14,000 Americans in 2017. In addition, over 23,000 gun suicides occurred that year.

In February of this year, I joined a medical summit of more than 40 professional organizations that agreed upon a united statement on the impact bullets have on the health of people. The summit recommended utilizing public health as the framework to confront, understand and treat this disease.¹

We must understand this violence as a public health crisis. And as such, we should address it with the same urgency as polio, Ebola or any other disease we know we can beat.

Because when we do that—when we look at gun violence as a disease—that means it can be treated. And it can be cured. If we make a true, meaningful investment in our communities, we can address some of the holistic issues that have created this gun violence epidemic.

Read the entire statement here.

1. Bulger, Eileen M. et al. “Proceedings from the Medical Summit on Firearm Injury Prevention: A Public Health Approach to Reduce Death and Disability in the US.” Journal of the American College of Surgeons 229, no. 4 (2019):415–430.e12.