MEMPHIS, Tenn. — It’s not just trauma doctors on the front lines of care treating children with gunshot wounds. Counselors are also providing help for those youth and their families.
Nearly a dozen counselors work at Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital help those dealing with the emotionally draining and challenging days of being treated, and then long after the children are discharged from the hospital.
It’s needed more than ever, with the number of children shot and treated at Le Bonheur on pace to set a new record high for the third consecutive year.
“Record number of children being shot in this city. It's devastating,” Robert Smith said.
The father experienced that devastation in a frantic phone call last month, when he learned someone shot his 11-year-old son Broderick outside the Whitehaven library.
“It was a life changer. It was nothing I had experienced before and I didn't know how I was going to get through it,” Smith added.
As Le Bonheur doctors treated Broderick’s physically, counselors also lifted up the child and his family mentally.
“Every day, coming to check on us, making sure that he was alright, making sure if we needed anything,” Smith said.
Since February 2021, nearly a dozen counselors assisted children treated for gunshot wounds during their rehabilitation and long after, with follow up sessions.
“It’s a difficult journey but you are able to see the progress on the other side, and I think there is nothing more important,” Dr. Elaina Schauss said, who leads the program. “We know that the effects are real. I call it trauma squared."
She said the program couldn’t be more timely, as the 43 children with gunshot wounds treated at Le Bonheur this year is already on pace to surpass last year’s record high of 158.
“It’s tragic and this is something that we are working both in the hospital and outside in the community,” Dr. Schauss said.
Dr. Schauss said the follow up counseling is especially important for children injured by gunfire and who return to dangerous environments with early signs of post traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD.
“You’ve got that shock initially and then you’ve got this persistent, nagging worry, 'is this going to happen to me again?'” Dr. Schauss said.
As for Smith, he and Broderick are appreciative of the counselors continued support, now that the child is back home.
“It means everything to me. Lets me know that someone cares about my son and myself,” Schauss said.