LEE KRAMER'S ROOM: With Views

[jbsliverer]

Mayday page goes off
Peds Trauma

Run to the scene

In the trauma bay
You’re barely visible in the adult-sized gurney
Surrounded by a crew of laser-focused, life-saving professionals

Who can’t save you

Bloody little hands
You’re cold
You’ve got a beaded blue butterfly bracelet on one wrist
And crusted blood on the other

I hold a light to your eyes
And watch your pupils dilate to black
Forever
I tell your mama you’re never coming back

And then the next sound that I hear
Is worst sound a human can ever hear

It’s the deep, echoing, piercing wail of a now-broken mother
Shot in the heart with the news
That she has lost you

As she collapses onto the floor

And I want to die
And I want to scream
I bite my teeth
I hide away and cry

Firearms are now the number one leading cause of death in American children.

La Doctora Jones MD
@ladoctorajones
Board Certified Pediatric Intensivist.