How Two Trauma Surgeons Are Trying to Save More Shooting Victims

This year, more than 300 people have already died from mass shooting incidents around the US, according to our running tally. And last year, 25 percent of the country's total 50,000 shootings were fatal. But two trauma surgeons in Philadelphia believe they can bring that number closer to zero, simply by administering a less invasive treatment to shooting victims as they're rushed to the hospital.

"For this patient population, less is more," Temple University Hospital surgeon-in-chief, Dr. Amy Goldberg, told VICE News. "When less is performed in the field—whether it's putting in a breathing tube or putting an intravenous line in—for patients that have been shot and have significant injuries, those patients actually do worse when they have those interventions."

Usually when shooting victims are treated by EMTs, they're given what's called advanced life support, which includes IVs, breathing tubes, and defibrillators. But Goldberg and her research partner, Dr. Zoe Maher, believe that sticking to basic techniques, like CPR and breathing masks, will give their patients a better shot at survival in the long run.

This fall, Goldberg and Maher plan to conduct an FDA-approved study where they will treat half the city's gunshot victims with advanced life support treatment and the other with more basic techniques. Representatives from Temple University have been working with leaders and activists in at-risk communities to make the study as transparent as possible and let residents know how they can opt out. But the researchers stress that there's no time to waste.

"We're actually doing the thing we're studying every single day, and we have been day in and day out for a very long time," Maher says. "All we're modifying is the way that we are able to capture data so that we can prove that's actually the sole difference. So to be honest with you, I do not feel that we're taking a risk."

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