NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Dr. Joseph Fusco didn't always plan on being a pediatric surgeon.
"My goal was to be a professional baseball player and then I realized that I couldn't hit the curveball," he said.
So instead, he found a different calling. Watch the video to hear his personal testament.
"You form these really significant bonds with children and those lead into their adult life, they'll never forget you and you never forget them either," Dr. Fusco said.
Now, he is the Assistant Professor of Pediatric Surgery at Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt.
But Fusco admits there are some things that are also difficult to forget.
Saturday night, two young cousins, ages 7 and 9 years old, were shot through a bedroom window in what police call 'an apparent targeted shooting'. The girls were taken to Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital with critical injuries.
"It's just such a terrible thing that we have to see and have to experience almost on a daily basis it seems now," said Dr. Fusco.
He has operated on countless gunshot victims — his youngest was a baby just a few months old.
"I think many are so scared or in shock that they don't have the ability to grasp some of the occurrences that have happened," said Dr. Fusco.
Watching any child suffer is hard, but Fusco hopes to see a world where no child has to suffer from gun violence again.
"I just wish that we could figure out as a community to come together and figure out how to change this cycle, break this cycle of violence that happens and affects all of us," he said. "All the families, our entire community, especially the children."
While the motive is still unclear, Metro Police say a 16-year-old who sleeps in that bedroom left the apartment before detectives arrived. Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at (615) 742-7463.
