NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Emergency room doctors were ready and prepared to treat every victim of The Covenant School shooting that came in the doors.
But the injuries were so horrific there was nothing more they could do.
Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital At Vanderbilt is a level-one trauma center so they have the resources to heal some of the toughest injuries.
But when this call came in, pediatric surgeon Dr. Joseph Fusco it was truly devastating when they "don't even have an opportunity to use those resources."
It was business as usual for the doctors, nurses and staff at the children's hospital at Vanderbilt on Monday.
"Doing our normal activities, I was heading down to the operating room to do the cases that we have scheduled," said Fusco.
But just after 10 a.m. — a call came in that changed everything.
Six people were shot inside The Covenant School in Nashville and three of the victims were children, just 9 years old.
"Going through residency obviously, I've seen a number of gunshot wounds but nothing as devastating as this. And a child, that's so tragic, and I haven't seen anything like this before."
Hallie Scruggs, William Kinney and Evelyn Dieckhaus sustained severe gunshot wounds.
"I think that especially in children when they're small children the chances of them surviving such a gruesome event is essentially nothing," said Fusco.
Fusco, the lead pediatric surgeon, says the level-one trauma center was ready. This was what they trained for.
"We spend, like I said, a really, really long time trying to get to the place in life where we're at. We spent four years of college, four years in medical school, often seven years of residency, two years of fellowship. Every step of the way, you're taught to be able to help them to save a life, and unfortunately, we just didn't have that opportunity here."
Emergency room doctors see trauma every day, but this was difficult.
"I think that's the hardest part — the inability to be able to help, seeing what the parents have gone through their families. We do everything we possibly can. We donated so much of our energy and our time to giving the best possible care that we possibly can here," said Fusco.
Dr. Fusco says like many of us he is relying on friends, family, and his team at the hospital to get through this awful week.
