Searing moments doctors won’t soon forget from the Annunciation shooting

Doctors at HCMC and Children’s Minnesota in Minneapolis have encountered victims from car wrecks and gun violence before. But what happened Wednesday after the Annunciation Church shooting will linger in their memories.

Dr. Rachel Weigert had already treated multiple gunshot victims from the church at the Children’s ER on Wednesday when a young girl said her arm hurt. The doctor discovered a bullet fragment that hadn’t yet been removed.

“That’s when she told me, ‘Oh, I bet I got that when I laid on top of the first graders” to shield them, said Weigert, a Children’s ER physician. “Yeah, I started crying. I had pulled it together until then.”

Two children died at the south Minneapolis Catholic church. Hospital and EMS leaders said the toll could have been worse. The fact that the shooter was outside the building likely reduced the number of fatal gunshot wounds, doctors agreed, and the rapid police and emergency medical response saved lives as well.

The nearest ambulances were just blocks from the church, and they only suspended their response by about a minute until police confirmed just after 8:30 a.m. that the shooter was no longer a threat, said Martin Scheerer, EMS chief for Hennepin Healthcare.

Police officers in many cases applied bandages to control bleeding, allowing medics to quickly evaluate medical needs. The critically injured victims were driven to HCMC in Minneapolis, where doctors in some cases started treating children without knowing their names. Their parents were still unaware and hustling to the shooting site.

“One of the children was very scared and alone because everybody was running about doing their jobs” when she was being readied for an imaging scan to determine the extent of her injuries, recalled Dr. Jon Gayken, an HCMC trauma surgeon.

“She went into the CT scanner with the patient, putting herself basically in harm’s way of radiation ... She put a little lead [protective vest] on and stood there and held her hand and then held her hair while she went through the scanner, so she wouldn’t have to go through alone.”

By mid-afternoon Thursday, HCMC had discharged one patient but still had nine in care, including five children. Two patients remained in serious condition, with one child still in critical condition.

“It’s more touch-and-go” when it comes to that child’s recovery, said Dr. Thomas Klemond, HCMC’s interim chief executive.

Four of seven children transported to Children’s had been discharged from the hospital as of Thursday morning, which Weigert said was remarkable considering the initial expectations and word from paramedics on the scene to be ready for “gunshot wounds to the head.”

The fact that the shooter was outside “saved a lot of these kids’ lives, which I still don’t know exactly how to say in a way that doesn’t feel wrong, honestly,” Weigert said.

The bullets used in the shooting broke into “twisted, mangled shards of metal” that spread in many directions in the children’s bodies, the doctor said. Some fragments had to be left, at least temporarily, because removing them presented worse risks to surrounding nerves and tissue, she added.