Reg Chapman joined WCCO-TV in May of 2009. He came to WCCO from WNBC-TV in New York City where he covered an array of stories for the station including the Coney Island plane crash, the crane collapse on the city’s east side, 50 shots fired at motorist Sean Bell by New York Police, and a lacrosse team assault at Fairfield High School in Connecticut.
While some wounds from the mass shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church are physical, others are invisible.
Doctors who rushed to help say what they saw that day will stay with them for a lifetime. The doctors WCCO spoke to say they were just doing what they were trained to do, but their efforts helped save lives.
Six of the wounded from that tragic church shooting are at Hennepin Healthcare. While doctors and nurses continue to tend to their wounds, they are now dealing with the emotions attached to witnessing a horrific act of violence against children.
Video of children running for safety after gunfire ripped through their church in south Minneapolis are images that won’t soon be forgotten.
What you don’t see is the ER doctor and EMS chief who were there doing what they could to save lives.
“There’s a part of your brain you have to turn off and just focus on the task and not think about the emotion,” Hennepin County EMS Assistant Chief Ryan Mayfield said.
Mayfield said he is proud of the work of paramedics, but feels the impact of what they had to endure haunts all who were on scene.
“They transported 14 patients within 24 minutes of the initial 911 call,” he said.
“I’ve never felt that sense of just shock as being on that scene,” Dr. Aaron Robinson with Hennepin Healthcare said.
Robinson said fighting through the trauma of what he saw was necessary in order to help the wounded and prepare the hospital for what was coming their way.
“I think what we want people to know is that the system that’s in place worked that day and so we got as much pre-notification as we would expect for something like this to get our team ready,” Dr. Matt Prekker said.
Prekker was back at Hennepin Healthcare.
“My job that day happened to be the one to be at the front door of the hospital and coordinate patients’ arrivals and where they are going to go,” he said.
Without the coordination between police, fire and EMS, more lives could have been lost. A good thing to note, but it does not take away the emotional trauma connected to what they witnessed.
“In this job, you learn to compartmentalize things,” Robinson said. “Think about the medicine in the moment, think about what you need to do, think about what you need to do for your patient and let the emotion — the emotion comes later.”
These professionals are leaning on peers and colleagues to process their emotions. They ask for grace as they heal while continuing to work.
“It’s a different feeling coming into the building each morning since this happened and I’m not sure when that gets back to normal,” Prekker said.
