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SA surgeon recalls treating Sutherland Springs victims after Santa Fe shooting

A San Antonio trauma surgeon says that shooting take a toll on patients, doctors, the community, and even taxpayers.

Dr. Ashley McGinity is in the business of saving and changing lives. That’s what she signs up for everyday at the Trauma Center at University Hospital.

But November 5 of last year was a different story. It was on that day that Dr. McGinity treated the trauma wounds of victims that came in from the Sutherland Springs church tragedy.

“It alarms me as a person, mother, surgeon, it's horrible,” said Dr. McGinity, who noted that the shooting tragedy at Santa Fe High School is no different. “When you come to work… you have an expectation for what you're going to see, and there's no way to have an expectation for seeing that.”

She said that treating victims with gunshot wounds can mean an extensive recovery for victims.

“The high velocity weapons can lead to bad tissue disruptions and injuries that require multiple surgeries and therapies,” she said.

The surgeon also weighed in on the 22nd school shooting that’s happened this year, so far.

“It's a big problem. It's a community problem, it's a medical problem, policy problem, it's a problem for all of us,” she said.

It's a financial problem too. One source estimates the cost of gun violence in the United States to be as high as $229 billion per year.

“The amount of gun violence is just increasing,” Dr. McGinity said. “It takes a toll on the community, on our medical resources, and our emotions.”

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