A new study maps the lasting effects of gun violence on children and teens who survive their injuries
When Christian Pulcini was a pediatric emergency fellow at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, he witnessed firsthand the ways that gun violence affected children who survived it. He still remembers one young boy who had been shot in the neck while playing outside his home. Pulcini did not remove the bullet — a routine practice, often safer than removal. When the boy later returned to the emergency room struggling with his mental health, he said he could feel the bullet lodged there, a choking reminder of what he’d survived.
While firearm injuries are the leading cause of death among children and adolescents in the U.S., there are twice as many survivors of these injuries, and clinicians who have treated gunshot wounds know the experience can cast shadows far into a child’s future. But the U.S. doesn’t collect national data on non-fatal injuries from gun violence, and there’s been little research that quantifies their effects, especially when it comes to children.
