Trauma Does not Quarantine: Violence during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The carnage continued. Trauma Alert. Police drop off. GSW. ETA now. It was the fourth overhead page in the last 2 hours. One gunshot (GSW) victim was already on the operating room table for repair of a major vascular injury; another was being wheeled upstairs for an urgent thoracotomy after being shot in the chest. The next had arrived pulseless, unable to be resuscitated in the trauma bay. Now the fourth. More surgeons came in from home. This was a Sunday afternoon. All nonessential businesses were closed, and Philadelphia County remained under a Stay At Home order. But the trauma alert pages did not stop.