American doctors hit back at NRA by sharing the bloody reality of gun violence

These photos are tough to look at. But there’s a powerful and tragic reason why medics are posting gruesome pictures online.

America’s controversial National Rifle Association (NRA) sparked outrage last week after telling doctors concerned by gun violence to “stay in their lane”.

The furore started last Thursday, when the NRA posted a tweet criticising doctors who are anti-gun.

Hours later, a disturbed ex-marine opened fire on revellers at California’s Borderline Bar & Grill, killing 13.

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The next day, San Francisco forensic pathologist Dr Judy Melinek was dealing with her second case involving a gunshot wound for the week when she saw the NRA’s tweet and immediately saw red.

Someone should tell self-important anti-gun doctors to stay in their lane. Half of the articles in Annals of Internal Medicine are pushing for gun control. Most upsetting, however, the medical community seems to have consulted NO ONE but themselves. https://t.co/oCR3uiLtS7

— NRA (@NRA) November 7, 2018

She fired off an angry tweet of her own, posting: “Do you have any idea how many bullets I pull out of corpses weekly? This isn’t just my lane. It’s my f***ing highway.”

Before long, Dr Melinek’s tweet had inspired countless other US doctors to describe what it is really like to work as a medic in a country plagued by gun violence, using the #ThisISOurLane and #ThisIsMyLane hashtags.

And many also shared confronting photos of themselves covered in patients’ blood as a visual reminder of the grim reality of America’s shooting epidemic.

Dr Judy Melinek tweet to NRA

One of those was Los Angeles general surgery resident Dr Kristin Gee, who posted a photograph of her blood-soaked hospital scrubs after treating a gunshot victim.

To the @NRA, this is what it looks like to stay in #mylane. We will not be silent about the toll of #gunviolence. I speak out for this patient, for their parents who will never be the same, for every person who came after this one and didn’t have to #thisiseveryoneslane pic.twitter.com/B5mo6pC4dV

— Kristin Gee, MD (@kmgee9) November 10, 2018

Another was a LA-based cardiothoracic surgery fellow, identified only as Robert, who shared a picture of his surgical cap and mask splattered with the blood of a 16-year-old gun victim who died after being shot in the chest.

16 y/o GSW to the Aorta.@NRA his mother is in the waiting room. Should you tell her he didnt make it? Didnt think so. #stayinmylane #ThisISMyLane pic.twitter.com/YZ0i0zUkI8

— Robert (@ScrubbedCTSurg) November 12, 2018

And many others shared photos of operating theatres covered in blood from other gunshot victims doctors tried in vain to save.

@NRA I #stayinmylane every day pic.twitter.com/KlxxfOSaNN

— Susan Kartiko MD PhD FACS (@susan_kartiko) November 10, 2018

@NRA, I'm a surgeon and a gun owner. Finding a sensible solution is #mylane. #mylanelookslikethis #ThisISOurLane pic.twitter.com/D4QAIHRqYB

— Shane Hester (@tshane11) November 12, 2018

I'm not a phsician, but I work alongside them - and this is #MyLane. If over HALF of the experts in the medical community - using peer-reviewed, empirically evidence-based science in Annals of Internal Medicine - make any kind of claim, you'd better accept it for what it is. pic.twitter.com/7zwzZVyb0D

— Jon Gaddis (@Jongaddis) November 12, 2018

Dozens of others who work in the broader medical field also shared gun violence anecdotes, including former Detroit hospital janitor @gakathon, who posted: “One busy night I had to help lift a GSW (gun shot wound victim) from the resuscitation table to body bag, riddled with tiny bullet holes. I had the head end of the body. When we lifted a tiny stream of blood leaked from the wounds. Traumatised.”

Florida nurse Jackie Carver wrote: “In my workplace, I have taken care of the patients who have become paralysed by bullets that hit their spines. Now a para or quad, these patients have a lifetime of fighting bedsores and infections as well as dehumanising effects of having to depend on someone else forever.”

Trauma surgeon Dr Stephanie Bonne said: “My lane: asking families to identify their child by their tattoos, because their faces are unrecognisable.”

And Dr Kevin Lee posted: “My lane: helping to intubate a man who shot his wife to death and then shot himself.”

It has been a horror year for gun violence in the US, with last week’s bar massacre marking the 307th mass shooting in 311 days, according to the non-profit Gun Violence Archive, which tracks shooting statistics.

In total, 328 people died in those incidents, and 1251 were injured.

The Borderline Bar & Grill attack was the deadliest mass shooting in America since the bloody Parkland school shooting on Valentine’s Day, which killed 17 teachers and students.

The NRA’s original tweet which sparked the war of words with concerned medical staff was in response to an article published in The Annals Of Internal Medicine regarding the medical profession’s responsibilities regarding gun violence.

That article stated: “The medical profession has a special responsibility to speak out on prevention of firearm-related injuries and deaths, just as physicians have spoken out on other public health issues.”

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