NEW YORK (PIX11) — One patient changed the course of Dr. Chethan Sathya’s career.
“I treated a little 6-month-old girl with a bullet wound and it really opened my eyes to the devastation bullets cause,” Dr. Sathya recalled. Sathya now wants to prevent young New Yorkers from ending up on his operating table as gunshot victims.
Together with Northwell Health, Dr. Sathya led a forum on gun violence prevention Tuesday saying it “is really about momentum action.”
Diverse voices came together committed to finding solutions, from U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, to the family of Jacklyn Cazares, a 9-year-old girl gunned down last May inside her school in Uvalde, Texas.
“I was a little ashamed to say I wasn’t a huge voice before all this happened and I feel that if I was able to get the message out before this happened, it wouldn’t have happened,” Jacklyn’s sister Jazmin said.
During the forum, Dr. Sathya called on fellow doctors to begin having tough conversations with their patients. “We’re the only health system that is asking every single patient questions around firearm access, to then offer safety counseling,” Dr. Sathya said.
Gov. Kathy Hochul joined the discussion, calling on lawmakers across the country to adopt some of the gun restrictions that have been implemented in New York. Hochul also pointed to signs of hope by pointing out, “New York City, just in the month of January, fewest shootings we’ve had since the pandemic started.”
