Just another day at office for KMC staff
| Saturday, May 16 2009 08:53 PM
Last Updated Saturday, May 16 2009 08:53 PM
We don't know why it was necessary for an entire family to suffer the consequences of a dispute that almost surely did not involve them all. We know only that, in a south Bakersfield home, in the small hours of Thursday morning, one or more people tried to commit mass murder. And they very nearly succeeded.
They failed primarily for one reason: The sense of duty, approaching heroism, of the emergency room staff at Kern Medical Center.
When the call came in minutes after the 4:26 a.m. shooting, other calls immediately went out, rousting physicians from the depths of slumber. Most were not on call, and therefore not bound by any obligation other than their oaths.
A family had been riddled with bullets -- not just two adults, but two young children and a baby in utero, five months along. That only one died -- the unborn child, perhaps killed instantly -- was something of a miracle.
Forty-nine-year-old Anthony Walker was shot eight times; 6-year-old Anton Walker was shot two times, and was so badly wounded doctors were forced to essentially replace his entire blood supply.
Marisha Walker, 40, was shot four times. Heavenly Walker, also 6, was shot once. As bad as it was, it could have been much worse: Four other children, ages 7 to 14, were elsewhere in the home at the time. The eldest, a 14-year-old girl, called 911.
For four lives to have been saved -- certainly three, anyway -- things had to come together, and quickly, at KMC. There was no room for error.
"The teamwork was incredible -- so methodical, like clockwork," said Dr. Kevin Schmidt, the supervising emergency room physician that night. Doctors Ken Chang, Ruby Skinner, Ray Chung, Shawn Bench, Summer White and Kiemanh Pham, plus nurses, radiologists, anesthesiologists and others, worked for hours to keep those four alive.
But then, they do this kind of thing all the time. Four at once is thankfully uncommon, but gun violence is not.
"It's almost a daily occurrence," Schmidt said, "and they almost always end up at KMC."
KMC gets plenty of recognition -- but not so much for the lives its doctors and nurses save. It's mostly about negative cash flow, physicians' contracts, downsizing of services.
"Some bad-mouthing goes on out there," said Schmidt, who is based at San Joaquin Memorial Hospital and works ER shifts at KMC only once or twice a month. "But people would literally be dying every day here (from criminal violence) if KMC weren't here, as effective as it is."
Schmidt has been on both sides of the gurney at KMC. One day in 1997, he was helping an elderly woman climb out of a passenger seat when the car she was in started rolling forward. Schmidt ran after it, thinking he'd help the driver apply the brakes. But suddenly she jammed the car into reverse, and Schmidt was thrown underneath. One leg was so severely crushed he might have faced amputation had he not received prompt, competent attention (which he initially directed himself, through his agony, at the scene). He was rushed to KMC, where he'd completed his training just the year before. The ER staff saved his leg.
If it seems like a war zone out there, given the regular surges in gang and drug violence, that's because it is. The Walker family shootings weren't the first of the week at KMC, weren't even the first of the night. Another gunshot victim had been saved just a short time before the four Walkers were wheeled in.
Next week at KMC will be very much like last week at KMC. Nobody would be surprised if the next round of gang/drug violence has some connection to these shootings: Anthony Walker has a long criminal record. These crimes come in bunches, and the thugs who carry them out have no apparent qualms about shooting children and pregnant women.
At least there's some humanity is this dreary, ongoing tragedy. It wears a smock.
Reach Robert Price at rprice@bakersfield.com or www.stubblebuzz.com.
