Repairing Wounds, Addressing Trauma

Pediatric surgeon Mikael Petrosyan, MD, MBA, often meets them in the operating room. “The first thing I see is innocence,” he says. “If the child is awake, I see despair in their eyes. Wounds may shatter a kid’s body, but it also shatters their life.” 

Surgeons and hospital staff can repair physical damage but not always. The youngest child Dr. Petrosyan operated on was a 6-year-old boy who did not survive. The patients are mostly boys, occasionally girls. Elementary school students. Middle school kids. A freshman in high school with big dreams.  

“Injuries related to gun violence cast a grim shadow that lingers over a child’s psychological and emotional life. That shadow extends to their families and perhaps their entire community,” Dr. Petrosyan says. The emotional burden also extends to the orchestra of hospital staff and first responders working to save lives. 

All of this is why Dr. Petrosyan believes it’s vital to support community outreach efforts, such as the Youth Violence Intervention Program. “As a surgeon, I do my best to repair the physical damage. But this team’s job — earning the trust of these kids and working to help them repair the psychological damage and break the cycle of violence — is a lot harder and critically important.  

“Philanthropy makes a difference. The return on investment is the well-being of children in our community. Each of them is important.”