NORFOLK, Va. — As crime increases across Hampton Roads, so does the number of patients entering the trauma center at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital.
“Violence is a disease just like anything else,” said Doctor Jay Collins, the medical director for Sentara Norfolk General Hospital’s trauma center.
Dr. Collins said the hospital has noticed a huge uptick in violent-related injuries over the last three years. Most of these injuries are gunshot wounds.
In 2019, the hospital cared for 328 people that were shot. That number jumped to 530 in 2021.
As for 2022 so far, the hospital has seen more than 60 people with gunshot wounds in just two months.
“Quite honest, the winter months — January, February — tend to be our slower months," Dr. Collins said. "Our busy months are the summer months in terms of everything we do for trauma.”
Dr. Collins says most of these patients are people less than 30 years old.
As the hospital prepares for what's to come, its FORESIGHT Program aims to get patients back on their feet. The program supports victims of violence and their families by providing them with resources to start a new way of life.
“We’re not here to, as they used to say ‘just treat and street,’ just send them back to the same things,” said team coordinator Stephen Williams.
Williams says the program supports victims up to a year after they leave the hospital. As crime ramps up, they are seeing an influx of patients, which brings a challenge.
“That’s a huge issue of building that rapport and being able to stay in contact with patients," he said. "There are some people that we do lose contact with after they discharge from the hospital.”
Williams said that challenge won't stop the efforts to get victims the help they need.
“Someone from the Foresight Program is here 365 days a year. So, we are able to continue to try to build a rapport, get the people the opportunity, and connect them with resources as soon as they come in.”