Rio’s Emergency Rooms Have Dealt with Over 1,300 Gunshot Victims This Year

By Arkady Petrov

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Public health facilities in the city of Rio de Janeiro have seen 10,159 victims of gunshot-related injuries since 2017. By April 2019, there were 5,632 gunshot victims assisted in facilities run by the State Health Secretariat and 4,527 facilities under the Municipal Health Secretariat.

This year through April, the state-run network treated seven people shot per day, or one every three hours, totaling 842. Last year and in 2017, there were six gunshot victims per day, or more than two thousand treated per year.

The municipal health network treated five gunshot victims per day through March of this year, or one every four hours, totaling 518. In 2018, there were four gunshot victims per day. In 2017, there were six per day.

Many experts believe that the situation in Rio de Janeiro is comparable to that of some countries at war.

The caliber of guns shooting people coming into emergency facilities are alarming. In many cases, victims are targeted by rifles, 9 mm handguns, and other high-speed weapons.

Health professionals in Rio de Janeiro already know that when shootings take place in nearby areas, the guideline is to enable the multiple victim protocol: surgeons, nurses, stretcher-bearers, and the entire trauma team are put on alert.

These professionals deal with extreme events daily but they are not immune to mental exhaustion. Glauce Correa, an emergency medicine psychologist, alerts that long working hours and direct contact with the results of violence may rattle these professionals.

“When we see an emergency medical professional, any member of the team, often they will not come on their own, they will come referred. And by the time they get here, they’re depressed and anxious. We’ve already seen many with suicidal thoughts,” said Glauce Correa.

Source: G1