LOUISVILLE, Ky. — In a record year for gun violence in Louisville, we hear it almost daily: the victim sustained 'non-life-threatening injuries.'
It’s a term used loosely in crime reports, often followed by the idea it wasn't as serious as others. But that’s far from the truth if you ask the trauma surgeons, the rehabilitation doctors and survivors.
"The volume is heartbreaking, there's no doubt about it," University of Louisville Hospital trauma surgeon Dr. Keith Miller said.
Last year, more than 300 gunshot victims who were treated at UofL Hospital were under the age of 21. Of those cases, 85 were minors. Dr. Miller said the majority of gunshot victims are young men.
Louisville’s homicide rate reached 100 before we hit July of 2021. It's a fraction of the shootings that have injured hundreds of others.
"One in five of the patients shot will die as a result of their injury," Dr. Miller said. "That means four out of five will potentially live with the consequences of their injuries."
He says, on average, around 20% of patients are shot in the head and neck region.
"Those can result in significant brain injuries, spinal cord injuries, paraplegia, quadriplegia," Dr. Miller said. "When you categorize that as a non-life threatening injury, that is a threat to their life every day for the rest of their life."
Dr. Miller said of the patients who survive, about 10-15% will need in-patient rehabilitation for weeks if not months.
"Some folks will never live independently again," Miller said.
The average stay at Frazier Rehab Institute in Louisville is anywhere from two to six weeks, but these injuries can alter lives forever.
"We are a critical part of that process. We have people who won’t be able to walk again," director for the spinal cord injury program at Frazier Rehab Dr. Camilo Castillo said. "Patients only understand about 60% at that time. There's so much going on that when they come here, they're completely clueless, and more often than not, I ask, do you understand what happened to you and they say, 'no.'"
Dr. Castillo's treated hundreds of patients whose lives have been changed by a single bullet.
"We cry with them. We laugh with them. We keep it real," Dr. Castillo said.
One of his patients is 22-year-old Mirsad Sadikovic. He spends three days a week at Frazier’s fitness center, building up strength and motivation.
"To this day, I still struggle but I push myself to do it," Sadikovic said.
It happened four years ago at a Louisville hookah bar. Sadikovic was waiting for friends to arrive when a man he'd started talking to shot him.
"It was exactly right here," Sadikovic described, pointing to his upper chest. "Went down, through my lung, hit my spine and out my back. All I remember was looking at the ceiling and saying, 'why?' And tasting gun powder, because I was shot from point blank range."
It severed his spine in the middle of his back, leaving him without feeling, from the belly button down. He's confined most hours of the day to a wheelchair.
"But lately, I’ve been gaining feeling in my abdomen and lower hips," Sadikovic said.
He'd like to think it's a promising note that this may not be forever. In the meantime, he still maintains a sense of humor.
"When I go on airplanes, I’m the first one on," he smiled.
He's one of thousands of survivors in Louisville facing many battles ahead.
Dr. Castillo tells his patients, "it's not the end of your life, but the beginning of a new one."
►Contact reporter Brooke Hasch at bhasch@whas11.com. Follow her on Twitter (@WHAS11Hasch) and Facebook.
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