Cradle To Grave Scares Teens Away From Violence

Temple's Trauma Center Sponsors Program

Video: Program Tries To Scare Kids Away From Violence | From Cradle To Grave: Pt. 2

POSTED: 5:56 pm EDT August 9, 2006

UPDATED: 9:13 pm EDT August 9, 2006

PHILADELPHIA -- How can we stop the violence in Philadelphia? One powerful program targets teens who may be heading down the wrong road.

The program is called From Cradle to the Grave: Life and Death in Temple University Hospital's Trauma Bay.

The aftermath of street violence is something most of us don't see. We don't see the teenagers who are shot, rushed to trauma centers and have their chests cut open as doctors work to save their lives.

That is part of what Temple's trauma outreach coordinator Scott Charles shows a group of Philadelphia teenagers who have been accused of, but not convicted of crimes.

To demonstrate to the teens how bad it can get, the trauma team used the case of Lamont Adams who was shot on 27th Street and was rushed to Temple University Hospital's trauma center.

Charles first showed the teens, on a volunteer, where Adams was shot.

"Lamont would have been shot there. He would have been shot there. He would have been shot there. He would have had bullet holes here and here. All in all, they found 23 bullet holes in this 16-year-old young man. This is his grandma's baby. This is Jenny Clark's baby," Charles said.

Next, trauma surgeon Amy Goldberg explained what was done to help Adams.

"This goes in the mouth. We find the windpipe, the trachea, this goes right in there so that we could then breathe for him because he's not breathing at all," Goldberg said. "So we had to take a needle like this and find a big vein and the big vein we found was in the groin. And then he lost his pulse. He was dead for all intents and purposes. To get his heart back, we had to open up his chest."

How does it look when Dr. Goldberg performs a thoracotomy with no time for anesthesia?

"We take a knife and we went between his ribs with the knife," Goldberg said. "To be able to get his heart out, we had to put this in called a rib spreader. His heart had five gunshot wounds to it."

The trauma surgeons at Temple University Hospital are first-rate, but Adams had been shot 23 times. Did he live or die? The answer can be found in part 2 of Cradle to Grave.

PART TWO:

Cradle To Grave: Did Teen Survive?

Teens Shown Video Of Emergency Procedure

POSTED: 8:55 pm EDT August 9, 2006

UPDATED: 9:15 pm EDT August 9, 2006

PHILADELPHIA -- In part one of From The Cradle To The Grave, NBC 10 medical reporter Cherie Bank told the story of a program at Temple University Hospital that shows teens the results of violence.

Trauma center coordinator Scott Charles and trauma surgeon Amy Goldberg told the children the true story of Lamont Adams, who was rushed to the trauma center after being shot 23 times. Did Adams survive? The children are about to find out.

"He was bleeding from his lungs and bleeding from the five holes in his heart, and we were giving him blood and trying to clamp the bleeding holes in his heart, clamp the major vessel that goes from his heart to try to get his blood pressure back, and it didn't come back. And in spite of everything we tried to do, he died," Goldberg said.

There was probably a corner memorial with candles and teddy bears for Adams. That is how many people see the violence in Philadelphia.

"That's not violence. That's a postcard. That's a, 'Was in Philadelphia, glad you're not here,' postcard," Charles told the children.

Charles showed them video of a thoracotomy.

"This is what violence looks like. This is a thoracotomy. This is the procedure that Dr. Goldberg described to you this morning. Are you OK over there, buddy?" Charles asked a shaken attendee.

"But wake up everybody because this is not a big deal. This happens day after day after day, year after year, and it's been going on for too long," Goldberg said.

Adams became just another victim, zipped in a body bag and carted off to a freezer drawer in Temple's morgue.

"It's supposed to hold eight bodies, but we're so busy that we put them head to toe," said a morgue employee.

The teens got toe tags to write down whose hearts would be broken if they became murder victims.

"You have an opportunity right here, right now. You can go home today and conduct yourselves in a way that will guarantee you will never come back here, especially not as a victim of violence," Charles said.

Bank asked 17-year-old Corey Kirby what hit him the hardest.

"When they performed the surgery and the boy still died," Kirby said.

"Do you think something like that could happen to you?" Bank asked Kirby.

"A lot, yeah," Kirby said.

Bank asked 16-year-old Braheim Dixon what he thought he would start doing differently.

"Try not to do the things that I have been doing," Dixon said.

Evelena Williams, 12, said she was really going to try to stay out of trouble.

"I don't want to end up like the people here that got shot and died," William said.

Temple said it wants to expand its program to even younger children, hoping their message gets through.