And Yet Here We Are

A tragedy unfolded in my ICU. Lives were lost, and many more were shattered. Members of my ICU team were zip tied and had to face the nightmare of potentially their last breath on earth as they had to stare back, defenseless, at the barrel of a deadly weapon. And while people will look for someone to blame, the reality is this: the system is failing all of us. Healthcare is broken.

This poignant and despairing doctor’s statement appeared on social media this past Sunday afternoon, the day after a tragic shooting in his intensive care unit left two people dead - a young police officer and the shooter - five others injured, and everyone in that ICU and hospital traumatized.

This tragedy took place within a 40-minute drive from Someone To Tell It To’s office. Some of us know medical professionals who have worked there. We’ve certainly known patients who have been treated there. 

The events are gripping our region, as they should, and causing so many to question what can be done to prevent such terrible acts of retribution and violence.

Here is more of what the doctor went on to write about the tragedy and the system. His experienced words are more powerful than any we can compose:

It fails patients and families by leaving them without the mental health resources, guidance, and social support they need in their darkest moments. And at the end of it all, it is the patient, the family, and the entire community that suffers most.

I spoke with the very man who did this act, interacting with him multiple days. I was there when we delivered the worst news imaginable to him—that his loved one was gone. I saw his devastation first hand. In that moment, I truly did not see a monster. He was simply broken. Just the day prior, my colleague and I shared our own personal memories of experience of loss with this man. We developed a human connection as he showed us pictures of his loved one, an engagement gift of a beautiful pink and white necklace and watch, which I thanked him for sharing and he thanked me for sharing mine. I would have never imagined or expected him to do something like this. But grief, exhaustion, isolation, and a lack of mental health and social support services create cracks that people fall through. And when they do, the consequences can be catastrophic.

No one should feel so unheard or unsupported that they resort to violence. No nurse, no doctor, no provider should have to fear for their life at work. And yet, here we are.

Separated by social, political, and economical deficiencies of the human struggle, we are weak. But when we all work together and come together to support one another we remain strong and continue to grow and make this community a better place. 

Someone To Tell It To is committed to making certain that no one is unheard, left to suffer alone, without a safe place to give voice to their grief, their devastation, their pain. 

The task is daunting. The need is beyond real. The solution - greater, deeper human connection and intentionally listening to one another to foster it - works. It prevents tragic acts of violence like the one that happened so close to home                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             . 

But until we recognize as a culture that loneliness and disconnection is real, that too many people suffer alone, and that we have been created for connection and not isolation, we will continue to say:

and yet here we are.

Because, unless we strive to become more relationally and emotionally connected with one another, to support and empathize with one another, we will continue to threaten and harm one another in utterly destructive and horrific ways. 

We can - and must - begin to diminish that violent cycle now, so that never again will we need to proclaim …

… and yet here we are.

Photo by Ante Samarzija on Unsplash