:00:06. > :00:14.see first-hand the consequences of gun violence. Viewer's may find
:00:15. > :00:20.some images in this programme unsettling.
:00:20. > :00:26.Los Angeles, California. Wealthy, glamourous, home to the world's
:00:26. > :00:33.entertainment industry. It's also the state with the highest gun
:00:33. > :00:41.murder rate in America. It's happening every day. A mother. A
:00:41. > :00:46.father. Children. All due to gun violence. We have been getting
:00:46. > :00:52.unique access to one of the busiest emergency trauma clinics in the
:00:52. > :00:58.country. They get a constant stream of gunshot wound victims coming
:00:58. > :01:04.through the door here. The city is home to over 400 gangs, with more
:01:04. > :01:14.than 40,000 members. The outcomes are very simple, and there are only
:01:14. > :01:38.
:01:38. > :01:46.two. Either you go to prison for Los Angeles County General. A state
:01:46. > :01:51.funded hospital in impoverished east LA. It serves the area's Paul,
:01:51. > :01:55.and insured, and largely Latino population. Its pioneering trauma
:01:55. > :02:00.unit is classed as Level 1. This means it provides the highest level
:02:00. > :02:04.of surgical care to the most seriously injured. Those treated
:02:04. > :02:10.here have a 25% greater chance of survival than at an ordinary
:02:10. > :02:14.hospital. I'm a survivor of multiple gunshot injuries myself
:02:14. > :02:21.after being shot six times by terrorists in Saudi Arabia in 2004.
:02:21. > :02:25.My cameraman, Simon Cumbers, was killed. Now I have come to witness
:02:25. > :02:29.how this trauma unit in LA, and its patients, I impacted by the
:02:29. > :02:37.violence brought in from the surrounding streets. -- are
:02:37. > :02:43.impacted. How much do you know about this one
:02:43. > :02:52.already? A gunshot wound to the buttock, which is considered... a
:02:52. > :02:55.gunshot wound to the torso. Midnight and a casualty is coming
:02:55. > :03:05.in. It's a gunshot victim with potentially life-threatening
:03:05. > :03:17.
:03:17. > :03:22.injuries. The trauma team is The man has been shot several times
:03:22. > :03:29.in the lower body. He is conscious and talking. He tells the trauma
:03:30. > :03:36.team he was shocked the 4th. He is what they call a frequent flyer --
:03:36. > :03:42.shot before. Won in the thigh, one by the groin and one in the back.
:03:42. > :03:46.That's basically all I have got. This is the second gunshot wound
:03:46. > :03:50.victim to be brought in tonight, it is just after midnight. This one is
:03:50. > :03:58.fairly stable, but he has five pull it wins and they are attending to
:03:58. > :04:03.them now. -- pull it wounds. Crucially he hasn't been shot in
:04:03. > :04:06.the abdomen, which means he won't need major surgery this evening. He
:04:06. > :04:14.will be patched up and he will go to a ward and not the operating
:04:14. > :04:17.room. The next day, we arrive at the
:04:17. > :04:24.hospital just after two more of gunshot wound victims have been
:04:24. > :04:28.brought in. -- Two more gunshot wound. Upstairs in the operating
:04:28. > :04:34.theatre, Critical Care surgeon Kenji Inaba is working on one of
:04:34. > :04:38.them. There's another one here. What's that, 8? An unidentified
:04:38. > :04:44.male in a serious condition after being shot just an hour ago.
:04:44. > :04:49.think there's another couple down here as well. Two separate gunshot
:04:49. > :04:53.wounds, probably fired very close together in time, hitting him at
:04:53. > :04:57.two separate spots. Impossible to tell if it went from this side to
:04:57. > :05:03.the back for this side up. They are detecting where all the bullets
:05:03. > :05:08.Arnaud. I have to say, this is both weird and fascinating for me. This
:05:08. > :05:15.is pretty much how I would have been brought in, scooped up off the
:05:15. > :05:19.streets nine years ago when I was shot. But once you get over the
:05:19. > :05:21.initial... kind of, goriness of this, and it is, it is pretty
:05:21. > :05:31.grisly to look at, it's extraordinary how quickly they
:05:31. > :05:32.
:05:32. > :05:36.operate. The real goal is to ask the question, is there any active
:05:36. > :05:40.bleeding? There's a fair amount of blood in there. The next goal is to
:05:40. > :05:45.find out what else is injured. We can take our time and protect what
:05:45. > :05:50.else is injured. He looks pretty good at the moment. We have a bit
:05:50. > :05:58.of time now. We're going to take a very careful look at all of the
:05:58. > :06:03.bowel to see where all the bullets are.
:06:03. > :06:08.We invited to a reunion for the trauma Team's most regular
:06:09. > :06:13.survivors, with a whole variety of injuries. Dr Demetrios Demetriades,
:06:13. > :06:18.the man to whom many over their lives, has been head of trauma here
:06:18. > :06:24.for over 20 years. Good day, good morning, how are you? Everything
:06:24. > :06:28.all right? Wonderful, thank you. What is the latest? Advances in
:06:28. > :06:32.surgical techniques and the creation of Level 1 trauma centres
:06:32. > :06:39.like this has significantly improved outcomes for gunshot wound
:06:39. > :06:48.victims. Are you doing physiotherapy? Nothing OK. Where is
:06:48. > :06:53.the pain? My abdomen.It is our pleasure. It is an area I have come
:06:53. > :06:57.to learn about through my own experiences. Patients who have been
:06:57. > :07:02.brought in here, after being shot in East LA, in the old days they
:07:02. > :07:06.would operate and do some major surgery in the first 24 hours. Now
:07:06. > :07:10.more of them are living because you are stabilising and damage
:07:10. > :07:15.controlling them. Yes, in the past you would spend hours and hours in
:07:15. > :07:19.the operating room trying to the definitive final repair. And, of
:07:19. > :07:24.course, the patient would fix everything and then the patient
:07:24. > :07:30.would die a few hours later. Now we have learned to move in stages.
:07:30. > :07:35.First, we stop the bleeding. We leave the abdomen open and we fix
:07:35. > :07:39.the physiology of the patient, we stayed there lays them to normal,
:07:39. > :07:43.the blood Kulacz delays and costs again -- we stabilised. That is
:07:43. > :07:48.normally 36 hours later. Then you can go to the operating room for
:07:48. > :07:54.the definitive repair. It makes a huge difference for ab injuries,
:07:54. > :07:58.chest injuries, vascular injury is. These are the notes that they made
:07:58. > :08:06.from my time in hospital in trauma in Saudi Arabia dashed vascular
:08:06. > :08:12.injuries. In Saudi Arabia your temperature was 30 degrees. You
:08:12. > :08:17.were in DSE, that means that your blood was not putting any more. To
:08:17. > :08:23.start with, the temperature of 30 degrees... your chances of survival
:08:23. > :08:30.are really, really very small. I'm very pleased and you are lucky that
:08:30. > :08:35.you are alive at this stage. Certainly the surgeon did a
:08:35. > :08:38.phenomenal job. You were really physiologically... you are what we
:08:38. > :08:48.call in extremist. In extreme this means that at any minute you're
:08:48. > :08:52.
:08:52. > :08:58.going to die -- in extremist. Back at the reunion, and for some
:08:58. > :09:07.the celebration is in full swing. Unexpectedly light entertainment
:09:07. > :09:12.for the families of survivors. One man here, Greg Supernova, is
:09:12. > :09:17.especially grateful to the surgeons who saved him. I just got out of
:09:17. > :09:23.school and went to go visit a friend. Got out of my truck. That's
:09:23. > :09:28.all I remember. Woke up in the hospital. Wow!! You don't remember
:09:28. > :09:32.anyone coming up? I had seven gunshot wounds. Where were they?
:09:32. > :09:40.One straight through my heart, won through my shoulder. Through the
:09:40. > :09:45.heart? Yes. Then I got two in one leg, two in another leg, won
:09:45. > :09:53.through my private area and I got grazed on my arm, on my wrist. I
:09:53. > :09:58.was in hospital on -- for 21 days, I got out on Fourth of July and
:09:58. > :10:08.then I got kidney stones. I have had that, they are so painful.
:10:08. > :10:16.
:10:16. > :10:23.know. Have you got these super?I have. That is exactly what mind
:10:23. > :10:29.looks like. We are just comparing zippers. They are very good.This
:10:29. > :10:35.is the garden zipper. It is a pale shadow compared. I like that one
:10:35. > :10:39.better. I was open for seven months. Yours will look like that in a
:10:39. > :10:49.couple of years. It's great that you made such a good recovery. Well
:10:49. > :10:55.
:10:55. > :11:00.What are the injuries? A gunshot wound to the lower extremities and
:11:00. > :11:05.one to the lower torso. This is not an exceptional evening. This
:11:05. > :11:08.hospital sees a quarter of all the 2,500 surviving than shock win
:11:08. > :11:18.victims brought in each year in the wider LA area. Most young men
:11:18. > :11:33.
:11:33. > :11:43.caught up in gang warfare -- Dr Leo Rodriguez is in charge of
:11:43. > :11:48.
:11:48. > :11:57.the students here. Does your belly hurt? This guy has been brought in
:11:57. > :12:02.off the streets, he has been shot once through the Emmy. This is
:12:02. > :12:06.typical late at night. -- knee. They are going to scan him, do some
:12:06. > :12:13.X-rays and do whatever they need to do tonight. He was brought in by
:12:13. > :12:20.the police. He is not so much, but we are told he fits the profile of
:12:20. > :12:25.a gang member. Did he identify the people who shot him? No, he is not
:12:25. > :12:31.being Co-Operative. Oh, really? He is being very co-operative with
:12:31. > :12:37.them. They are not the police.Has he been shot before? Yes, twice
:12:37. > :12:42.before. It leaves us in a difficult circumstances. It is normally an
:12:42. > :12:47.internal think where they will take care of it themselves. Dr Rodriguez
:12:47. > :12:51.is a serving US Navy medic. The hospital gets to use his vital
:12:51. > :12:56.skills and in return he trains a rolling succession of made the
:12:56. > :13:00.servicemen and women on the job. Dr Rodriguez, you spend most of last
:13:00. > :13:06.year in Afghanistan at Kandahar Airfield, a place I visited quite a
:13:06. > :13:10.few times -- you spend. How is what you saw their comparing to the
:13:10. > :13:15.injuries you see here? There's no way to recreate what they are going
:13:15. > :13:18.to see on the battlefield and what they are going to be expected to
:13:18. > :13:22.two. But the tremendous gap in what they are trained on in the
:13:22. > :13:28.classroom and what they see, this will bridge that gap. You can get
:13:28. > :13:31.as close as you can hear. This is as close as they can get. The NAB
:13:31. > :13:37.has chosen this hospital because it treats people coming from the most
:13:37. > :13:41.dangerous parts of California -- the Navy. Yeah, absolutely. That's
:13:41. > :13:46.one of the most important parts of it. As a military man, as a Navy
:13:46. > :13:50.doctor, are you shocked by the kind of violence people are committing
:13:50. > :13:54.on each other in the civilian population in Los Angeles? You must
:13:54. > :13:59.as seen some horrific injuries? have been here for ten years and
:13:59. > :14:02.you see quite a bit. I am getting used to it. It is still shocking.
:14:02. > :14:06.People get themselves into trouble and they get traumatically injured
:14:06. > :14:10.and I don't think they deserved it, but they are caught in the
:14:10. > :14:20.crossfire. And some are as a result of the life choices they have made
:14:20. > :14:25.
:14:25. > :14:31.and they have found themselves to Not everyone pulls through. A short
:14:31. > :14:39.distance from the hospital, I went to visit a mother, the de seven-
:14:40. > :14:49.year-old Lorraine Morland. -- 57- year-old. The song, My daughter
:14:50. > :14:52.
:14:52. > :15:02.road, because it was very difficult for her to accept the death of her
:15:02. > :15:10.
:15:10. > :15:16.brother. He was such a good boy. Just a loving kid. She has lost two
:15:16. > :15:21.sons to gun violence. She will never forget the first phone call.
:15:21. > :15:27.I am thinking, you do not think that your son is dying. You think
:15:27. > :15:35.that it will be all right. That is my baby, my son, my boy. Mind these
:15:36. > :15:45.calls me, and I'm getting ready to go. -- my it Neeson. She says,
:15:46. > :15:46.
:15:46. > :15:56.these words to me, Auntie, that he did not make it. You did not get to
:15:56. > :16:05.the hospital in time? No.Do you know who shot him? No, we still did
:16:06. > :16:14.not know who did it. My son was 28. It happened again? Yes, it happened
:16:14. > :16:18.again with my other son. He got shot and he died. He was at a
:16:18. > :16:22.friend's house in a bad neighbourhood, but he was raised in
:16:22. > :16:27.that neighbourhood, he was raised in the quad, he wore died days in
:16:27. > :16:34.the neighbourhood, so they knew everybody. You are part of a
:16:35. > :16:38.campaign, Mothers Against Violence. Are you making progress? I think so.
:16:38. > :16:42.When I first came into the programme, I thought I was the only
:16:42. > :16:52.one going through that, until I realised that this happens every
:16:52. > :16:57.
:16:57. > :17:01.day. Mothers and fathers losing their children due to gun violence.
:17:01. > :17:11.Miguel of Wideroe was lucky. He was targeted by gains on his own
:17:11. > :17:12.
:17:12. > :17:18.doorstep. He has had an incredibly narrow escape. He saw somebody from
:17:19. > :17:28.the forest. Four shots. He ran and died, took one in the cheek and one
:17:28. > :17:38.on the back of the neck. Did you know who they were? Random people?
:17:38. > :17:44.
:17:44. > :17:49.Can you feel any sensation in your feet? Miguel's distraught mother
:17:49. > :17:55.watched helpless. She tells me she was standing outside her home,
:17:55. > :17:57.playing with her three-year-old daughter, when suddenly a back -- a
:17:57. > :18:05.black car drove by and the passengers started shooting
:18:05. > :18:10.randomly at her son. What year is it? Who is the President? This is
:18:10. > :18:13.the reality of daily gun crime in the US. A drive-by shooting like
:18:14. > :18:19.this is never going to make the headlines like the big recent
:18:19. > :18:22.massacres, but in the few days that we have been in this hospital, we
:18:22. > :18:27.have seen a constant stream of gunshot wound hospitals --
:18:27. > :18:37.casualties, because many are caught in the crossfire of a gang ward
:18:37. > :18:37.
:18:37. > :18:42.that is being fought on the streets just outside his hospital.
:18:42. > :18:45.Following recent mass shootings in the United States, the country is
:18:45. > :18:50.in the midst of one of the most politically divisive debate in its
:18:50. > :18:54.history. Those who believe with almost religious conviction in
:18:55. > :19:04.their right to bear arms, pitted against those who want tighter gun
:19:04. > :19:08.control laws. Broadcaster Piers Morgan, an LA resident who received
:19:08. > :19:15.death threats and a campaign to deport him, after publicly speaking
:19:15. > :19:20.out for tighter gun control, knows it only too well. America has 300
:19:20. > :19:24.million guns in circulation. They are everywhere. You can walk into a
:19:24. > :19:31.ball much store, a store like Tesco's, and you can see racks of
:19:31. > :19:35.guns on the walls. -- a Wal-Mart store. They are that easy to buy.
:19:35. > :19:40.Statistically, most of the gun crime in the US is carried out by
:19:40. > :19:46.criminals, who have got the guns illegally, so gun-control would not
:19:46. > :19:50.stop them. There are various types of gun violence, but collectively,
:19:50. > :19:57.they had the worst gun violence of any of the 23 industrialised,
:19:57. > :20:02.richest countries in the world put together. We have up to 40 gun
:20:02. > :20:07.deaths in a year. America has up to 12,000 gun murders, another 18,000
:20:07. > :20:12.done suicides, 100,000 Americans get hit by gunfire every year, and
:20:12. > :20:16.the only reason the death rate is not a lot higher because of -- is
:20:16. > :20:26.because of the brilliance of the surgeons in the hospitals, who had
:20:26. > :20:27.
:20:27. > :20:31.such sophisticated technology that they can save more lives. Violence
:20:31. > :20:35.on the street involving illegally opened weapons and games will not
:20:35. > :20:45.be solved by gun control a lion. California already has some of the
:20:45. > :20:48.
:20:48. > :20:54.tightest laws in the country. I am on my way to South Central, to meet
:20:54. > :21:04.Alfred Lomas. Also another reformed gang member with a violent history.
:21:04. > :21:10.Now they are taking matters into their own hands. To do what you
:21:10. > :21:16.have got to do. I want you to stand down, is that clear? Now they are
:21:17. > :21:22.working in a community, trying to put others towards a better life.
:21:22. > :21:31.They are training all of these XK members and how to deal escalate a
:21:31. > :21:37.situation, two S stop it getting out of control. -- to stop it. Get
:21:37. > :21:47.away from my school. If you had a gun, we would do it. And do not
:21:47. > :21:58.
:21:58. > :22:04.come back. You are from this neighbourhood. It looks like a
:22:04. > :22:12.pretty normal neighbourhood. Does it change by night? You do not
:22:12. > :22:19.realise that we are in the middle of a war-zone. Gun violence do so
:22:19. > :22:23.mates these communities. 73.9 % of the homicides are by done in these
:22:23. > :22:30.communities, you realise the impact of gun violence. Until we get some
:22:30. > :22:37.control, of not only the weaponry itself, but to use it, we have a
:22:37. > :22:42.serious war that is going to take all our reserves to get in front of.
:22:42. > :22:48.America has an epidemic history, a history of epidemic violence. Los
:22:48. > :22:53.Angeles in the last 25 years, over 25,000 people being killed in gang
:22:53. > :23:00.violence, over 300,000 children under the age of 18 have been shot
:23:00. > :23:06.over the last 18 years. Post- traumatic stress from sustained
:23:06. > :23:10.level of violence. To answer your question, what does gun violence do
:23:10. > :23:20.to a community, it absolutely devastate it. It devastates it on
:23:20. > :23:25.many levels. Out of his guards and back at home with his family, Kenji
:23:25. > :23:32.Inaba reflects what it is like to work in such a life and death
:23:32. > :23:37.environment. The vast majority of our patients are really young. They
:23:37. > :23:42.are otherwise healthy or leading quite normal lives up to the split
:23:42. > :23:46.second they were heard. You have this ability to make an impact,
:23:46. > :23:53.make a difference. It does not always work, but when it does, it
:23:53. > :24:01.all comes together. You can really impact these people. In a split-
:24:01. > :24:06.second, everything changes. You get a chance to do some good. Back in
:24:06. > :24:10.the hospital, I meet a man who has cheated death. Carlos was getting
:24:10. > :24:20.out of his car after finishing work when he was shot with a pistol,
:24:20. > :24:21.
:24:21. > :24:31.stabbed and blasted with a shotgun. My little daughter, I love curve.
:24:31. > :24:32.
:24:32. > :24:40.She can be strong. I am alive. I'm talking to you, right here. Do you
:24:40. > :24:50.think they thought you were dead? Getting shot like that, yes.
:24:50. > :24:54.
:24:54. > :24:58.Getting shot 16 times. 16 times. But I pulled through.
:24:58. > :25:04.The death toll from gun crime in Greater Los Angeles is down by two-
:25:04. > :25:07.thirds from the early 90s. Some attribute this to more effective
:25:07. > :25:12.policing and high rates of incarceration. Others, to the
:25:12. > :25:16.skills of surgeons like the ones we met. But the violence is still
:25:16. > :25:20.unacceptably high to stop in the last 20 years, more people had died
:25:20. > :25:26.on American soil in gun violence than all the US servicemen and