Roy Guerrero, MD, a pediatrician who tended to children after the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, just gave an absolutely gutting testimony before the US House Oversight and Reform Committee.
Witnesses included parents of victims as well as a fourth grade student at Robb Elementary School, Miah Cerrillo, who stayed alive by smearing her classmates' blood over her body. But Dr. Guerrero's unique perspective of being the person who had the job of treating children, many who he could not save, was just heart-wrenching to hear.
He began by talking about the horror of the day. As a pediatrician in the community for many years, he knew many of the children he treated since they were babies. That includes Miah Cerrillo.
Guerrero says that he saw Miah's parents in the hospital and ran to them to let them know their daughter was alive. But he couldn't do the same for so many other parents.
He also gave an absolutely horrific description of having the horror of seeing what the murdered children's bodies looked like, having been ripped completely apart by bullets. Some of them, he said, had been decapitated.
The doctor pleaded with politicians to start saving the children whom he, as a doctor, cannot. "Making sure our children are safe from guns, that's the job of our politicians … you are the doctors and our country is a patient," he implored them. "We are lying on the operating table riddled with bullets like the children of Robb Elementary."
Just after Guerrero spoke, Miah Cerrillo gave her testimony via a video. She described the horror of the day from her own perspective. Her father, who appeared in person, shared his thoughts on gun reform and said his daughter will never be the same.
