Vitals Spotlight – We Give the Doctor an Exam

Dr. Dustin Ballard

The tragic Binghamton shooting, which occurred April third claiming thirteen lives and leaving two seriously wounded, is the most recent mass murder committed in our country. Dr. Dustin Ballard, an emergency physician in Northern California, advocates treating gun violence as a health issue rather than a political one.

“Experts in the field have long argued that bullets should be viewed as pathogens- like bacteria or tumors.  If one views the problem through this lens, targeted restrictions are preventative medicine, rather than an affront on personal liberty,” he asserts in his Medically Clear Column which appears in the “Marin Independent Journal” published in Marin County, California.

According to Vitals, Dr. Ballard received his MD from the University of Pennsylvania and completed his residency training in emergency medicine at UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, California.  As an emergency doctor he treated countless victims of violent crimes and the devastation left him marked forever.  He poured his feelings into a book, The Bullet’s Yaw: Reflections on Violence, Healing and an Unforgettable Stranger, which was published in December of 2007.

This book is a memoir of one of his patients who taught him about life, violence and healing. During a vengeful rampage a deranged security guard fired a bullet into a truck. The bullet’s path deviated, instead entering his patient and causing massive injuries. The phenomenon, which ballistics experts refer to as “the bullet’s yaw,” is the perfect metaphor illustrating the randomness of violence and its tragic toll on innocent victims here and all over the world.

Learn more about Dr. Dustin Ballard for Free.

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Tags: crimes, Dr. Dustin Ballard, emergency doctor, gun, healing, Healing Power, health, life, murder, victim, violence, vitals

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 21st, 2009 at 12:08 pm and is filed under Doctors In The Media, Healing Power. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.