Healthcare providers have firsthand experience with the devastating impact firearm injuries and deaths have on individuals, families, and our communities. In a survey of internal medicine physicians, a majority reported having a patient that was injured or killed by a firearm.
For that reason, Public Health is joining with leading medical professional associations to form a new collaboration with a renewed commitment to decrease firearm-related injury and deaths by working together and using a public health approach.
Last year, 14,373 people died in King County. The King County Medical Examiner’s Office (MEO) investigated those deaths that were sudden, unexpected or unnatural – 2,494* in total. But, the count of life lost is more than a number. By tracking and analyzing different manners of death as well as trends in homicides, traffic fatalities, […]
Our health officer, Dr. Jeff Duchin, recently wrote a Seattle Times op-ed demanding more national and local effort to address gun violence. He wrote the article following the devastating mass shooting in Orlando, but gun violence is much more than mass shootings – it includes suicides, homicides, assaults and unintentional deaths that involve a firearm […]
Since 2003, not a single child in King County has died from a helmet-preventable bicycle injury. What helped lead to this victory? King County’s Child Death Review – a collaborative effort to identify opportunities and interventions that prevent children from dying. As the ‘doctor’ for the community, we are responsible for looking at broad trends […]
