Colorado Tragedy

[Meenah]

I'm putting this in debates, just in case. I feel so sorry for the public defender assigned to this case.She looks shell shocked.

[weeniegeniewife]

I was thinking the same thing.

[Deebs]

We know one of the docs that happened to be working in the Aurora ED. She's been great with the media, but behind the scenes is really, really struggling. DH and I listened to the 911 transcripts as he is always revising his hospitals' mass casualty response plans. We just sobbed. For as much that went right in the aftermath, there was just so much chaos. Can you imagine patients showing up badly injured to the hospital in the back of a police car? As for the defender, I think it takes such a unique person to hold that position in any case, but especially something like this.

[scrub-jay]

The community is rocked. There are two degrees of separation to the victims and it is hard. There is no understanding senseless murders, and it is so hard to process. I've honestly been avoiding news about it, it is overload here. DH was at University (Hospital) on Friday and the whole hospital was reeling, especially when the news announced it was a "med student" to blame.

[SuzySunshine]

I don't understand how a graduate student in the neuroscience department keeps getting construed as a med student. That is frustrating to me. I get that the labs are part of the med school, but he's not a med student. DH still hasn't been able to contact his friend that is a grad student there, maybe he's on vacation or something because he hasn't answered his e-mail, or maybe he just doesn't want to talk about it. A friend posted this on fb this morning, a good story after all of the tragedy.
http://bstrait.wordpress.com/2012/07...victims-story/

[Deebs]

We were told that it's not uncommon to do a PhD there and be able to start med school classes as a PhD student and then apply to med school. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong. So, he was a PhD candidate taking med school classes

[scrub-jay]

We were told that it's not uncommon to do a PhD there and be able to start med school classes as a PhD student and then apply to med school. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong. So, he was a PhD candidate taking med school classes

I'll check with DH on this, but I highly doubt it. They've been changing the structure of how classes are taught and moving toward small group cohort style and away from large lectures. DH was only in classes with fellow med students with the exception of some ethics and related courses where other professional students are intermingled in (Nursing, Pharmacy, PT). The reason he was misconstrued as a "med student" is because the media is ignorant. Here, the medical school, University & Children's hospitals, pharmacy, nursing, PT, & PhD programs are all on the "Anschutz Medical Campus" so because he was a student on the "medical campus" the media jumped to "med student".

ETA: The only med students who knew him were those who had neuro research projects on the side or who were MD/PHDs. There really isn't a lot of contact.

[oceanchild]

^ What she said. The med campus is separate from the other university campuses, so that's sort of where people jumped. I've heard that all the entering advanced biomedical students (PhDs) take classes together, but I think the med school classes are separate.

As to the public defenders, they have both worked on some really high-profile murder cases before. Not that that makes it easy, but I'm sure they're used to it.

The guy lived <1 mile from me, and I just keep thinking about how little I know about my immediate neighbors, y'know?

[houseelf]

I'm strangely comforted by the fact that someone started a thread about this. We have become so desensitized to violence in our society that school shootings with "only" one or two victims barely make national news. (This is not a commentary inviting the second amendment gun debate...just a sad observation of our society).

Last week I dropped off my 12.5 year old and three 13 year old boys off at the theater for the first time sans parents. I know we can't let evil deter our lives but I will definitely be thinking about this incident before doing this again.

My heart just breaks for the victims, their families, and the entire community.

Finally, God bless the public defenders of the world. Seriously, what a thankless, important job.

[Curegirl]

I'm strangely comforted by the fact that someone started a thread about this. We have become so desensitized to violence in our society that school shootings with "only" one or two victims barely make national news. (This is not a commentary inviting the second amendment gun debate...just a sad observation of our society).

Last week I dropped off my 12.5 year old and three 13 year old boys off at the theater for the first time sans parents. I know we can't let evil deter our lives but I will definitely be thinking about this incident before doing this again.

My heart just breaks for the victims, their families, and the entire community.

Finally, God bless the public defenders of the world. Seriously, what a thankless, important job.

Amen to that. A close friend of mine is the public defender for a high profile case out here and it's amazing how he's able to keep it together.

[madeintaiwan]

Finally, God bless the public defenders of the world. Seriously, what a thankless, important job.

My cousin in law has been a public defender for about 8 years now. I have some serious respect for him.