Rep. Ruppersberger Introduces Bill Based On Shock Trauma Program For Recovering Shooting Victims
BALTIMORE (WJZ) — Not everyone gunned down in Baltimore is a deliberate target. Sometimes the wrong person is attacked.
Keith Breeden was shot because he was driving the same kind of car a man targeted for murder was driving.
"At that minute, my life changed forever, after 45 years of living in and around the city," He said.
Staff at the University of Maryland's Shock Trauma Center saved Breeden's life.
Violence often brings people here, according to Dr. Thomas Scalia.
"Anybody who thinks violence isn't a huge issue in Baltimore is nuts," Dr. Scalia said.
At Shock Trauma, a victim saved once is at increased risk of being attacked again. So, the Center developed a program to reduce that risk.
Recovering patients are something of a captive audience, giving the program's staff an opportunity to offer help.
"Patients receive a bedside evaluation for needs ranging groceries to bus money, and the program connects patients to job training, housing support and substance abuse," said Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger, (D-2nd District).
Rep. Ruppersberger is introducing a bill based on the program that helped Breeden.
"For me, it was a change in address," Breeden said. "Then the help with setting up a place I could maintain on my own,"
Ruppersberger's bill would take what Shock Trauma is doing and fund similar programs at other hospitals around the country. For Breeden, who was left disabled by the shooting, the program helped him during and after his time there.
"And that was the biggest help for me, that I wasn't by myself," Breeden said.