Six-year-old Willie Young was nervous at first, but he warmed up quickly to trauma surgeon Dr. Molly Dean.
"I don't know if you remember when you first arrived, but I was the doctor who saw you. Do you remember? No," Dean prompted the little boy.
"I was really impressed. You were so calm. You were really concerned with how your mom was doing that night," she continued.
Young survived a drive-by gunshot wound to the chest. On Saturday, he shared a lunch with Dean, the trauma surgeon who came to his rescue that night in the ER.
Fourteen patients were honored at the luncheon at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. The purpose of the event was for trauma survivors to meet the doctors who saved their lives.
"Our immediate job everyday is to save lives. But, having someone's life be meaningful, (to) talk about playing sports, just makes it so much more rewarding," Dean said.
HIPPA laws prohibit emergency response doctors from following up with patients like Ruben Marin, whose leg was amputated last year after he was shot in the shin in Harbor City.
U.S. & World
"I didn't know what to think,” Marin recalled. My first thought that went through my head is, ‘Am I going to be able to play baseball again?’"
The answer was yes.
For the survivors, life goes on, but the doctors are often unaware of what happened to their patients. In this rare moment, their doctors get to know more about that life.
Tonight, Marin is heading to prom.
Young is practicing for his next game of wheelchair hoops.
