The Nevada State Medical Association (NSMA) is a nonprofit agency representing doctors in the state. After the mass shooting in Las Vegas on Sunday night, NSMA Executive Director Catherine O’Mara says she received many calls from around the country from medical and trauma groups offering to help. The first call she received Monday morning was from her counterpart in Connecticut, who wanted to share what the medical community in that state had learned from the 2012 Sandy Hook mass shooting in Newtown.
“They really stressed the importance of this ongoing emphasis on the mental health aspects,” O’Mara explains. “And not just mental health aspects of the victims and their families which is very important, we need to make sure we have some services in place. But our first responders are going to need some support and people who attended the event and who weren’t physically injured are going to need support.”
A deluge of more than 500 injured patients flooded Las Vegas area hospitals after Sunday’s mass shooting. On Monday, Governor Brian Sandoval signed an executive order declaring a public health and medical disaster, so the medical community in Nevada can get the help they need from out of state.