San Jose surgeon adding 'gun' to his medical tools
SAN JOSE, Calif. (KGO) -- Dr. Victor McCray is a trauma surgeon at Regional Medical Center of San Jose. He routinely sees accident victims and handles a lot of stab and gunshot wounds. But in a few weeks, when he's not on duty there, he'll be carrying a gun and joining the Santa Clara County's Special Response Team, or SERT.
"I'm the type of person that pulls over to the side of the road when there's a car accident to provide medical care if needed. So, extending my medical care of the community outside of the four walls of the hospital is something that I've always been interested in doing," said McCray.
An eight-member unit known as the Gold Team, the tactical medical team, is made up of volunteer doctors, surgeons, chiropractors, paramedics and EMT's who are either reserve or full deputy sheriffs.
In Dr. McCray's case, he has taken the full training to be a reserve deputy and will be on-call. With that training, he can protect himself or others while rendering medical care.
The goal is to eliminate a time gap when EMT's can't enter an active shooter situation. Delays can jeopardize survival. The medical team is there for victims, suspects and officers.
"The CERT tactical medical team is there to fill that gap so we can try to respond more quickly to patients, treat them and get them out if possible," explained Rick Chaeff, D.C., the tactical medical team leader.
Dr. McCray says his training to stay calm under stress in the hospital will serve him well in the field. And he expects to get some ribbing, and perhaps some criticism, for wearing a gun. "Yes, I anticipate receiving a lot of criticism potentially because of that. However, again, my role is primarily in a medical support role. I'm not there primary as a tactical person on the SERT term," he said.
After having gone through most of the training to become a reserve deputy sheriff, Dr. McCray says if he were to turn the clock back, he might have considered a different career. But now he can blend both of these careers together.
