NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — Five of the six victims from Monday’s shooting at the Covenant School were rushed to Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC). Despite the dedicated first responders and a team of trauma surgeons working feverishly to do everything they could, those victims did not survive. 

“All of us have reached out to each other multiple times over the past 24 hours… We understand this is our job. The great individuals I work with every day, we were all on the call,” said Dr. Alex Jahangir, the medical director for the Center for Trauma, Burn and Emergency Surgery.

According to Jahangir, the Regional Medical Communications Center is where EMS traffic comes in — including the call about the school shooting on Monday, March 27 — so the emergency department staff can prepare for what is to come.

“Being a level one trauma center, it’s very important to always have a mass casualty plan,” Jahangir said. “And we really overhauled it about six or seven years ago when we had the shooting at Las Vegas.” 

This overhaul allowed VUMC to prepare for the inevitable.

The orthopedic surgeon was working on the trauma floor on Monday morning.

“People that know me know I’m a father of three young kids,” the doctor added. “Some of the people who were impacted, I knew personally. This is close to home.”

However, he said Nashville is a strong community, which he’s seen firsthand after working on many mass casualties in his 14 years at Vanderbilt.  

“We will continue to be a strong Nashville, and we will come around and rally around each other whenever we need to be,” Jahangir said. “And I know these people who passed away, their memory will always be with us, now and decades to come, and I hope that’s some relief to their families to know that we’ll always hold them close to our heart.”

Jahangir said Vanderbilt leadership reached out to staff following Monday’s tragedy to offer counseling.