And the families of these victims are in the first stages of the grieving process. Many times, you see mothers, fathers, and siblings tearing up on the news after recently losing their loved one. And once the cameras are off, those families continue to mourn away from he flare of the camera lights. That process is an ocean of emotions sadness, anger, guilt, emptiness, and more. And while they say time heals all, it takes a while before that starts kicking in.
And for the Gill family, they still have a long way to go. 15-year-old Kassman Gill was shot on August 16th. He held on for 52 days, finally taking his last breath on October 6th. It's been an excruciating time for his family, who have experienced high hopes and crushing losses.
Cecil Gill gave us a brief insight into the pain he has to live with every day when he appeared on Uncut last night. And he also shared with us the failures at the KHMH that he believes caused his son's death. Courtney Menzies has this story.
Cecil Gill - Father of Kassman Gill
"Since that incident, to be honest, I don't know how I make it out of my bed some morning just to do regular function."
Those are the words of a grieving father a man who had to bury his 15-year-old son. It's been six weeks since Kassman Gill took his last breath, but for this family, the pain never eases.
Cecil Gill
"You get up in the morning and you gotta pass to go to the bathroom, normally I would glance in the room to check on my daughters and his room is right there, adjacent to theirs - you know - it's difficult, there's no words to explain. It's an excruciating pain. You are used to going to buy food sometimes and you normally would buy three food, when you go now, you buy two, instantly it hits."
And the hardest part for Cecil Gill was knowing he had left his healthy son at home, only to be a few hours later that he had been shot.
Cecil Gill
"I go in the hospital and I pull the curtain and man you know, I just went in shock, I just started screaming at the top of my voice, no! no! no! You now the funny thing about it is that three days prior me and him was hanging out and I told him that we cannot take each other for granted. I told him when any of us leave the house, we don't know if we're gonna come back."
And the grief never ends instead, it's compounded with a broken justice system and a major gap in the healthcare system.
Cecil Gill
"Immediately when we got to the hospital, he needed a CAT scan to determine the extent of the injury to the lung. They don't have a CAT scan machine, they don't have an MRI machine. So we made arrangements to take him to Medical Associates. This is about 5:00, I got there and made the necessary arrangement, it was about $350 for the CAT scan but if I got there 5:30 it would be $650."
Kassman's first few days in the hospital were rough, but by mid-September, he was video chatting with his family. So how did things go horribly wrong? After his son's death, Gill received reports from the hospital documenting how - within hours - Kassman went from talking for the first time, to not breathing properly.
Cecil Gill
"Saturation, 99%, talking to patient, voice" he had voice "want to talk to dad." That's his request. He wants to talk to dad. "Will allow, as soon as I'm finished with preparation." My son wanted to talk to me, he wanted to say something to me. September 17th. As we go into September 18th at 2am, saturation 80, respiratory distress. Mechanical ventilator, not working, malfunction. Did not alarm during the episode."
Jules Vasquez
"How long was my son deprived of oxygen? How long was the ventilator off?"
Cecil Gill
"He said about ten minutes before it get started. When I asked him how long without oxygen he said about 4 minutes because they started the hand pump. I said you know that means my son's brain is damaged."
Jules Vasquez
"Do you believe the KHMH is responsible for your son's demise?"
Cecil Gill
"Yes sir, I firmly believe."
And while no amount of money or even a conviction can take away the pain and grief of losing a teenage son, Gill says he must continue to fight to honor his son and to help others who may be in similar situations.
Cecil Gill
"He would want me to do it, my girls want me to do it. We have to fight, and we have to fight the injustices in this society, my son wanted to be a lawyer so that he could fight injustice and help those less fortunate."
We asked the hospital to comment prior to Gill's appearance, but they have not replied. Gill is planning to pursue legal action. Uncut repeats on Sunday.
