There was little time to spare after 17-year-old Griffin Weathers was shot in the chest in 2018.
He was losing blood fast, and needed surgery to have any chance of survival.
An ambulance rushed Weathers the 10 minutes to nearby High Point Medical Center. Itâs the closest hospital and the place where paramedics are supposed to take patients with immediately life-threatening injuries.
But High Point Medical Center was not really equipped to save the teenagerâs life. It is not a designated trauma center and does not have the doctors, surgeons and anesthesiologists that come with that designation. So shooting victims like Weathers often need to be transferred to another hospital for surgery.