Unfortunately, people can just snap.
That’s what seems to have have happened when Stephen Pasceri shot and killed 44-year-old cardiovascular surgeon Michael Davidson at the prestigious Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston on Tuesday.
Pasceri, who then killed himself at the hospital following the shooting, was apparently upset about his mother’s death and blamed Davidson because he treated her, according to Pasceri’s relatives.
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‘‘I think it comes down to the fact that my brother thought it was the doctor’s fault that my mother died,’’ Marguerite Joly told the Boston Herald.
Gregory Pasceri told The Boston Globe his brother recently learned about a lung medication the doctor prescribed for his mother, which his brother thought was responsible for her death.
‘‘It really destroyed my brother,’’ Gregory Pasceri said. ‘‘I had no idea he was going to take it to that extreme.’’
Davidson has been praised by his co-workers since the tragedy. ‘‘Dr. Davidson was a wonderful and inspiring cardiac surgeon who devoted his career to saving lives and improving the quality of life of every patient he cared for,’’ the hospital said in a statement.
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Davidson’s wife, plastic surgeon Terri Halperin is currently pregnant with their fourth child.
Questions about precautions come up after terrible incidents like this – like whether hospitals should have metal detectors or even broader concerns like gun control (even though Pasceri was licensed). The cost involved with adding metal detectors to hospitals would be immense, however. And gun control is such a huge issue that hasn’t really budged recently.
As Forbes points out, “hospitals will likely focus on teaching their workers how to survive a shooting. To do the kind of scenario planning that the Brigham had trained for. To encourage staff to know when to flee, when to hide, when to fight.”
