City alderwoman’s daughter gets shot, says free bullet-recovery center saved her family
By Melanie Johnson
Click here for updates on this story
ST. LOUIS, Missouri (KMOV) — Shameem Clark-Hubbard is the Alderwoman of Ward 10 but also a mother of a child shot in the city she has been elected to serve.
“I was hurt, I was scared, I was heartbroken,” says Alderwoman, Shameem Clark-Hubbard.
Her daughter was shot twice in South City two months ago. She is one of 60 St. Louis City children 17 and under shot in 2023.
“A team of doctors came in and told us they weren’t going to be able to get the bullet out of my baby,” Clark-Hubbard says.
A trauma surgeon for over 20 years, Dr. LJ Punch has dealt with many similar cases as a Barnes-Jewish Hospital trauma surgeon.
“The youngest victim I’ve had was the unborn because I’ve had to care for the bodies of people who were pregnant,” says Dr. LJ Punch. The nurses, the techs, the doctors. They’re exhausted. They’re doing everything they can to fight the clock to stop people from bleeding to death.”
Seeing the toll bullets have taken on the community inspired him to walk away from the hospital and open a free clinic to treat gunshot wounds from the inside out.
“Fifty percent of people will be cared for in a trauma center or an emergency department and then sent home with no discrete plan for their care after,” says Dr. Punch, Executive Director of The Bric.
“My daughter was discharged from the hospital literally with a one pager and some gauze,” Clark-Hubbard tells First Alert 4.
Punch has opened a healing facility called “The BRIC” also known as The Bullet Recovery Injury Clinic in the Delmar Divide. The clinic provides free services to families and victims that include bullet removal, gun shot wound kits, natural healing boxes in addition to help from chiropractors, therapists, nurse practitioners, and care agents.
“If somebody has a bullet, they can feel it, or we can find it on an ultrasound and it’s less than an inch deep. We can take it out,” Dr. Punch says.
Clark-Hubbard says the procedure changed her daughter for the better.
“Her first cry for me that I saw that was very heightened in her emotions was when Dr. Punch was able to remove the bullet from my baby’s abdomen,” she says.
The alderwoman wants her testimony to motivate anyone suffering in silence and remind the community that gun violence impacts everyone.
“If you’ve been through violence recently or in the past is please just give it a chance.”
There is no cost, and no insurance is needed to receive help from The Bullet Related Injury Clinic.
For more information call 314-624-0398 or visit thebric.org
Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.
