El Paso path to healing takes…
The road to healing has been difficult and different for El Pasoans in the month since the Aug. 3 mass shooting that left 22 people dead at the Cielo Vista Walmart store.
However, the path forward has been helped along spiritually by the restorative religious powers of faith, physically by the intense healing efforts being made possible by the city’s medical staffs and monetarily by the heartening donations that El Paso has seen coming in from across the country.
Between the Paso Del Norte Community Foundation Victim Relief Fund and the El Paso Community Foundation, about $6 million have been donated in since Aug. 3.
Paso del Norte counted more than 4,200 individual donors while the El Paso Community Foundation had 12,000.
That money will help with long term healing but more immediate recovery was found at University Medical Center and Del Sol Medical.
“Our physicians, administrators and techs all wanted to heal them and get them on their feet,” said University Medical Center of El Paso spokesman Ryan Mielke. “Unfortunately we lost patients in that scenario however the people that came to us all but one will walk out of this hospital.”
The shooting sent 15 people, many of them critical, to UMC.
As of this week, only two remain with one still in serious condition.
From the 11 victims treated at Del Sol Medical Center, one patient remains and is still in critical condition.
Finally, there was healing on the spiritual level which took place Tuesday at Saint Patrick’s Cathedral.
Many attendees were direct family members and loved ones of those killed at the Cielo Vista Walmart.
Paso del Norte Foundation officials said they’ve set up an oversight committee that will be charged with disbursing all donations fairly and as quickly as possible.
Other notable donations that have come into El Paso since the shooting include a $50,000 gift from the Gene and Jerry Jones Family Foundation as well as a $200,000 donation that was made by Group 1 Automotive Incorporated.
KVIA 2019
