2 Weapons in the War Against Gangs : * A Resolute Surgeon and Steve Woods’ Mother Help Raise the Public’s Consciousness

A powerful visual image lingers from the attack in a San Clemente park on 17-year-old Steve Woods. An X-ray showed a paint roller lodged in Woods’ brain. It was stark and sickening; it also spoke dramatically of the violent fury of a suspected gang attack.

The man responsible for gaining permission from Woods’ family to release the X-ray was Dr. Thomas E. Shaver, a surgeon and director of the trauma unit at Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center in Mission Viejo. Woods’ mother, Kathy, said Shaver overcame her initial wish to keep the tragedy private. He persuaded her to speak out and use the attack on her son as an example of how bad the gang situation had become.

Steve Woods died last month from injuries suffered in the November assault in which the paint roller rod was thrust into his head. His family deserves thanks for sharing their pain with all the community and for letting others draw needed lessons from the incident. Not all families could open up as Kathy Woods did, and those who want to mourn in private must be allowed to do so.

Shaver deserves credit, too, for speaking out against gang warfare from a front-line perspective different from those we usually see. His is the view from the emergency room and the operating table. “It’s very simple for us--we shouldn’t be seeing this type of violence,” Shaver said.

The surgeon has also involved himself in campaigns against teen-agers drinking and driving and against Border Patrol pursuit of illegal immigrants along Interstate 5. A school administrator said Shaver not only appealed to city councils and service groups for help with the anti-drunk-driving program but helped finance it himself. A judge aware of Shaver’s past activities said he knows how to mobilize resources and he never gives up.

Shaver’s determination will be tested by the battle against gangs, but his activity is an example of the community action that will be needed. Doctors are increasingly speaking out against violence, whose results they scramble to repair in emergency rooms. Their testimony, and that of such victims as Kathy Woods, will be needed to help win the battle against crime, guns and gangs that is being waged across the nation.