One year after the Abundant Life Christian School shooting, UW Health doctors reflect on tragedy
MADISON, Wis. (CBS 58) -- This Dec. 16 marks one year since the tragic school shooting at Madison's Abundant Life Christian School.
Fourteen-year-old student Rubi Vergara and 42-year-old Erin West were killed that day. A teacher and three students were taken to the hospital to be treated for non-life-threatening injuries, while two students sustained gunshot wounds that threatened their lives.
Dec. 16 is a day the community and the doctors who treated the victims will never forget.
"The first emotion that you have, or thought when you see something like that, is a little bit of shock, of, is this real?" shared Dr. Nicholas Kuehnel, pediatric emergency department medical director at American Family Children's Hospital. He said that Monday morning, he had a day full of meetings planned out until he got a page detailing an active shooter at a school nearby. He then said he went into the emergency department, which by then had already activated their response for a "mass casualty event," doubling the staff available that day.
Another staff member responding was Dr. Megan Gussick, a prehospital medicine doctor with UW Health. She said she immediately jumped into her car, driving to the scene while listening to the dispatch radio, trying to figure out her plan. She detailed hundreds of police cars lining the streets outside the school but leaving an opening at the entrance of the school.
"One of the paramedics said it was like the, you know, the seas just parted and they had just this beautiful open area to be able to enter and get access to these patients, to get them out of there. Because with penetrating trauma, especially, minutes matter. And so even difficulty in gaining access to these patients could have really made a difference, especially for Samy and River."
Samy Garduño Martinez and River Clardy were the two students who suffered the worst injuries. "Those kids probably should have died that day," said Dr. Gussick.
One year later, the memorial is gone, but the emotional scars remain, shared Dr. Gussick.
"I think everybody still has that moment when you see that it's a kid, where your heart still sinks, but then it's almost like you, like, zip that armor back up, and you're just ready to go. You know that it matters even more now. You have to be on your game to take care of this kid, so that you can save their life."
"After you clocked out, you know, that armor can fall. How did you cope that night or the following days?" asked CBS 58 reporter Montse Ricossa.
Dr. Gussick responded, "Yeah, so that was, it was a long day... we train for this, but you don't train for this, right? Like, I'm not mentally prepared to sort of handle, you know, the things that I saw and witnessed that day."
Doctors say it was their training that made all the difference: "Our training means everything, especially for critical incidents like this, where you don't have a lot of time to think, and you need to fall back on your training," she continued. Preparations, which Dr. Kuehnel says happen every month. "Anytime that there's a lot of things that have to happen quickly and have to be done right in these critical scenarios, you want it to feel like rote memory that you are just, you know exactly what to do."
Dr. Kuehnel had the difficult task of speaking with the victims' families about the worst moment of their lives. He described them as some of the "most challenging conversations" of his career.
"As a parent myself, thinking if this was my own child, what [would] I want to know in here, right? So, approaching that, given the stress of the situation, and I also realize there's a lot of things that I may say and do that are not remembered, but the families will walk away remembering how they felt in that moment. And so, if I can provide any of that support and guidance to know what the next steps might look like, the general reassurance that they are at the right place and they have the right people taking care of them."
Although information was limited, Dr. Kuehnel said they learned that "frequent communication is key".
"There's not a lot that can really train you for this sort of scenario when it's this close to home and such an impactful event." - Dr. Nicholas Kuehnel
Though training helps treat patients, it doesn't take away the emotional toll on the emergency responders, especially as parents. Dr. Gussick said, "This is something I've seen on my own television from school shootings across the country. But this was now happening within my community and with people that I know... that really was kind of when it started to hit me. And it wasn't until I got in my car, immediately following that press conference, that I sort of was able to let that emotional armor fall off. And the first thing I did was go and pick up my own kid and just hugged them really, really tight that day."
One year later, Dr. Gussick reflects on the heartbreak and hope.
"In the days to weeks following that school shooting, there was a lot of pain, a lot of sorrow surrounding the incident, and especially sitting through all the debriefs and kind of hearing the witnesses who were there. And it was really intense emotions to have to sort of process. But then, through that, as the weeks kind of went by, I went from having this really sort of sadness surrounding the event to actually transitioning to pride. Pride in the fact that our first responders did such an amazing job, pride in my colleagues in the ER for the care they provided, and for the, you know, our trauma center and the surgeons who took care of those kids. And so, there was just such an immense pride for everything, and the group that came together that day to respond to this really horrific event."
As the victims recovered, Dr. Gussick organized reunions between first responders and family members to help all in their healing.
"That school shooting day was the worst day of my career. I will never forget that, for as many days as I go on in this career. But the best days were -- came from the reunions. Those reunions were just so powerful, and the emotions that were there from both, you know, the kids, their parents, but then the first responders. It was, I think, such a healing moment that we don't ever get to see," she shared.
River Clardy is standing with his parents and Madison Police and Madison Fire first responders on Jan. 23, 2025. He went home from American Family Children's Hospital on Jan. 30, 2025.
Samy Garduno-Martinez is in his hospital bed with his parents, surrounded by Madison Police and Madison Fire first responders on Oct. 6, 2025. He was transferred from American Family Children's Hospital to a rehab facility in Chicago on Oct. 8, 2025.
While no one wants to see our community face another situation like this, Dr. Gussick feels confident they'd be prepared to jump into action and save lives again.
"If every step of that chain of events hadn't been the way it transpired, those kids would have died. And I do think that comes from the training, the response, and just the amazing care that all of the first responders, from the law enforcement to our paramedics, to then our hospital staff...I think it is truly a miracle, and it's so nice to see when things turn out in a positive way, despite such a horrific event."
River Clardy went home from American Family Children's Hospital on Jan. 30.
Samy Garduño-Martinez was transferred to a rehab facility in Chicago on Oct. 8, where he is still re-learning his basic functions like walking and talking. His family created a GoFundMe to help with their most significant costs: an accessible van and an accessible home.
You can see our exclusive interview with Samy's mother describing his "miraculous" recovery here.