WASHINGTON -- Congressman Raul Ruiz saw plenty of trauma during his days as an emergency room doctor in Southern California, but that doesn't make it easier to deal with constituents directly affected by this week's massacre in Las Vegas.
"Their lives have been flipped upside down," Ruiz said in his office this week. "They’re shook up and they will forever be changed."
Ruiz was referring specifically to family members of Hannah Ahlers, from the Riverside County town of Beaumont, one of the 58 people shot dead by gunman Stephen Paddock during a concert Sunday night in Las Vegas. The 34-year-old mother of three was among several people living in Ruiz's district who were killed or injured in what's described as the deadliest mass shooting in recent U.S. history.
"They ask themselves why," Ruiz said in his office across from the Capitol. "How did this happen and how can we make sure this doesn’t happen again? What can we do differently so they don’t or others don’t experience what they experienced?"
Ruiz, a Democrat, is one of a handful of physicians serving in Congress. The 45-year-old son of farmworkers was born in Mexico and brought to the United States by his parents as a child. He grew up in the Coachella Valley around Palm Springs, the area he has represented in Congress since knocking off incumbent Republican Mary Bono in 2012.