One medical resident at Henry Ford Genesys Hospital in Grand Blanc Township discovered his wife and children were attending church services Sept. 28, when a gunman rammed his truck into the chapel, opened fire and set the building ablaze.

Two other medical residents from the hospital were at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints chapel and were injured in the attack. Other employees were attending the service and some raced in on their day off to help treat the wounded.

"This type of stuff doesn't happen in Grand Blanc, Michigan," said Dr. Chris Ash, a general and trauma surgeon who was among those responding at the hospital.

The doctors who work at Henry Ford Genesys Hospital spoke about the aftermath of the Grand Blanc Township shooting in a news conference Wednesday, Oct. 1, detailing how they raced to care for the wounded after Sunday's attack, which left four dead and eight injured. Police say a fifth person, the suspected gunman, also was killed.

"Our resident whose kids were at church with his wife while he was operating with me that night at the hospital - his kids will never be the same," Ash said.

'There's an active shooter in our church'

Dr. Alan Janssen, the program director for Henry Ford Genesys Hospital's residency program, and Dr. Sanford Ross, the assistant director of the emergency department, were working that morning in the ER.

"It was a bright, sunny day and a Sunday morning," Janssen said. "The combination of those two things usually means volumes are pretty low to start the day off. We didn't have very many patients in the department."

Then, the phone rang.

"It was ... one of my residents," Janssen said. "My resident was actually in the church and the resident said, 'There's an active shooter in our church.' That was before EMS had been called. That was before anyone else knew about this. So, initially, we just started preparing the emergency department."

Janssen and Ross called the surgery and anesthesia departments and told the staff to prepare for a mass casualty situation. They called Ash, too.

It took about 15 minutes for ambulances to arrive and for patients to come through the door, he said. In the time in between, the doctors prepped for a mass casualty event. They'd just had mass casualty training "a month or two ago," Ross said.

"You always say it could happen, but it probably will happen, which is the unfortunate thing," he said.

Janssen said as they jumped into action, they worked methodically to triage patients who needed to be stabilized, with more critical wounds than others.

Of the eight people who were wounded and survived the mass shooting and fire, the first to get treatment at Henry Ford Genesys Hospital was a 6-year-old boy, said the doctor who cared for him.

"His mom walked him through the front door," said Ross, the attending physician and assistant director of the emergency department, during the news conference.

"He didn't shed one tear. He walked into the emergency room stoic. Mom was a wreck, which, as a parent, I completely understand, and what I did was I looked at the wound, had an idea of what was going on. I comforted them both by telling him and mom, 'You're going to get through this. You're going to be OK.' "

The child was treated and released, Ash said.

'Deeply personal to our community'

Ash said at least five hospital residents regularly attended services at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on McCandlish Road. Some of those residents jumped into action that day.

"Some of them acted with heroics to pull people out of the fire, and they shared that story with us when they came in for their own treatment," he said. "This is deeply personal to our community."

Ash said he hopes the attack will inspire people to "start having a little more grace and tolerance."

"I'm from this community. I have lived 25-plus years here," he said. "These are our people. ... They are part of our extended family, and to see them go through this and their families go through this is just heartbreaking. I've told a lot of people, words cannot describe the feeling. We really shouldn't have to go through this in any community."

Contact Kristen Shamus and Lily Altavena: kshamus@freepress.com and laltavena@freepress.com.

'Doesn't happen in Grand Blanc': Doctors detail race to care for church shooting victims