ORLANDO, Fla. — The group, Rebuilding America’s Warriors said it will provide free surgeries of any kind to victims of the Pulse nightclub mass shooting.
"This was literally hundreds of my fellow Americans being attacked on an instantaneous battlefield here in Florida,” Dr. Andrew Borom said.
Borom, an orthopedic surgeon in Tallahassee, wants to help remove the scars left by terrorist Omar Mateen, who killed 49 killed and injured 53 others at Pulse nightclub on June 12.
"They were instantly cast into a war zone by someone with a warped radical ideology who hates them for any number of reasons that make no sense to me,” Borom said.
Borom is one of more than 350 surgeons in a more than 40-state network with Rebuilding America's Warriors.
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They perform reconstructive surgery for war veterans for free, but now the group wants to expand their mission.
"Because they have big hearts and because America has been good to them. They have 10, 15, 20 years of experience behind them and they can afford to give back and they're happy to do so,” said Maggie Lockridge, RAW founder and president.
Lockridge told Channel 9’s Len Kiese when she learned about the Pulse shooting, she had to expand the services to the shooting victims.
"Because I consider them victims of war, war heroes in the homeland, victims of ISIS,” Lockridge said.
And surgeons say whatever the need, they'll provide, at no cost.
"My initial thought was, ‘Well gosh, this was set up for wounded warriors and people on the battlefield and in combat, and after I thought about it briefly, I looked at it as: This is an act of war," Borom said.
The free services can include anything from the repair of scar tissue to prosthetics. It's all covered by donations and the volunteer work of these surgeons.
People can contact RAW by phone at 760-568-4039 or email. Once their needs are determined, they'll be linked with a surgeon in a city closest to them.
While the surgeons cover the cost of their work, RAW covers the miscellaneous costs, including transportation, anesthesia, etc., which are paid for with donations.