Images of bloodied faces and upturned prams. Footage of a speeding car circling an intersection, a man hanging out the window and yelling at the crowd only minutes before he sped his car through Bourke Street Mall in Melbourne on Friday. He killed five people, and injured more than 20.
The imagery is horrific, even without the pictures and videos and first-person accounts seen online.
“In this digital world your children might read or hear about what happened in more graphic detail than you realise,” Dr Margie Danchin, who is a general paediatrician at The Royal Children’s Hospital (RCH), said in a video from the hospital about helping kids deal with the shock.
“Talking to them can help them to understand what happened, to feel safe and to begin to cope,” Dr Margie explains in the video that was released on Facebook on Monday.
The ways children might react
According to Dr Margie, different children might react to the tragedy in Bourke Street in different ways.
“Some children may not react; others might become withdrawn, anxious or clingy; some might have headaches or tummy aches,” she says.
“Kindergarten-age children might wet the bed or start sucking their thumb; primary school kids may have trouble sleeping or be afraid to go to school; older kids might deny they are upset,” she continued.
Melbourne’s beautiful big heart is beating strong in the #bourkest Mall. ❤️#7newsmelb pic.twitter.com/gRvggX6LDa
— Paul Dowsley (@pauldowsley7) January 22, 2017
