Meeting follows a sit-in and arrests, outcry after the death of Kevin Ambrose, and new research showing more deaths in trauma center deserts
CHICAGO–(ENEWSPF)—May 27, 2013. The Dean of the University of Chicago Hospital. Kenneth Polonsky, has agreed to meet with protesters about creating a trauma center. The meeting will take place Tuesday May 28 at 12pm at 1212 E 59th Street. This meeting is in response to a recent sit-in which ended with 4 arrests at the new University of Chicago $700M Hospital. Among those who sat in was Sheila Rush, whose son Damian Turner was caught by a stray bullet in 2009 four blocks from the U of C but was taken 10 miles away to Northwestern where he died. The campaign to get a south side trauma center was started in 2010 in response to Damian’s death.
The recent death of Kevin Ambrose, who was also shot blocks away from the University of Chicago (at the 47th Green Line Station) but taken to Cook County Hospital, has renewed outcry over the lack of an adult south side trauma center. Friends and relatives of Kevin Ambrose will be at the meeting to ask the University of Chicago to open an adult trauma center. “Kevin was a beautiful person”, said close friend Micheal Dye, who was with Kevin when he was shot. “He was taken to Stroger, we rode behind the ambulance which took over 30 minutes to get there, when the University of Chicago Hospital is down the street. If he didn’t have to ride that far he could still be alive today” said Dye.
The meeting with the Dean of the University of Chicago Hospital also comes in response to new research published by Dr. Marie Crandall of Northwestern Hospital which shows that longer travel times to a trauma center increase your likelihood of dying. The paper titled “Trauma Deserts” was published in the American Journal of Public Health and looks at over 10 years of gunshot wound data in Chicago and finds a strong relationship between travel times and mortality.
