Community

State Senators Hold Hearing on Lack of South Side Trauma Center


Chicago, IL-(ENEWSPF)-

WHO: Illinois State Senators, doctors and South Side community members

WHAT: State Senators Host Hearing on Lack of Trauma Care

WHEN/WHERE: Wednesday, Nov. 20, 11 a.m. Room C600, Michael Bilandinc Building, 160 N LaSalle. 

Illinois State Senator Mattie Hunter (D-Chicago) will host a hearing on the lack of South Side trauma centers on Wednesday, November 20 at 11 a.m. in the Michael Bilandic Building, 160 N LaSalle, room C600.

A press conference at 10:30 a.m. in front of the Bilandic building will feature mothers, youth, community leaders, nurses, and doctors, who have been advocating for south side trauma care for over three years and who will be giving testimony at the hearing. Testimony at the hearing will also include Dr Gary Merlotti, trauma director at Mt Sinai hospital, representatives from The Illinois Department of Public Health and Dr. Marie Crandall of Northwestern hospital. This hearing comes in response to new research she published on “Trauma Deserts” which shows that longer travel times to a trauma center increase one’s likelihood of dying.

The pre-hearing press conference is organized by the Trauma Center Coalition, composed of Fearless Leading by the Youth, Southside Together Organizing for Power, Students for Health Equity, Kenwood Oakland Community Organization and RISE. The campaign has also received support from Congressman Bobby Rush, D-Ill., who introduced legislation this past July that would help hospitals across the country create trauma centers, including in his own South Side Chicago district.

Hundreds of community members and students protest lack of South Side trauma center in coffin march at Univ.  of Chicago

WHO: South Side community members, Nurses, Faith Leaders, and University of Chicago students

WHAT: Coffin March Protest for Trauma Center

WHEN/WHERE: 61st Street and Cottage Grove Ave. 4:15 p.m, Wednesday, November 20

VISUAL: Protest March of students and community members carrying coffins and flowers to University of Chicago Hospital

Hundreds of South Side residents, including University of Chicago students, will unite in protest Wednesday, November 20, to demand that the University of Chicago Hospital commit to working with other Chicago medical institutions to open an adult level 1 trauma center on Chicago’s South Side.

This past May, University of Chicago Hospital Dean Kenneth Polonsky publicly agreed to collaborate with other hospitals to open a South Side trauma center. Six months later, there has been no follow-up. Protesters will deliver a coffin, representing the lives lost in Chicago to systemic healthcare injustice, to the University of Chicago Medical Center. Adult level 1 trauma centers are the only facilities certified to treat injuries resulting from severe gunshot wounds or car accidents but the south side of Chicago, where these injuries are common, does not have one.

The Coffin March Protest is organized by the Trauma Center Coalition, composed of Fearless Leading by the Youth, Southside Together Organizing for Power, Students for Health Equity, Kenwood Oakland Community Organization and RISE. The campaign has also received support from Congressman Bobby Rush, D-Ill., who introduced legislation this past July that would help hospitals across the country create trauma centers, including in his own South Side Chicago district.

Source: Trauma Center Coalition


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