Youth Organization Calls for South Side Adult Trauma Center

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Fearless Leading by the Youth, a youth-led organization on the south side of Chicago, has been fighting for a trauma center on the south side for three years since the death of FLY founder Damian Turner who was shot four blocks from the University of Chicago Hospital but taken ten miles away and died at another hospital. Photo courtesy of Mehves Konuk.
Fearless Leading by the Youth, a youth-led organization on the south side of Chicago, has been fighting for a trauma center on the south side for three years since the death of FLY founder Damian Turner who was shot four blocks from the University of Chicago Hospital but taken ten miles away and died at another hospital. Photo courtesy of Mehves Konuk.

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According to the Fearless Leading by the Youth organization in 2011, of children ages 17 – 21, there were over 200 children in need of trauma care on Chicago’s South Side due to gunshot wounds and 72 of those children died. Shown above – The University of Chicago Comer Children's Hospital which does not service trauma patients over the age of 15.

A youth organization calling for a south side hospital to raise its trauma center patient policy to include individuals over age 15 is looking forward to meeting with a key decision maker on the matter following a Jan. 27 protest that led to the arrests of three protestors.

"At first there was no feed-back (from the University of Chicago (U of C) Medical Center, also known as the University of Chicago Medicine, 5841 S. Maryland Ave.)," said FLY (Fearless Leading by the Youth) member, Kiyeria Henderson, 17. "I totally disagree that an adult trauma center is not a priority, she said responding to remarks by Dr. Kenneth Polonsky, dean of the Pritzker School of Medicine who was quoted saying other priorities trumps, an adult-care trauma center.

"I understand that there is youth gang violence on the South Side but some of them are dying after being shot because they have to be taken so far away to receive treatment."

STOP (Southside Together Organizing for Power, a combination of various organizations who fight for human rights and racial and economic justice), FLY, and SHE (Students for Health Equity), the groups calling for U of C Medical Center to open an adult, trauma-care center, demonstrated Jan. 27 at the University of Chicago's new $700-million hospital as part of their ongoing quest for an adult trauma-care center for the city's south side.

The protests in January were staged to call attention to the fact that the South Side is without trauma care centers that treat individuals over 15 years of age for injuries sustained in shootings, stabbings, car accidents and other traumatic incidents.

Alex Goldenberg, a U of C alum and student organizer with STOP, was charged with trespassing during the protest but the charges have since been drooped.

"Following the aftermath of the Jan. 27 protest, they promised to host discussions with one led by Dean Polonsky, who is a key decision maker at the U of C hospital," said Goldenberg.

The youth groups have been calling for a trauma center since 2010 in a campaign that was started by FLY after the passing of one of its co-founders, Damian Turner.

On August 15th, 2010, Turner, according to information provided on the group's website, was shot at 61st and Cottage Grove Avenues, two blocks from the U of C Medical Center.

Chicago Fire Department paramedics were required to drive him to the nearest Level 1 trauma center, more than nine miles across the city to Northwestern Memorial Hospital on the northern edge of downtown. Though he was still considered a child by his mother and his community, he was too old to be treated at the U of C Medical Center trauma center. Turner, at age 18, was pronounced dead less than 90 minutes after a bullet ripped into his back.

There once was an adult trauma center at the U of C Hospital that opened in 1986 and closed in 1988.

U of C Medical Center's response to the Chicago Citizen Newspaper's query as to why the hospital's trauma center omits individuals over age 15, is that in 1988, the University of Chicago Medical Center decided not to renew its application with the City of Chicago's adult trauma network because participating in the network overwhelmed its surgical facilities and delayed life-saving surgeries for many other patients and so a decision was made to concentrate hospital resources in the clinical specialties such as a Level 1 trauma center for children up to age 15, a neonatal intensive care unit, a burn unit and hospital-based emergency chopper response.

U of C Medical Center added that, when the decision was made not to renew its application in 1988, the city had eight trauma centers, including one at Michael Reese Hospital on the south side, which closed its doors in 2008, and Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn.

U of C Medical Center also cited cost, saying that an adult Level 1 trauma center costs millions of dollars a year to operate and that age 15, is in accordance with the Emergency Medical Services and Trauma Center Code adopted by the Illinois Department of Public Health.

FLY points out on its website that:

*Patients living on the Southeast Side of Chicago face the longest ambulance run times of any residents in the city.

*In 2011, on the Southeast Side of Chicago, there were approximately 120 children aged 17 - 18 in need of trauma care due to gunshot wounds--thirty of those children died.

*In 2011, of children ages 17 - 21, there were over 200 children in need of trauma care on Chicago's South Side due to gunshot wounds and 72 of those children died.

Goldenberg said the U of C Medical Center is a billion dollar operation and needs to and can do more.

"They're going to have to do something." Goldenberg said.

Asked whether the U of C Medical Center plans to meet with the activists group, the response was that the hospital met with representatives of the group in the past and is committed to open conversations with the community.

Goldenberg said a discussion with Dean Polonsky is expected but no date has been set.

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