APRIL 27, 2018
THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO SINCE 1892
VOL. 129, ISSUE 43
30 Years Later, U of C Opens a Trauma Center
Sydney Combs
The University’s trauma center will open on May 1, reducing ambulance ride times for South Side trauma victims. This issue features the tragedies and the activism that preceded the center, and information from officials on what to expect. Pictured: A 2014 protest at a construction site at East 56th Street and South Cottage Grove Avenue.
Rallies, Sit-ins, and Padlocks: the History of Trauma Activism BY JASON LALLJEE AND DEEPTI SAILAPPAN NEWS EDITORS
The University ’s Level I adult trauma center, which will open on campus on Tuesday, was officially announced on December 17, 2015, but its history precedes the announcement by several years. In some ways, that final announcement in 2015 heralded the end of an era, though the community and campus activists who had agitated for it for years — since August 2010 — might deny that characterization. Work remains to be done even now, as the trauma center is poised to open, stressed
Darrius Lightfoot, cofounder of Fearless Leading by the Youth (FLY ) and an early proponent of a trauma center on the South Side. “Folks aren’t going to stop getting shot,” he told T he M aroon . Over the years, the Trauma Care Coalition (TCC) grew to include Southside Together Organizing for Power (STOP) and its youth affiliate, FLY; Kenwood Oakland Community Organization (KOCO); the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs (JCUA); National Nurses United; Students for Health Equity (SHE), a University student group; and the Prayer and Action Collective (PAC), formerly Trauma Center Prayers.
BY OREN OPPENHEIM SENIOR NEWS REPORTER
University of Chicago Medicine is running an expensive ad campaign featuring the slogan “At the Forefront” in magazines and on billboards, coinciding with the trauma center launch. But for Kristen Ambrose, 22, the trauma center is opening five years too late. Her brother Kevin died on a long ambulance ride to Stroger Hospital after he was shot near the 47th Street Garfield Green Line stop on May 7, 2013. It is not lost on Kristen that the University stopped providing adult trauma care three decades ago, when officials became tired of footing the bill.
After years of community activism and preparation, UChicago Medicine will open its level 1 adult trauma center—the only one on the South Side—on May 1. The Maroon sat down with Debra Allen, UChicago Medicine’s clinical director of trauma, and Dr. Ken Wilson, the deputy director of trauma, to discuss their professional backgrounds, the trauma center designation, and the future of UChicago Medicine. Allen has been in trauma care for over thirty years, and came to UChicago Medicine last year after working as the regional
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Experience the Experiment.
Editorial Board: Student Government’s draft resolution on the University of Chicago Police Department (UCPD) is a first step in a larger important conversation about the state of mental health resources and its role on campus.
on page 2 The Stevanovich Institute Continued on the Formation of Knowledge (SIFK) is delighted to announce an unprecedented set of new courses: XCAP, The Experimental Capstone for rising fourth-year undergraduates.
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Apply now at sifk.uchicago.edu/ courses/xcap South Siders Rock
BY PETE GRIEVE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
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Trauma Official: “We’re filling a real need”
The campaign’s beginning, however, was personal. The first cries for a trauma center to be reinstated at the University came from the family and friends of 18-year-old Damian Turner, a cofounder of FLY who was killed on August 15, 2010. The Beginning F LY initially formed in 2 0 0 7 a s a t emp or a r y a fter-school and summer program for youth run by STOP, according to Lightfoot, who said he was already active with STOP as a 15-year-old living in Woodlawn. After the program reached its scheduled end date, Lightfoot said he and a group of others, including Turner, decided to continue FLY but
SG’s UCPD Resolution Is a Common Sense Proposal
Page 6 We’ve been working on our album these past couple of years but we’re trying to hunker down and work toward ICCAs without losing our camaraderie.
Center Five Years Late for Her Brother
Experience a set of courses that emphasize practice as much as theory. Figure out what is “real.” Reflect on the nature of knowledge and examine your own beliefs and assumptions. Compare, contrast, and explore the cultural and scientific context of the human body in performance and medicine. End your University of Chicago experience with a different learning experience, and take it with you.