BREAKING: Sit-In at U of C Hospital | ARRESTS Threatened | Demanding Trauma Care on South Side

Protesters gather outside hospital, say massive investment in new hospital building despite lack of trauma care shows lack of concern for lives of youth of color



    WHAT: Sit-in at new $700 million hospital building to demand trauma care

    WHERE: 57th st and Maryland Ave

    WHEN: RIGHT NOW (started at 2pm)

    WHO: Fearless Leading by the Youth, friends and family of people who have died do to lack of trauma care



BREAKING NEWS: A sit-in by young people and the mother of a young person shot blocks from U of C, but treated 10 miles away, just began at the University of Chicago's new hospital at 57th st and Maryland Ave to demand the hospital do its part to save the lives of youth on the south side. Police have been called and security is threatening the protesters with arrest. More protesters are gathering outside in support those inside. Protesters are refusing to leave until the University commits to extend the age limit on its children's trauma center from 16 to 21 as an initial step towards providing trauma care on the south side. Currently there is no trauma care whatsoever for anyone over the age of 16 anywhere on the south side of Chicago.



After several years of trying to get the University of Chicago - the richest and most subsidized single hospital in Chicago - to re-open its level 1 trauma center to  help save lives of trauma victims in the violence-plagued neighborhoods that surround it, members of Fearless Leading by the Youth (FLY) and their allies reached a breaking point today and decided to occupy the U of C's new $700 million building. They say the new $700M research building ignores the immediate needs of the low income communities of color which surround it.



Community, students and alumni are sitting in demanding the University invest in trauma care. The first simple step the University could take to address this need is to raise the age of their children’s trauma center from 15 to 21.



“Its unfair for this community not to have a trauma center, for all the incidents going on… Its heartless,” says 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.



Protesters claim the University has a responsibility to its surrounding community which it is ignoring. There is a gun violence epidemic in communities of color which is making national headlines and the University to ignore the immediate needs of the largely low income communities of color surrounding them, say protesters. They point to white privilege and greed as the causes for the U of C to ignore communities of color in crisis around it and say that posture of elitism and racial privilege should be unacceptable for an institution of higher learning.



“There needs to be attention brought to this, a $700M research building versus however many millions it would take to care for the children who are dying,” explains Fearless Leading by the Youth member Veronica Morris-Moore, one of the sit-in participants.



The University of Chicago Hospital opened The Children’s Comer Hospital in 2006 which has a children’s trauma center but only take children up to age 15. Even though they sit in the middle of a gun violence epidemic claiming the lives of dozens of children every year.



In 2011 on the South East Side there were around 120 children aged 17 – 18 in need of trauma care due to gunshot wounds. 30 of these children died. Aged 17 – 21 there were over 200 children in need of trauma care due to gunshot wounds and 72 of these children died. These are lives the U of C Hospital could have saved, say protesters.



Those who are sitting in include:

    Sheila Rush, mother of Damian Turner who was shot four blocks from the U of C hospital but died 10 miles away at Northwestern
    Victoria Crider a south side high school student and member of Fearless Leading by the Youth
    Alex Goldenberg, a University of Chicago Alumni
    Veronica Morris-Moore a youth organizer with Fearless Leading by the Youth
    Nastasia Tangherlini a University of Chicago student.

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STOP Chicago // www.stopchicago.org // @STOPChicago



May 2012, 2013: Trauma Center 10mi March: Healthcare Not Warfare

http://www.stopchicago.org/2012/05/healthcare-not-warfare-trauma-center.html