Chicago Hospital Forced To Close Doors Temporarily After It's Overwhelmed by Shootings, Accidents
During a weekend that The New York Times described as an “extreme example” of “routine but devastating gun violence,” the body count in Chicago rose to the point where one hospital had to turn away new patients.
On the same weekend in which America was transfixed by shootings in Texas and Ohio, Chicago logged seven shooting deaths while 46 people were injured, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. Other media accounts put the number of injured between 47 and 59. The weekend before, eight people were shot to death and 40 were injured.
Overall, at least 32 shooting incidents in Chicago were reported to the police.
Chicago’s Mount Sinai Hospital went on what is called “bypass,” meaning ambulances have to go elsewhere, at 4:30 a.m. Sunday, Fox News reported.
The hospital was inundated with victims during a two-hour time span in which 17 people were shot in three separate incidents.
The hospital was able to accept patients again at 6:30 a.m. Sunday, Roberta Rakove, senior vice president of external affairs, said.
The Chicago Tribune estimated that 300 people have been killed and 1,600 people overall have been shot in the city so far this year. The newspaper said both estimates are down from 2018.
Did you know:
A Chicago hospital had to stop accepting trauma patients over the weekend because it was so overwhelmed due to the volume of shootings
People had to be turned away from treatment
Yet the media ignores this carnage that happens every weekend
Why is that?
?
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) August 6, 2019
In the aftermath of another deadly weekend, Chicago police called for changes.
“Below is the sound that Chicago needs to change its ways on how we handle gun offenders. Audio from the tragic shooting at 18th & Kildare yesterday shows that criminals have no deterrent to carrying illegal guns in our city and this is what residents and police are up against,” Anthony Guglielmi, a spokesman for the Chicago Police Department, tweeted.
His tweet included one-minute audio of gunfire from one of the weekend’s incidents.
Below is the sound that Chicago needs to change its ways on how we handle gun offenders. Audio from the tragic shooting at 18th & Kildare yesterday shows that criminals have no deterrent to carrying illegal guns in our city and this is what residents and police are up against. pic.twitter.com/VwixZwR0Vb
— Anthony Guglielmi (@AJGuglielmi) August 5, 2019
Chicago, where sky-high rates of gun violence and strict gun laws coexist, has long had high rates of weekend shootings.
“In Chicago, it’s just another weekend,” Rev. Michael Pfleger, an anti-violence advocate from Chicago, said, according to The Guardian. “It gets forgotten and pushed to the side.”
“Black and brown life being taken by gun violence is not something America has been concerned about for a long time,” he said.
“It needs to get the same attention. We have 47 people shot and seven killed. If that happened over in Iraq, that’s all anyone would be talking about.”
As we grieve over the evil mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton, let us not overlook that Chicago experienced its deadliest weekend of the year.
— Ivanka Trump (@IvankaTrump) August 6, 2019
The Chicago violence received less attention than the Texas and Ohio incidents simply because it is nothing new, suggested Gary Slutkin, founder of Cure Violence.
“These two out-of-the-blue events occurred in the context of the national political fight over everything – immigration, violence, race,” Slutkin said, according to USA Today.
“This is the difference between epidemic and endemic: Something that is always there is less newsworthy than something that is new. It’s a different syndrome of the same disease,” he said.
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