Doctors: NWI needs trauma center
BY RUTHANN ROBINSON
rrobinson@nwitimes.com
219.662.5331 | Saturday, April 28, 2007
MERRILLVILLE | Doctors at Friday's trauma conference at the Radisson Hotel talked about a recent jackknife truck accident to illustrate the need for a trauma center in Northwest Indiana.
This region is the only area in the state not covered by a certified trauma center. Most trauma patients are stabilized at local hospitals and transferred to Chicago trauma centers.
Such a center could have benefitted a mail carrier whose car was smashed by a semi Wednesday as she drove her route on U.S. 30 near the Lake/Porter County line.
There are countless other patients who also could benefit, participants at Friday's conference said.
When many think of trauma, they think of gunshot or knife wounds -- referred to in medical parlance as "penetrating injury." And they think of Gary.
Rightly so, given Gary's high per capita murder rate, said Dr. Michael McGee, chief of emergency medicine at Methodist Hospitals and host of the Friday conference.
McGee said the incidence of penetrating trauma injuries across the nation is 15 percent to 20 percent.
"In Gary, it's 40 percent of the traumas we see," McGee said.
Doctors at Methodist Hospitals treat such injuries every third day, chief trauma surgeon Dr. Seferio Farias said.
But blunt force traumas -- those most commonly suffered during traffic accidents -- also are common in the region given the number of heavily traveled highways.
Transfers from local hospitals can't take place unless the receiving hospital accepts the patient, McGee said. And there is nothing more frustrating to doctors than spending critical minutes begging another hospital to take patients, McGee said.
"It hurts our soul," McGee said.
During the conference, the son of former Methodist Hospitals board member the Rev. H.S. Malone recounted the events of Nov. 8 -- the night his father died of injuries suffered in a car crash at 105th Avenue and Broadway.
H.S. Malone, who "broke most of the bones in his body," was taken to the nearest hospital -- Methodist Hospitals Southlake Campus -- after the crash at 5 p.m., Marc Malone said.
"After two and a half hours, I was told my dad needed an orthopedic surgeon," Marc Malone said. "Precious hours were slipping by."
Eventually the elder Malone was transferred via helicopter to Loyola Hospital and arrived there about 11 p.m., Marc Malone said. His father died about an hour later.
LOCAL POSSIBILITIES
The best hope for a Level I trauma center in Northwest Indiana lies in a partnership with Indiana University Medical School and cooperation among all local hospitals, leaders said Friday at the trauma conference sponsored by Methodist Hospitals.
Patrick Bankston, assistant dean and director of the Indiana University School of Medicine Northwest, joined others at the conference in touting the Gleason Park area north of the IUN campus in Gary as an ideal location for a new teaching hospital and trauma center. Bankston offered to sponsor a trip to Indianapolis for local leaders, doctors and media to visit Wishard Memorial Hospital to see how its partnership with IU has created a successful teaching hospital and trauma center.
LOCAL POSSIBILITIES
The best hope for a Level I trauma center in Northwest Indiana lies in a partnership with Indiana University Medical School and cooperation among all local hospitals, leaders said Friday at the trauma conference sponsored by Methodist Hospitals.
Patrick Bankston, assistant dean and director of the Indiana University School of Medicine Northwest, joined others at the conference in touting the Gleason Park area north of the IUN campus in Gary as an ideal location for a new teaching hospital and trauma center. Bankston offered to sponsor a trip to Indianapolis for local leaders, doctors and media to visit Wishard Memorial Hospital to see how its partnership with IU has created a successful teaching hospital and trauma center.
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