Push on for Region Trauma Center
BY DEBORAH LAVERTY
dlaverty@nwitimes.com
219.662.5324 | Monday, April 23, 2007
MERRILLVILLE | Dr. Seferino Farias is confident the Methodist Hospitals Northlake Campus in Gary will receive trauma center designation in the near future.
"I won't accept no for an answer. In some shape or form it will happen," said Farias, Methodist's chief of trauma surgery.
Farias is one of several local health care professionals who will address the issue of a possible regional trauma center Friday at a Methodist-sponsored seminar at the Radisson Hotel in Merrillville.
The seminar, which starts at 8 a.m., is titled "Trauma 2007: The Quest for Excellence in Trauma Care for Northwest Indiana." Farias' speech will be titled "Death of America: Trauma Crisis in the U.S."
He said the trauma care issue is a national one because 45 million Americans live in areas so remote they don't have nearby access to a designated trauma center. It also is an issue in the region, where patients must be transported to Illinois for the nearest trauma center.
"Currently, patients (throughout the country) are dying because they can't get to a trauma center quickly enough," he said.
Also speaking will be Dr. Michael A. McGee, Methodist's chief of emergency medicine, who will address the value of trauma centers in Northwest Indiana.
Farias said Indiana lacks a statewide trauma care system.
"We are working toward that," he said.
He said there are no designated trauma centers in Northwest Indiana, but there is discussion of turning Methodist in Gary into such a center.
"Gary is the epicenter for trauma. The logical place would be there," Farias said.
State Rep. Charlie Brown, D-Gary, agrees and has sponsored legislation aimed at creating the a statewide trauma system.
Brown envisions building a new hospital near Indiana University Northwest that could be used for teaching medical students or be designated as a trauma center.
Presently, trauma patients who can't be treated in Northwest Indiana are flown to a designated trauma center in Chicago or the south suburbs.
"It makes no sense for the northwest corner of the state not to have a trauma center," Brown said.
Trauma centers are scattered throughout the state, with present locations including Indianapolis, Evansville, Fort Wayne and South Bend, McGee said.
With three major highways running through the region -- and the large number of gunshot and stab wounds in Gary -- a trauma center for Northwest Indiana makes sense, proponents of the idea argue.
If you want to go:
All health professionals are invited to attend the Trauma 2007 seminar Friday at the Radisson Hotel in Merrillville. Cost, including breakfast, lunch and dinner, is $100 for doctors and $50 for other health care professionals.
For reservations, call (800) 839-6624 by Wednesday.
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