Chicago’s Mount Sinai Hospital had to redirect patients coming via ambulance to neighboring trauma centers over the weekend due to the excessive number of shootings on the city’s west side.
Mount Sinai Hospital, one of five trauma centers in Chicago, had reached max capacity, forcing them to temporarily turn patients away after seven were killed and 46 injured in shootings over the weekend, CBS Chicago News 2 reported.
At one point, the hospital peaked with 12 patients in trauma, CNN reported.
Roberta Rakove, Senior VP for External Affairs said the hospital went “on bypass” early Sunday morning, diverting ambulances with trauma patients to other hospitals. The hospital came “off bypass” at approximately 6:30 am.
Rakove was unable to say precisely when the hospital went on bypass or how often something like this occurs, however, she did mention that in 2018, they saw a weekend with more than 70 shootings.
About that particular weekend, Rakove said, “All Level 1 trauma centers were overwhelmed, but we all managed. This weekend was not that kind of weekend, but it was enough.”
The incidents are all still being investigated.
Anthony Guglielmi, Chicago Police Department’s Public Information Officer, said there were quite a few gang-related shootings, resulting in numerous shooting victims on Chicago’s west side.
The first shooting happened in Douglas Park, when a black Chevrolet Camaro drove by and sprayed a barrage of bullets at people in the park, injuring seven.
Three hours later, eight people were shot in Lawndale when a shooting erupted at a block party, killing one and injuring seven.
No one is in custody for either of the first two shootings.
In the Greater Grand Crossing neighborhood, a silver Sedan fired on a car full of people on Sunday.
There were also a number of individual shootings that took place over the weekend, injuring several victims.
During a press conference, Johnson detailed the violence and also noted the two mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio that took place over the weekend within hours of each other leaving at least 29 dead and countless injured.
Johnson said, “You have to stop yourself and ask what it will take before we get a handle on what’s going on. Not only in Chicago, but across the country.”
He added, “From police departments to the court systems to prosecutors to legislators — we have to come together and figure out more common-sense solutions to these problems because clearly too many of our citizens are being shot and killed.”
