The 21st Show

Level I Trauma Centers; Illinois Politics Update; Getting Rid Of Stormwater

By Niala Boodhoo, Robin Linn, Alan Montecillo and Fatima Farha
 

Airman Magazine (CC BY-NC 2.0)

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On The 21st: Why Level I Trauma Centers—which treat traumatic injuries including gunshot wounds—can be hard to come by, depending on where you live in Illinois. Plus, what's behind the sudden political debate about whether to change our state's flat income tax? And, what University of Illinois students are doing to address the problem of stormwater pollution.

Level I Trauma Centers are places that are capable of handling any type of medical emergency. But depending on where you live in Illinois, it’s not unusual to travel an hour or two to get the critical care you need.

For nearly 30 years, the south side of Chicago didn’t have an adult level one trauma center. Last week, University of Chicago Medicine opened its new Level I trauma program, meaning that patients in the area will no longer have to travel for miles in order to reach specialized medical attention.

Lisa Schencker has been reporting on this for the Chicago Tribune, and she joined us to talk about what this looks like in the city. Then, we were joined  from Springfield is Dr. John Sutyak, Director of the Southern Illinois Trauma Center at Memorial Medical Center in Springfield. We also heard from Dr. Richard Fantus, director of the Illinois Trauma Advisory Council and a trauma surgeon at Advocate lllinois Masonic.

Chicago’s South Side hasn’t had a Level I Trauma Center in almost 30 years.Tune in to hear about the new @UChicagoMed #Trauma center & trauma care in the rest of IL@lschencker @chicagotribune @advocatehealth @siusomhttps://t.co/LY3ExXDn6O

Plus—

State lawmakers now have about three weeks to agree on a budget for the state government. Democrats and Republicans have also been arguing over the state’s flat income tax even though a change like that can’t happen without a constitutional amendment.

And there’s also a legal battle—between Republican Senate Minority Leader Bill Brady, and Senator Sam McCann who has launched a third party bid for governor.

As always, there’s a lot going on in state politics, and we were joined this Monday morning by two Springfield political reporters to help make sense of it all. Mark Maxwell, Capitol Bureau Chief for WCIA3, and Brian Mackey, who reports on politics and government for Illinois Public Radio. 

And—

Heavy rain and thunderstorms this past week brought down lots of water. Thankfully, it wasn’t enough rain to cause flooding - but we know that Illinois’s had our share of floods over the past few years.

The problem in many cases is too much cement. But a team of students at the U of I has taken on this challenge and came up with a design to help prevent stormwater pollution. And that design just won first place in a national EPA Campus RainWater Challenge.

We were joined by Jessica Wiegand, one of the students on the team and a senior in the College of Engineering. Professor Arthur Schmidt, from the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, is one of the advisers for the team and also joined us in the studio.

Story source: WILL