A 17-year-old boy walked into St. Bernard Hospital in Englewood around 2:50 a.m. Sunday with gunshot wounds to his shoulder and chin, and police have not identified where he was shot. He took himself to the hospital.
Chicago police said the teen took himself to the hospital, according to the Chicago Sun-Times, and that officers were unable to determine where or when the shooting actually happened. He was listed in fair condition before being transferred to Stroger Hospital for further treatment. St. Bernard, located at 326 W. 64th St., is the reason Chicago police ended up on scene at all despite the missing crime scene: under Illinois statute 20 ILCS 2630/3.2, hospitals are legally required to notify local law enforcement whenever they treat a patient for a firearm injury who did not arrive with police, according to the Illinois General Assembly.
Because the injury was reported at the hospital rather than at a confirmed shooting location, police began their response there and have not identified where the shooting occurred.
Transfer to Stroger Hospital
That elsewhere, in this case, was John H. Stroger, Jr. Hospital in the Illinois Medical District. Stroger operates one of the busiest Level 1 trauma centers in the country, treating about 120,000 emergency patients a year, according to Cook County Health.
Hospital-Based Violence-Intervention Programs
The Health Alliance for Violence Intervention directory lists Chicago-based hospital programs including Trauma Recovery & Injury Prevention and the Violence Recovery Program at the University of Chicago. The supplied directory entry documents the programs’ existence but does not specify the populations they serve or their outcomes…