The Latest
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Mount Sinai Preps for COVID-19 Patient Surge as Cases Rise
Rusted reds and fading yellows mark the entrance to Mt. Sinai Hospital on Chicago’s Near West Side, but as autumn’s colors are changing a new surge of Coronavirus—small yet significant—is being felt in one of the city’s safety net centers. We’ve been here before, both in the pandemic at and at this hospital. This is our eleventh—and final—story on...
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Race in Chicago: City's First Black Mayor Opened Political Doors
If there was one thing in life former Chicago Mayor Harold Washington loved, it was being mayor. “We’re number one, we’re number one, one, one,” he grinned and chanted with a female group of Chicago Bears fans during the team’s run to the 1986 Super Bowl title. Washington relished moments of levity, even in the midst of a titanic...
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Meet Chicago's New 14th Ward Boss
“I don’t see it that way,” said Aaron Ortiz when asked if he is the new political boss of Chicago’s 14th Ward. “To be honest,” the 29-year-old newly elected committeeperson added for good measure. In March, Ortiz, by just over 200 votes, handed Ed Burke his first-ever political defeat in the race to be committeeperson. Historically, it is the office...
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Dual Pandemics Push Staffers to Limits at Mount Sinai Hospital
At Chicago’s Mount Sinai Hospital, the dual pandemic of the novel coronavirus and the city’s gun violence problems are causing officials to constantly look for more space to treat a deluge of critically ill patients. According to hospital officials, approximately 90 percent of the facility’s intensive care unit beds are being used by coronavirus patients, but the unit is...
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From Basketball Court to Emergency Room: Chicago Nurses Say College Prepared Them For Ultimate Assist
Brooke Schulte and Peter Ryckbosch don’t feel like heroes. “I’m just doing my job that I was hired to do,” said 26-year old Schulte. “It’s hard for me to describe what I’m feeling when people call me a hero because I don’t feel that way,” echoed Pyckbosch, also 26. Day in and day out they don blue scrubs as...
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Caring for the Caregivers: Medical Providers Battling Stress of COVID-19 Pandemic
At Chicago’s Mount Sinai Hospital, more and more medical providers are finding themselves in need of help themselves. The stress of caring for patients with the coronavirus has caused an increase in those seeking relief from what can be described as either anxiety or a type of post-traumatic stress. “I would say we’ve seen at least a two-fold if...
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Chicago-Area Domestic Violence Calls Spike During Illinois' Stay-at-Home Order
The number of domestic violence calls in the city of Chicago and the greater Chicago area have seen “a marked increase,” according to figures released by the city and an advocacy group. “We are seeing a 15% increase in calls in the shelter-in-place time period over the same time period in 2019,” said Amanda Pyron, the executive director of The…
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Some Coronavirus Patients Face Long Road Back Even After Release From Hospital
For some people, recovering from coronavirus is simply a matter of time as they look to get through its symptoms. For others, being released from the hospital is just the beginning of their fight. Cris Delgado, 22, spent weeks in the hospital, intubated and on a ventilator, fighting delusions and sepsis. He ultimately beat the virus, through it wasn’t easy….
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Millions Spent on Legal Fees By 2 Top Illinois Pols As Coronavirus Slows Federal Investigation
Two of Illinois’ most prominent politicians spent a combined $800,000 in legal fees during the first three months of 2020. Still the coronavirus has had a definite impact on the ongoing federal investigation of political corruption. While the federal probe may have stalled in some ways in this time of plague, don’t for a minute think it is over. It...
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Inside Chicago's Other Pandemic: Gun Violence
On March 7, Joshua Love became a part of Chicago’s other pandemic. The 21-year old was shot, the single bullet severing his spinal cord. Long before the word coronavirus became a part of our lives, another public health crisis played out in Chicago on an almost daily basis: people being shot. That crisis has not abated. Love is now a...
