When a stray pit bull attacked 12-year-old Dontae Adams last August, tearing a chunk of the boy’s upper lip from his face, his mother took him to the University of Chicago Medical Center. Instead of rushing Dontae into surgery, however, Angela Adams said, the hospital’s staff began pressing her about insurance. “I asked them why that should matter. My child’s lip was literally gone,” said Adams, a medical assistant whose only insurance is her son’s Medicaid coverage. Adams said she demanded that the medical staff admit Dontae but that they refused. The emergency room staff gave Dontae a tetanus shot, a dose of morphine, prescriptions for antibiotics and Tylenol 3, and told Adams to “follow up with Cook County” in one week, according to medical center documents. Panicked, Adams took her son on a bus that night for the hourlong journey to John Stroger Hospital. With bloody gauze pressed to the boy’s face, they arrived at 5 a.m. Dontae was quickly admitted for surgery so his lip could be fixed and his speech preserved. He’s fortunate that his mother knew what to do,” said Dr. Mark Grevious, the plastic surgeon who reconstructed Dontae’s lip. “This was an urgent matter, and it needed to be addressed.” Dontae’s experience captures the fears of many South Side residents and health advocates after an announcement this week that the university’s medical center plans to expand a bold yet controversial program aimed at clearing its ER of patients with non-urgent injuries and illnesses by redirecting them to community hospitals and clinics.
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http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-ucmedicalfeb15,0,136871.story
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