morehouse - Blogs - TheBlackList Pub2024-03-29T08:33:03Zhttps://www.theblacklist.net/profiles/blogs/feed/tag/morehouseMorehouse School of Medicine, and Kingston Public Hospital, Jamaica - Examine the Financial & Societal Cost of Gun Violencehttps://www.theblacklist.net/profiles/blogs/morehouse-school-of-medicine-and-kingston-public-hospital-2017-06-22T13:30:00.000Z2017-06-22T13:30:00.000ZBronx Scoophttps://www.theblacklist.net/members/BronxScoop<div><ul><li><span class="font-size-4"><strong><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}3828595774,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img width="550" src="{{#staticFileLink}}3828595774,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-full" alt="3828595774?profile=original" /></a>The Costs of Gun Violence is Visually Explored By Morehouse School of Medicine</strong></span></li><li><span style="color:#993300;" class="font-size-3"><strong><em>Using an Infographic the School Examines the Financial & Societal Tolls in the United States.</em></strong></span></li></ul><p>In a ground-breaking infographic presentation, <span class="xn-org">Morehouse School of Medicine</span>(MSM) explores the financial and societal tolls of gun violence in <span class="xn-location">the United States</span>, as well as the <span class="xn-location">Atlanta</span> area. </p><p>"I see the physical effects every day in the operating room," says <span class="xn-person">Omar Danner</span>, M.D., FACS, associate professor and director of trauma, critical care and advanced laparoscopy for MSM at Grady Memorial Hospital.</p><p>Danner has joined other MSM researchers on countless research to explore this topic including, <a class="linkOnClick" href="https://www.gapha.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/17s.pdf" target="_blank">Violence Related injuries among Individuals Admitted to A Level I Trauma Center in Atlanta, 2011-2013</a>. This research found that:</p><p class="prnml40" id="indentid">"Of the total number of patients admitted to the trauma center (2,859), the majority were male (89%), African American (80%), and 20-39 years old (61%). The breakdown of VRI patients by the type of VRI shows that the majority (55%) were admitted to the center because of gunshot wounds followed by assaults (33%)."</p><p>Danner adds, "Now that we have identified the problem, the solution just can't be patching up young people to return them to violence in their communities. We hope that sharing these numbers visually will incite changes." </p><p>MSM faculty, staff and students continue work to identify health disparities in communities around the world, through work like this. The school's mission driven work is leading the creation and advancement of health equity.</p><p><b>About <span class="xn-org">Morehouse School of Medicine</span> (MSM)</b></p><p>Founded in 1975, <span class="xn-org">Morehouse School of Medicine</span> (MSM) is among the nation's leading educators of primary care physicians, biomedical scientists and public health professionals. In 2011, MSM was recognized by Annals of Internal Medicine as the nation's No. 1 medical school in fulfilling a social mission. MSM faculty and alumni are noted for excellence in teaching, research and public policy, as well as exceptional patient care.</p><p><span class="xn-org">Morehouse School of Medicine</span> is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to award doctoral and master's degrees. To learn more about programs and donate today, please visit <a class="linkOnClick" href="http://www.msm.edu/" target="_blank">www.msm.edu</a> or call 404-752-1500.</p><p><span class="xn-org">Morehouse School of Medicine</span> (MSM)<br /> <a title="Link to http://www.msm.edu" href="http://www.msm.edu/" class="linkOnClick" target="_blank">http://www.msm.edu</a></p><p><em><span style="color:#993300;"><strong><span class="xn-location"><span><span>ATLANTA</span></span></span>, <span class="xn-chron">June 21, 2017</span></strong><strong> /PRNewswire/ --</strong> </span></em></p><p></p><p><span><span><span><span style="color:#ff0000;" class="font-size-6"><strong>Big Bill For Gunshots - KPH Spending $400,000 A Day To Treat Victims Of Gunshot Wounds </strong></span></span></span><span class="ShortLink__link___145K3"><span><span><a href="http://j.mp/2tSkle0">http://j.mp/2tSkle0</a></span></span></span></span></p><p>Crime and violence have not only posed a serious threat to the security of Jamaicans, with an average of 28 murders per week and 672 killings up to June 17 this year, but taxpayers are paying a high price for gun conflicts. The Kingston Public Hospital (KPH) alone is spending an estimated $400,000 a day to treat victims of gunshot wounds.</p><p>In a presentation that left members of a select committee of Parliament stunned, Dr Ann Jackson-Gibson, an anaesthetist at the KPH, revealed yesterday that it has cost the country almost $80 million to treat victims of gun violence at the KPH since the start of the year.</p><p>At the same time, Dr Elizabeth Ward who, along with Jackson-Gibson, made a joint submission to the special select committee of Parliament examining the Law Reform Zones of Special Operations legislation, said that in 2014, it cost taxpayers $3.68 billion to provide direct medical care to victims of violence at 22 hospitals across Jamaica.</p><p>Ward said that the cost of social-intervention programmes in communities dubbed hotspots, which could significantly reduce the burden on hospitals, was $1.3 billion. "Where are we spending our money?" she asked.</p><p>Ward said that when effective community interventions were being funded in the past, non-governmental organisations were able to reduce by 50 per cent the number of gunshot wounds seen at the KPH.</p><p>The Zones of Special Operations bill sets out social-intervention measures to rebuild crime-plagued communities. This would take effect after the prime minister declares an area a zone for special operations, which would allow the security forces to search places, vehicles, or persons within specific locations without a warrant.</p><p>Jackson-Gibson pointed out that between January and June 20 this year, 28 persons who received gunshot wounds were admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the KPH. Of the 28 persons, four died after being treated for between 20 and 25 days in the ICU.</p><p>She told the committee that based on available data, the average gunshot victim stays in the ICU for seven days.</p><h3>Gunshot victims cost KPH $80 million since the start of the year</h3><p>Dr Ann Jackson-Gibson painted a stark picture of patients who have been waiting to have elective surgery but have had to give way to emergencies occasioned by violent incidents.</p><p>"When you extrapolate that to the number of admissions, you are talking about almost 200 ICU admission days. When medical care such as room and board, salaries, ventilators, among other pieces of equipment, is itemised, it is looking more like $400,000 per day," Jackson-Gibson said.</p><p>"When you multiply that, you are talking about the hospital spending and taking resources out of the system to the tune of $80 million from the start of the year," the medical practitioner noted, adding that this was just KPH alone, with the medical costs incurred as a result of gunshot wounds at other hospitals not taken into account. <strong><a href="http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/lead-stories/20170622/big-bill-gunshots-kph-spending-400000-day-treat-victims-gunshot-wounds" target="_blank">CONTINUES<br /><span class="jg-published">Published:<span class="jg-published-created">Thursday | June 22, 2017 </span></span></a><a href="http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/lead-stories/20170622/big-bill-gunshots-kph-spending-400000-day-treat-victims-gunshot-wounds" target="_blank"><br /></a></strong></p><p></p><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr" xml:lang="en">Morehouse School of Medicine - Kingston Public Hospital, Jamaica - Report: Financial & Societal Cost of Gun Violence <a href="https://t.co/iWssg9m1In">https://t.co/iWssg9m1In</a> <a href="https://t.co/psRcsSBvvI">pic.twitter.com/psRcsSBvvI</a></p>— Kwasi Akyeampong (@theblacklist) <a href="https://twitter.com/theblacklist/status/877888419694641152">June 22, 2017</a></blockquote><p></p><p></p><p></p></div>An Open Letter to Martin Luther Kinghttps://www.theblacklist.net/profiles/blogs/an-open-letter-to-martin2009-01-18T03:17:12.000Z2009-01-18T03:17:12.000ZTheBlackListhttps://www.theblacklist.net/members/TheBlackList<div>by Philip Emeagwali
<a href="http://emeagwali.com">emeagwali.com</a>
Walk with me down memory lane. The time: 1968. In 30 months, one million dead. The setting: a dusty camp in Biafra where survivors waited and hoped for peace. The survivors: Refugees fleeing from the “Dance of Death.” My mentor: One of the refugee camp directors, whom I called “Teacher” out of respect.
“Martin Luther King has been killed,” Teacher said, with a pained voice and vacant eyes. I looked towards Teacher, wondering: “Who is Martin Luther King?” I was a 13-year-old refugee in the west African nation of Nigeria, a land then called Biafra. Martin Luther King. What did that name mean?
Eight out of ten Biafrans were refugees exiled from their own country. Two years earlier, Christian army officers had staged a bloody coup killing Muslim leaders. The Muslims felt the coup was a tribal mutiny of Christian Igbos against their beloved leaders. The aggrieved Muslims went on a killing rampage, chanting: “Igbo, Igbo, Igbo, you are no longer part of Nigeria!” In the days that followed, 50,000 Igbos were killed in street uprisings.
Killing was not new to us in Biafra. I was 13, but I knew much of killing. Widows and orphans were most of the refugees in our camp. They had survived the Igbo “Dance of Death” — a euphemism for the mass executions. One thousand men at gunpoint forced to dance a public dance. Seven hundred were then shot and buried en masse in shallow graves. When told to hurry up and return to his regular duty, one of the murderers said: “The graves are not yet full.”
A few days later, with only the clothes on our backs, we fled from this “Dance of Death.” That was six months before Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. Teacher and I were eventually conscripted into the Biafran army and sent to the front, two years after our escape.
After the war, Teacher – who had taught me the name of Martin Luther King — was among the one million who had died. I — a child soldier – was one of the fifteen million who survived.
Africa is committing suicide: a two-decade war in Sudan, genocidal killings in Rwanda, scorched-earth conflicts in Ethiopia, Somalia, Uganda, and Liberia. The wars in modern Africa are the largest global-scale loss of life since the establishment of the Atlantic Slave trade, which uprooted and scattered Africa’s sons and daughters across the United States, Jamaica, and Brazil.
Africa’s wars are steering the continent toward a sea of self-destruction so deep that even the greatest horror writers are unable to fathom its depths. So, given our circumstances, Martin Luther King was a name unknown, a dead man among millions, with a message that never reached the shores of Biafra.
Neither did his message reach the ears of “The Black Scorpion,” Benjamin Adekunle, a tough Nigerian army commander, whose credo of ethnic cleansing knew nothing of Martin Luther King Jr.’s movement: “We shoot at everything that moves, and when our forces move into Igbo territory, we even shoot things that do not move.”
As we heed Martin Luther King Jr.’s call, and march together across the world stage, let us never forget that we who have witnessed and survived the injustice of such nonsensical wars are the torchbearers of his legacy of peace for our world, our nation, and our children.
Transcribed from <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DueTTHYPnM">speech</a> delivered by <a href="http://emeagwali.com">Philip Emeagwali</a> on April 4, 2008 at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia at the commemoration of the 40th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination. The entire transcript and <a href="http://youtube.com/emeagwali">video</a> are posted at <a href="http://emeagwali.com">emeagwali.com</a>.
<b>Philip Emeagwali was inducted into the gallery of <a href="http://emeagwali.com/africa/100-greatest-africans/historys-greatest-black-achievers.pdf">history's 70 greatest black achievers</a> by the International Slavery Museum and into the Gallery of Prominent Refugees by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
Philip Emeagwali has been called “a father of the Internet” by <a href="http://cnnstudentnews.cnn.com/fyi/interactive/specials/bhm/story/black.innovators.html#1">CNN</a> and <a href="http://www.time.com/time/2007/blackhistmth/bios/04.html">TIME</a>; praised as an “unorthodox innovator [who] has pushed back the boundaries of oilfield science” by a leading European oil and gas industry journal; extolled as “one of the great minds of the Information Age” by former US president <a href="http://emeagwali.com/video/president-bill-clinton/one-of-the-great-minds-of-the-information-age.wmv">Bill Clinton</a>, and voted history’s 35th greatest African by <a href="http://emeagwali.com/media/africa/greatest-africans-of-all-times.pdf">New African</a>. He won the 1989 Gordon Bell Prize, the Nobel Prize of supercomputing.</b>
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