Illinois
Illinois will provide burial for migrant toddler who died on bus from Texas
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Illinois will provide for Thursday’s funeral and burial for the migrant toddler who died last week on a bus headed to Chicago from Texas, officials said.
Jismary Alejandra Barboza González, who would have turned 4 next week, died Aug. 10 while on a chartered bus, part of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s program begun last year of sending migrants crossing into the state to Democratic-led cities across the country.
Rachel Otwell, spokesperson for the Illinois Department of Human Services, confirmed the girl’s name and said the Illinois Welcoming Center, a partially state-funded program, will cover burial costs for Jismary. The child’s great aunt, Gisela Gonzalez, said the family set out for the United States in May from their home in Colombia, where Jismary was born.
The funeral service for the girl is scheduled for Thursday at a church in Warsaw, Indiana.
Welcoming centers offer comprehensive services for migrants. But Otwell said the family has not requested other help.
Otwell declined to identify which of the 36 welcoming center locations would provide the service. Nor would she say from what country Jismary’s family had emigrated.
“Given the sensitivity of this tragic event, and the way migrancy has been unfortunately politicized, (the department) does not believe it is appropriate to share certain details, such as the exact center that has supported the family,” Otwell said.
SEE ALSO: 3-year-old child dies aboard asylum-seeker bus heading to Chicago area from Texas: sources
Jismary died Thursday while the bus traveled Interstate 57 through Marion County, in southern Illinois, about 90 miles east of St. Louis. County Coroner Troy Cannon’s autopsy was inconclusive as to the cause of death. He ordered microscopic tests of tissue samples from the child in a search for abnormalities. The coroner’s office said Wednesday it had no updates.
Gisela Gonzalez, who lives in Venezuela, said there was no indication that the child was in distress or needed medical attention before she apparently suffered cardiac arrest on the bus. She said Jismary’s parents faced down the treacherous Darien Gap and crossed five Central American countries and Mexico before turning themselves in at a U.S. immigration checkpoint.
According to the Texas Division of Emergency Management, passengers on the bus, which departed from the border city of Brownsville, were given temperature checks and asked about health conditions before boarding. The agency’s Friday statement confirming the girl’s death marked the first time Texas authorities have announced a death since it began shuttling migrants last August.
Texas officials said that when the child became ill, the bus pulled to the side of the road and on-board security personnel called emergency responders. Paramedics assisted the girl, but she later died at a hospital.
Abbott’s Operation Lone Star has dispatched 30,000 migrants who have crossed into Texas seeking asylum to Chicago, Washington, New York, Philadelphia, Denver and Los Angeles – so-called sanctuary cities – in a protest he says will end when President Joe Biden “secures the border.”
Winder reported from Chicago. Associated Press writer Valerie Gonzalez in McAllen, Texas, contributed.
Illinois
Daywatch: How Illinois hospitals ranked for safety
Good morning, Chicago.
Illinois ranks 30th in the nation for hospital safety, down two spots from the fall, according to new ratings released by the nonprofit Leapfrog Group today.
In all, 22% of Illinois hospitals earned A grades for safety from Leapfrog, compared to nearly 25% in the fall.
Illinois hospitals earning top marks include University of Chicago Medical Center and Rush University Medical Center. Five Endeavor Health hospitals in Evanston, Highland Park, Glenview, Elmhurst and Arlington Heights also earned As, as did six Northwestern Medicine hospitals in Huntley, DeKalb, Winfield, Geneva, Lake Forest and McHenry.
No Illinois hospital got an F grade this spring, though 15 hospitals across the state earned D grades.
Read the full story from the Tribune’s Lisa Schencker.
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Illinois
Illinois ranks 30th for hospital safety, down two spots from last year, says Leapfrog report
Illinois ranks 30th in the nation for hospital safety, down two spots from the fall, according to new ratings released by the nonprofit Leapfrog Group on Wednesday.
In all, 22% of Illinois hospitals earned A grades for safety from Leapfrog, compared to nearly 25% in the fall.
Illinois hospitals earning top marks include University of Chicago Medical Center and Rush University Medical Center. Five Endeavor Health hospitals in Evanston, Highland Park, Glenview, Elmhurst and Arlington Heights also earned As, as did six Northwestern Medicine hospitals in Huntley, DeKalb, Winfield, Geneva, Lake Forest and McHenry.
No Illinois hospital got an F grade this spring, though 15 hospitals across the state earned D grades.
The hospital safety grade report is released twice a year by the Leapfrog Group, a nonprofit founded by large employers and other organizations that buy health insurance. Leapfrog grades are based on 22 measures of safety, including hand hygiene, falls and trauma, and death rates among surgical patients with serious but treatable complications. Leapfrog gathers its data from the federal government and a survey it sends to hospitals.
Leapfrog is one of a number of organizations that grade or rank hospitals each year — a practice that often sparks debate. Hospitals that earn high marks often advertise those ratings in hopes of gaining an edge over competitors, while hospitals that do poorly sometimes take issue with the methodologies used to judge them.
Four of the 15 Illinois hospitals earning D grades this spring are part of Advocate Health Care, one of the largest hospital systems in the Chicago area. Those hospitals include: Advocate Good Samaritan in Downers Grove; Advocate South Suburban in Hazel Crest; Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn; and Advocate Trinity in Chicago. Five other Advocate hospitals earned Cs. The Advocate hospitals received the same grades in the fall.
Advocate said in a statement that while it believes safety and quality data should be transparent and publicly available, it can be challenging to accurately measure that data because of “varied factors and methodologies that contribute to providing great care.”
“Safety always has been and always will be our top priority, and we have robust plans in place to drive continued improvement,” Advocate said in the statement. “We’re proud of our safety record and the excellent outcomes we achieve for our patients.”
West Suburban Medical Center in Oak Park and Weiss Memorial Hospital in Uptown also notched Ds. The for-profit hospitals underwent several ownership changes in recent years. Hospital chain giant Tenet Health sold the hospitals to California-based Pipeline Health in 2019. Pipeline then sold the hospitals to Resilience Healthcare in 2022, after Pipeline faced backlash from community members and politicians over its closure of Westlake Hospital in Melrose Park.
Attempts to reach Resilience for comment were unsuccessful Monday and Tuesday.
Thorek Memorial and Roseland Community hospitals in Chicago also received Ds. Attempts to reach them for comment were also unsuccessful.
In a bright spot, three Illinois hospitals, including University of Chicago Medical Center, Northwestern Medicine Central DuPage Hospital in Winfield and Endeavor Health Elmhurst Hospital are among 15 hospitals nationwide that have earned straight As since 2012.
University of Chicago Medical Center has a number of initiatives, such as those focused on reducing patient falls and infections, that help keep patients safe, said Dr. Tom Spiegel, UChicago Medicine chief quality officer.
“The continued As just really highlight the focus our front-line providers put on patient safety and just emphasize the care they use in their daily job,” Spiegel said.
Other large Chicago area hospitals had mixed grades.
Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood earned a C, the same grade as in the fall. Northwestern Memorial Hospital earned a B, up from a C in the fall. Different ratings organizations use different methodologies, often resulting in varying grades for hospitals. In contrast to Leapfrog, U.S. News & World Report ranks Northwestern Memorial as tied with Rush University Medical Center for best hospital in the state.
Illinois
Evansville’s Ben Humrichous commits to Illinois
Illinois needs some size in the worst way, and it picked up a big frontcourt presence.
Evansville’s Ben Humrichous (pronounced Hum-Rick-House) committed to the Illini with one year of eligibility remaining, according to an Instagram post Tuesday night.
The 6-foot-9 forward began his collegiate career at Huntington University (NAIA) in Indiana before transferring to Evansville last season. He’s a native of Tipton, Ind., just north of Indianapolis.
Take a look at some highlights below:
Humrichous averaged 14.9 points and 4.7 rebounds per game last season for the Purple Aces, finishing 42% from three (on 82 attempts, so not a small sample size). He scored a season-high 29 points in a game against Chattanooga.
Not a high-major prospect, but definitely some upside there, especially once Fletch and Orlando Antigua get a look at him.
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