Wednesday on “First Coast Connect,” we spoke with Chad McIntrye, manager of Trauma Flight Services with Trauma One at UF Health Jacksonville hospital and Dr. David Yorkgitis, who is a trauma acute-care surgeon. Yorkgitis heads up a mass casualty group in Jacksonville that prepares the local trauma team for crisis situations (01:12).
To commemorate Domestic Violence Awareness Month we spoke with new Hubbard House CEO Gail Patin (25:58).
Jacksonville Sister Cities Association President Dr. Tongila Manly told us about this week’s Sister Cities conference in Jacksonville and the organization’s 50th anniversary (34:50).
We heard about City Year Jacksonville with Regional Admissions Manager Zack Draper and team leader Quintin Griffin (43:47).
Trauma Center
The mass shooting spree strained the capabilities of first responders in Las Vegas to respond to such horrific carnage. Trauma units around the country do their best to prepare for such calamity, and it is a sad reality in America that they have to do so.
Jacksonville was home to - what was at the time - the worst single-day mass shooting in modern Florida history, when James Edward Pough killed nine people at a Baymeadows GMAC loan office in 1990, before taking his own life.
The trauma team at UF Health Jacksonville is always ready to leap into action to save lives, be it an accident on the freeway or multiple shootings.
Hubbard House
Law enforcement officials joined other advocates Tuesday, along with survivors, at a kickoff event to mark the start ofDomestic Violence Awareness Month. Some of those survivors also sounded words of warning at the release of the 2016 Domestic Violence Fatality Report. Fourteen of last year’s 17 cases of domestic homicide in our area involved male suspects, with 71 percent of the victims women. That’s the third straight year of higher male suspects and female victims.
Jacksonville Sister Cities Association
The Jacksonville Sister Cities Association is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. This week the group is commemorating the anniversary with a series of cultural events and community meetings with international visitors from around the world. One of Jacksonville’s Sister Cities is San Juan, Puerto Rico. San Juan is of course still struggling to recover from the devastation of Hurricane Maria.Jacksonville Sister Cities has been collecting supplies to send to Puerto Rico. A public event will be held Thursday evening at the downtown Main Library to highlight Jacksonville’s relationship with its eight Sister Cities around the world.
City Year Jacksonville
City Year Jacksonville is entering its fifth anniversary in the Duval County Public Schools this fall. City Year started as a small group of AmericaCorps members. And it’s grown over the years to placing young professionals in urban classrooms across the country, working to bridge the gap in high-poverty communities between the support that students actually need, and what their schools are designed and resourced to provide. The goal is to increase graduation rates.
Kevin Meerschaert can be reached at kmeerschaert@wjct.org, 904-358-6334 or on Twitter at @KMeerschaertJax.
