Friday, March 22, 2013

HEALTH - A Look Inside a Newark (NJ) ER

"Emergency Room Doctor Returns to His Roots in 'Brick City'" PBS Newshour 3/20/2013

Excerpt

RAY SUAREZ (Newshour):  Dr. Sampson Davis is the fifth of six children in his family.  He was raised in Newark, N.J., in the 1970s.  He was surrounded by crime, drugs, and murders and by the notorious high-rise projects that earned Newark its nickname, Brick City.

Many of those high-rises have since been torn down.  Dozens of other buildings in the city's neighborhoods have been abandoned.  Newark remains one of the tougher urban areas in the country, with a third of its residents living below the poverty line.  The city's medical system also is under stress.

WOMAN:  Not ignoring you.  It's just that it's been very busy.

RAY SUAREZ:  Many residents lack access to primary care.  The city's three remaining emergency rooms -- three others were shut down in the last decade -- are often packed to capacity with patients.

After making a pact with two of his high school friends graduate medical school, Dr. Sampson Davis returned to Newark to work in the E.R. to try to make a difference.

DR. SAMPSON DAVIS, "Living and Dying in Brick City:  An E.R. Doctor Returns Home":  All right, let's go see another patient and fast-track.  Want to go out towards the waiting room.

RAY SUAREZ:  The lessons he learned there and the stories of the people he met and treated are the subject of a new book, "Living and Dying in Brick City:  An E.R. Doctor Returns Home."

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