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AUSTIN WEEKLY news ■
Vol. 32 No. 29
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Arlene Jones on Snoop the Barbers’ death,
July 18, 2018
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austinweeklynews.com
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Also serving Garfield Park
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West Siders walk for wellness Rush University, along with community groups, organized this year’s walks By IGOR STUDENKOV Contributing Reporter
The rain that fell intermittently on the morning of July 14 didn’t keep around 45 people from coming to this year’s first Westside Walk to Wellness. And the rain stopped long enough to allow them to complete a mile-long walk around the Garfield Park lagoon. The event was organized by Rush University Medical Center in collaboration with the Chicago Park District, Garfield Park Community Council and Garfield Park area clergy. It was the brainchild of Rush medical student Kristen Obiakor, who wanted to do something to make a difference in communities that historically suffer from the lack of health resources. The wellness walks will take place every Saturday for the next eight weeks. They start at 10:00 a.m. at the Garfield Park Golden Dome fieldhouse’s main staircase, 100 N. Central Park Ave. New participants can come to any walk. As Obiakor explained, the idea happened between her first and second year studying at Rush. That was the only time during her medical education that she See WELLNESS WALK on page 6
ALEXA ROGALS/Staff Photographer
AWE-QUA INSPIRING: Campers check out the fish swimming in the aquarium on Friday, July 13, 2018, during the first stop of the Shedd Aquarium’s traveling aquarium at Columbus Park in Austin. For more photos, page 4.
Area hospital launches new opioid treatment Opioid-addicted mothers now remain with infants at West Suburban Medical Center By MICHAEL ROMAIN Editor
Across the country and in Illinois, in particular, the number of newborn babies who experience withdrawal from drugs used by their expectant mothers, particularly opioids, is skyrocketing. A recent analysis of Illinois Department of
Public Health data by Crain’s Chicago Business showed that in 2016 “nearly 3 of every 1,000 babies born in Illinois went through withdrawal, known as neonatal abstinence syndrome.” And that rate has “increased 53 percent over six years.” Typically, when babies show signs of withdrawal, they’re immediately separated from their mothers and given methadone or mor-
phine to help gradually wean them off of the drugs inside of their systems. The process can take anywhere from two weeks to one to two months — much longer and more expensive than the two-day hospital stay for infants who don’t have the syndrome. But that might be changing, albeit gradu-
Austin Chamber of Commerce on the move... 773.854.5848 • www.austinchicagochamber.com
See WEST SUBURBAN on page 8