Chris Kelly autopsy inconclusive; lots of questions about his last hours

The Cook County Medical Examiner's office completed its autopsy of onetime Rod Blagojevich confidante Christopher Kelly, but the office announced that more tests are needed.

The whole article is a must-read (I don't write that very often), but Chicago Breaking News is doing a great job keeping on top of a story that is very difficult to get a handle on:

(Kelly's girlfriend Clarissa) Flores-Buhelos initially told police that Friday night she received text messages from Kelly -- who was married but estranged from his wife -- saying that he had tried to kill himself, (Country Club Hills Mayor Dwight) Welch said.

She then arrived from Chicago at the Forest Lumber Co. parking lot -- near a storage yard owned by Kelly's company -- and found Kelly inside his car, covered in vomit. She pushed him into the passenger seat, Welch said, and apparently drove to Oak Forest Hospital.

What happened there, and the kind of medical care Kelly received after arriving, are among the remaining mysteries behind his death.

After initially seeming incoherent, Kelly apparently became lucid enough to speak to police and was, at one point early Saturday morning, stabilized.

But Kelly got worse, and was transferred to another Cook County-run hospital, John Stroger, which is on Chicago's West Side--25 miles away. There are several hospitals, probably a dozen, that are closer to Oak Forest, including some with trauma centers.

And why Oak Forest? Perhaps Kelly's girlfriend chose it because its the closest one to her home, but treating people with a stomach full of aspirin is not their long suit. From Oak Forest Hospital's web site:

Celebrating its 90th anniversary, Oak Forest Hospital, with more than 600 beds, provides the rehabilitation, chronic disease and long-term link in the Bureau's continuum of care. Located on a spacious, 340-acre campus in the southwest corner of Cook County, the hospital meets the needs of patients who require medical care and skills-training in a long-term setting.

Oak Forest Hospital's inpatient services include: long-term intermediate/supportive care, skilled nursing care, subacute care, comprehensive rehabilitation, and acute care units. Specialty programs include ventilator, palliative and AIDS units, as well as brain injury rehabilitation, pain management, and vocational services. Oak Forest was one of the first hospitals in the state to establish a program for ventilator-dependent individuals, persons who cannot breathe on their own. The facility now cares for an average of 30-35 patients with ventilator needs who require intensive monitoring and oversight.

But it doesn't have a trauma center. But "standard procedure," according to a Cook County Hospitals spokesman, dictates that patients who have been stabilized--and apparently Kelly had been for a while--be transferred to another county-run health care facility.

Oh, dear...government-run health care at work.

Stroger Hospital has a trauma center. Oh, only bureaucrats, the media (I guess that includes me), and people who work there call it Stroger. Everyone else knows it as "County."

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