Chicago Police Cmdr. Ed Kulbida shares a laugh with Cook County trauma unit doctor Andrew Dennis. Kulbida was cared for by Dennis after being taken to Stroger Hospital with life-threatening gunshot wounds in 2014. (Photo by Kevin Beese/for Chronicle Media)

If not for the trauma team at Cook County’s Stroger Hospital — and some luck — Chicago police Cmdr. Ed Kulbida would not be here today.

On Oct. 7, 2014, Kulbida was shot in the head and shoulder by a suspect wanted for multiple shootings. The policeman said the paramedic in the ambulance told him that he was being taken to Stroger Hospital because “they are the best.”

“From the minute I was wheeled into the trauma unit of Stroger to the day I walked out, I was treated with the utmost professionalism by every employee I encountered,” Kulbida said. “The doctors and nurses made my family and I feel confident that I was going to be OK.”

He said at one point his doctor, Andrew Dennis, told he and his wife that Kulbida was the luckiest man on earth.

“He said if either bullet hit me a centimeter in either direction,” Kulbida likely would not have survived.

“Dr. Dennis was right. I was a very lucky person to be taken to a trauma center where every employee ensures that a patient is treated with great care,” the police commander added.

Kulbida was one of the people on hand Sept. 9 as Cook County celebrated the 50^th anniversary of the country’s first comprehensive trauma unit.

Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, county commissioners, health care professionals and patients marked the golden anniversary of the trauma unit, which started in a third-floor dining room of the hospital because it was the only available space.

Preckwinkle said the trauma unit continues to save lives through the skilled health care professionals that staff it 24 hours a day.

“The Cook County trauma unit is staffed by highly skilled doctors, nurses and health-care professionals — professionals who are very well-trained when it comes to dealing with the people who come through the door no matter what the time, no matter what the circumstance,” Preckwinkle said. “Over the past year, over 5,000 people have visited our trauma unit.”

Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle (center) talks with an individual prior to marking the 50th anniversary of Cook County’s trauma unit. (Photo by Kevin Beese/for Chronicle Media)

Kim Groth was taken to Stroger two years ago after an explosion left her with second- and third-degree burns all over her face, arms and chest. She remembers hearing her husband scream on the phone to a paramedic, “Why is she going to Cook County?”

“The paramedic assured him it was the best place for me to be and that if it was his wife that’s where he would send her,” Groth said. “When I arrived, I can’t express the care that I received. I was alone at the time — my family was meeting me here — and the people in the trauma unit treated me as if I was their family. They held my hand. They explained everything that was happening to me and they told me that I was going to be OK and I believed them.

“… They cured me. They got me through what was the most difficult time of my life … This is the most amazing place with the utmost professional individuals who are extremely knowledgeable, but most importantly their bedside manner was one that I will never, ever forget.”

Trauma center officials said they have seen an increase in gunshot victims and an increase in younger people being those victims.

Dr. Jay Shannon, CEO of the Cook County Health & Hospitals System, said it is difficult to put a price on just how taxing the increase in Chicago’s violence has been on the trauma unit because victims range from individuals with minor injuries to individuals paralyzed for life.

“There is the person who comes in and has an unsuccessful resuscitation and dies within an hour, (there is) the person who has a graze wound and is able to go home the same day and the person who has a debilitating spinal cord or brain injury and it leaves them in a dependent state for the rest of their life,” Shannon said. “Unfortunately, the victims of gun violence are more often than not young, and if they recover they may have a lifetime of complication. So it is very, very difficult to put your arms around the health-care associated costs.”

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— Cook County trauma unit’s success celebrated —