Cooper University Hospital

Congratulations to Cooper University Hospital and Rowan University. They're holding a celebration today in Camden to mark their partnership to create a medical school. Gov. Brendan Byrne promised South Jersey a four-year medical school 30 years ago. But it took that long to get the right mixture of fate, politics, and economics needed to finally make it happen. There was that fateful day in April 2007 when Gov. Corzine was critically injured in a car wreck on the Garden State Parkway.

In a city synonymous with failure, Cooper University Hospital is the grand exception. Cooper's new glass and metal pavilion rises 10 stories over downtown Camden. It cost $220 million. The first class at its new $140 million medical school starts this summer. Nearby, rehabbed rowhouses on cobblestone streets create an oasis amid Camden's burned-out buildings. Behind it all is hospital board chairman George E. Norcross III, the insurance magnate who is now promoting Cooper with the same relentless focus that has made him very wealthy and arguably the top Democratic boss in New Jersey.

One man was killed, and a second was injured, when a truck they were riding in flipped on I-295 in Burlington County overnight, forcing officials to close part of the road for hours. The crash occurred just after 2 a.m. today at mile marker 43 southbound, approaching the Rancocas Woods / Delran exit. The two left lanes were reopened about 6:15 a.m. today and traffic was moving by rush hour. New Jersey State Police say two men were flown by helicopter to the trauma unit at Cooper University Hospital in Camden.

Two people were killed in a head-on crash this morning on The White Horse Pike in Clementon, Camden County, police said. A third person - a man - was reported in critical but stable condition at Cooper University Hospital in Camden. The two cars collided head on near Higgins Avenue about 3:30 a.m. Killed were a male and a female, whose names and ages were not immediately released. An investigation is under way.

A rush-hour car accident Friday evening closed both eastbound and westbound lanes of Route 70 near Cuthbert Boulevard in Cherry Hill. One man injured in the accident was taken to Cooper University Hospital, Cherry Hill police said. Authorities said one or both directions of Route 70 could be closed for hours. By 8:30, the highway was fully open, police said. The cause of the accident was under investigation.    - Shaj Mathew

Police are investigating two shootings in Camden that left one man dead and another wounded. The fatal shooting occurred about 4:10 p.m. Thursday on the 1600 block of Pulaski Street in the city's Liberty Park section. There police found Gary Boggs, 19, with multiple gunshot wounds. The Camden resident was taken to Cooper University Hospital, where he died a short time later. No word yet on a possible motive. At 1:40 a.m. Friday, a 27-year-old Camden man walked into Cooper's emergency room with a gunshot wound to the leg. He told police he was driving in the area of Broadway and Berkley Street in the Lanning Square section, a few blocks from the hospital, when he heard gunfire and was hit. Officials said his wound was not life threatening.

A father and his 5-year-old son were killed, and a 3-year-old daughter was critically injured in a morning crash in South Jersey. Shortly after 7 a.m., their Pontiac Grand Prix collided with a tractor-trailer carrying a load of paper products on Route 40 near Buck Road in Pittsgrove Township, Salem County, according to state police. The father, 37, and his son died in the crash, and the daughter was flown by helicopter to Cooper University Hospital in Camden in critical condition.

One of two triplets injured in a Burlington County school bus crash that killed their sister was released Wednesday from Cooper University Hospital in Camden, a hospital spokesman woman said. Natalie Tezsla, 11, of Chesterfield, was discharged around 3 p.m., according to the spokeswoman. She was flown to Cooper with her sister Sophie and fellow Chesterfield Elementary School student Jonathan Zdybel, also 11, on Feb. 16 after a dump truck hit the bus in which they were riding and forced it into a traffic light pole.

Eight people were injured shortly before 7 p.m. Saturday when a school bus and an SUV crashed in the northbound lanes of I-676 in Camden near the Federal Street Exit, state police said. One vehicle sideswiped the other, authorities said, but further details were not available, including information about the owner of the bus. The injured, who were not believed to have been seriously hurt, were taken to Cooper University Hospital, police said. The accident briefly blocked four lanes of traffic.

A child and two adults were hospitalized today after the open-cockpit boat they were travelling in struck a pole marker in the Intracoastal Waterway off Egg Harbor Township around 5:30 p.m. A boy was taken by helicopter to Cooper University Hospital with abdominal injuries, said State Police Sgt. Stephen Jones. Two adults were transferred by ambulance to Atlantic City Medical Center. Jones said this evening that the investigation was ongoing and the names of those injured were not released.

One man was killed, and a second was injured, when a truck they were riding in flipped on I-295 in Burlington County overnight, forcing officials to close part of the road for hours. The crash occurred just after 2 a.m. today at mile marker 43 southbound, approaching the Rancocas Woods / Delran exit. The two left lanes were reopened about 6:15 a.m. today and traffic was moving by rush hour. New Jersey State Police say two men were flown by helicopter to the trauma unit at Cooper University Hospital in Camden.

A father and his 5-year-old son were killed, and a 3-year-old daughter was critically injured in a morning crash in South Jersey. Shortly after 7 a.m., their Pontiac Grand Prix collided with a tractor-trailer carrying a load of paper products on Route 40 near Buck Road in Pittsgrove Township, Salem County, according to state police. The father, 37, and his son died in the crash, and the daughter was flown by helicopter to Cooper University Hospital in Camden in critical condition.

Police are investigating two shootings in Camden that left one man dead and another wounded. The fatal shooting occurred about 4:10 p.m. Thursday on the 1600 block of Pulaski Street in the city's Liberty Park section. There police found Gary Boggs, 19, with multiple gunshot wounds. The Camden resident was taken to Cooper University Hospital, where he died a short time later. No word yet on a possible motive. At 1:40 a.m. Friday, a 27-year-old Camden man walked into Cooper's emergency room with a gunshot wound to the leg. He told police he was driving in the area of Broadway and Berkley Street in the Lanning Square section, a few blocks from the hospital, when he heard gunfire and was hit. Officials said his wound was not life threatening.

A rush-hour car accident Friday evening closed both eastbound and westbound lanes of Route 70 near Cuthbert Boulevard in Cherry Hill. One man injured in the accident was taken to Cooper University Hospital, Cherry Hill police said. Authorities said one or both directions of Route 70 could be closed for hours. By 8:30, the highway was fully open, police said. The cause of the accident was under investigation.    - Shaj Mathew

A Camden man died last week, almost three months after suffering multiple gunshot wounds, authorities said Monday. Tyhan Brown, 31, was shot Jan. 14 while sitting in a parked car in the 600 block of Third Street in Camden. He was first treated at Cooper University Hospital, according to the Camden County Prosecutor's Office and Camden police. Brown was later moved to a hospice at Kennedy University Hospital-Stratford, where he died on Wednesday. The cause of death was not released Monday.

A school bus collided with a sport utility vehicle in Atlantic County on Thursday injuring 18 students, Galloway Township police said. The crash happened at about 3:37 p.m. at the intersection of Moss Mill Road and Old Port Road in the township. The 18 Smithville Elementary School students were transported to local hospitals with minor injuries. Twelve other students on the bus were not injured. The driver of the SUV, a Galloway Township resident whose name as not released, suffered head and neck injuries, police said.

In a city synonymous with failure, Cooper University Hospital is the grand exception. Cooper's new glass and metal pavilion rises 10 stories over downtown Camden. It cost $220 million. The first class at its new $140 million medical school starts this summer. Nearby, rehabbed rowhouses on cobblestone streets create an oasis amid Camden's burned-out buildings. Behind it all is hospital board chairman George E. Norcross III, the insurance magnate who is now promoting Cooper with the same relentless focus that has made him very wealthy and arguably the top Democratic boss in New Jersey.

The last student to remain hospitalized following a Burlington County school bus crash last month that killed a classmate was to be moved to a rehabilitation facility on Wednesday, according to a Cooper University Hospital spokeswoman. Sixth grader Jonathan Zdybel, 11, had been at Cooper in Camden since he was seriously injured in the Feb. 16 crash of the bus and a dump truck in Chesterfield Township. Jonathan left Cooper around noon, the spokeswoman said. His next stop was to be Nemours/Alfred I. du Pont Hospital for Children, according to a post by his family on the "Prayers for the Zdybels" Facebook page.

A Chesterfield Township sixth-grade student who was seriously injured in a school bus crash that killed a classmate last month has been moved to from Cooper University Hospital in Camden to the Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children in Wilmington. A Cooper spokeswoman confirmed that Jonathan Zdybel, 11, left the hospital around noon. According to a posting by his family on the "Prayers for the Zdybels" Facebook page, Jonathan was going to the Wilmington facility to continue his rehabilitation.