Sometimes we just don’t know how fortunate we really are. If we get sick or have an accident we just go to the nearest emergency room and they pull us back from the brink of death.
But, other North Carolinians aren’t that lucky. I’ve just returned from the town of Belhaven on our state’s coast. What’s happening there makes me sick.
Belhaven’s hospital was built in the 1940’s with money raised by town-folk to serve everyone regardless of income. In 2011, it was bought out by Vidant Health. Two years later Vidant announced that it was closing the hospital for financial reasons.
That decision has left more than 20,000 people in 2 counties without emergency services and many now must travel an hour or more to reach an emergency room.
People are dying.
One was a 16-year-old whose tractor turned over on him at his family farm. With no nearby emergency room they had to call for a Medevac helicopter, but by the time it arrived, he was beyond saving.
Meanwhile, the hospital stood closed just 10 minutes away.
Belhaven wants to buy back its hospital, but the current owners, Pantego Creek LLC, wants to demolish it so Vidant can maximize its profits in another facility.
Belhaven’s mayor is determined not to let that happen. He and others now keep a 24 hour watch, sleeping in tents across from the empty hospital, to stop the bulldozers if they show up.
For more information on how you can join the watch and help our Belhaven neighbors, just go to saveourhospital.org.
— Vicki Ryder
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