Community groups have been raising red flags about a looming Regional Medical Center closure for weeks.
And on Monday, San Jose firefighters added to the chorus of voices in urging HCA, the hospital's owner, not to close the hospital's trauma center.
“I'm telling you right now, this is going to be the determination between the life and death of people,” Jerry May, president of the San Jose Firefighters Union, said.
He said his teams handle a lot of trauma patients to be transported to Regional, aaying every second counts. And any closure could mean a delay in treatment in an emergency.
“Every minute is a chance between life and death. In trauma, the first hour is very important to stabilize the patient. In stroke, every minute if you delay, you lose 1.9 million cells in the brain,” Dr. Raj Gupta, Regional neuroscience director, said.
In a statement, HCA said its goal is to provide excellent health care services to the east side community.
HCA said closing the trauma center impacts less than 2% of patients treated daily there.
Regarding the ongoing protests, HCA said, “This campaign against Regional Medical Center chooses exaggeration and theatrics to generate a false fear among members of the community we serve.”
“There’s no theatrics. What it comes down to is life and death, you can't put a price on that,” May said.
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The group said they’ve collected more than 7,200 signatures from doctors, nurses, and the broader medical staff at regional, urging State Attorney General Rob Bonta to intervene and halt the company's planned closure.
They plan to deliver those signatures directly to Bonta's office this week.
“Why, HCA, are you taking a lifeline from low income communities of color?” community leader Darcie Green said.
“We don’t want to be like a third world country. We should be a first world country with this population,” Dr. Rasik Kansara of Regional Medical Center said.
Firefighters also say a closure would have ramifications far beyond San Jose by pushing patients who would have gone to Regional, to other facilities already facing their own patient care and staffing challenges.
