Some may already know my story, but I was one of the first patients to be treated at Ocala Regional Medical Center’s trauma center when it opened. I had a splenic artery aneurysm and died twice before the excellent doctors at Ocala revived me and saved my life. Back in June I wrote about my story for the Saint Peters Blog, pleading to keep Ocala’s trauma center open. Another publication’s article by Capt. Gail Lazenby of The Villages Public Safety Department about the 1st District Court of Appeals’ decision putting Ocala in danger of closing made me feel the need to write again.
My experience and my life are testaments to the lifesaving care the trauma center in Ocala provides our community. There is no doubt in my mind that if the Ocala trauma center did not exist, I would not be here today to tell my story.
There are many others who also owe their lives to the amazing care provided by trauma doctors like Dr. Darwin Ang and Dr. Alejandro Garcia at ORMC, who saved my life. So the Department of Health can hear these stories and our community’s need to keep the trauma center at Ocala Regional, we need to hold a community forum to collectively voice our opinions and to ask Shands to back off its campaign to shut down our community’s local access to lifesaving trauma care right here in Marion County. Shands should not be able to risk lives in our community just to pad its pockets by monopolizing trauma patients.
This letter to the editor ran on page 7 on 10/16/2013 under the headline "Keep trauma center at ORMC open"
