Community concerned over San Jose trauma center shutting down
SAN JOSE, Calif. (KRON) – The only trauma center in east side San Jose is likely going to shut down in August. The San Jose Regional Medical Center announced the closure earlier this year.
Community advocates say it will take east side San Jose residents 20-30 minutes longer to go to a hospital if they have a stroke or heart attack.
Now, community leaders are asking the state’s attorney general to investigate the hospital’s leadership. Outside the medical center Friday, local advocates and city leaders said they’re angry.
“It’s time for the community to take action. The people of east side San Jose refuse to stand by,” said San Jose City Councilmember Peter Ortiz.
Ortiz represents the area where the medical center is, and he says east side’s access to this hospital saved his mother’s life after she suffered a heart attack last year.
He formally requested California’s attorney general to investigate HCA Healthcare, a for-profit health care operator. HCA says its east side trauma center is shutting down partly due to fewer people using it. It will also slow down its stroke care unit.
But local leaders like single mother Jessica Dinjeson are calling foul. She says her family has had to depend on the trauma center.
“I’ve had to use it once myself, for my son, and once for my father in law,” she said. “He went there with a heart attack.”
Their lives were saved, but she says if the trauma center wasn’t there it may have been a different story.
“Someone can die in the time it takes them to be connected with something from the trauma center,” she said.
HCA sent KRON4 a statement that says, “Regional Medical Center is disappointed by the actions of certain officials and activists… We have been working diligently with Santa Clara County leaders to ensure the long-term well-being of our community’s health.”
But Jessica is not stopping any time soon, and she says her organization Latinas Contra Cancer believes the closure is discriminatory.
“It just feels like an attack on our side of San Jose. We should have equal access just like everyone else,” she said.
If the AG’s office doesn’t step in, the closure is set to go through with services to the trauma center ending on August 12.
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