Hospital closure leaves son with nowhere to take dying mother in Fentress County
FENTRESS COUNTY, Tenn. (WZTV) — Only one other state has had more hospitals close than Tennessee, and Jamestown Regional Medical Center in Fentress County became one of those shuttered former bastions of care in June of 2019.
John Ramirez has lived with his mother in Jamestown for more than a decade, and earlier this fall, Maria Ramirez became unconscious. Scared and worried, John got in the car with his mother not breathing.
The hospital was closed, so he drove her to her primary care clinic across the street. Dr. Richard Clarke and his team rushed outside with a small emergency bag that is the closest thing they have to an emergency room. Using a defibrillator, they tried to re-start Maria's heart.
"With heart stoppage, four minutes is a long time for the brain. Ten minutes is almost unrecoverable," Dr. Clarke explained.
"They asked me, 'how far did you drive,'" John Ramirez remembered.
Clarke and his team got a heartbeat and revived Maria Ramirez until an ambulance could arrive to take her to the closest hospital 30 miles away in Crossville. Unfortunately, Crossville's ICU was full (they see a lot of Jamestown Regional's old business), and a helicopter had to take her on a life flight to Cookeville.
Maria Ramirez passed away ten days later. When oxygen had not gotten to her brain, she went into a coma.
"It still hurts me, my mom not being here," John said through tears.
Taking his concern a step further, Dr. Clarke said, "I'm afraid for people here. You can do a lot of dying between here and Crossville."
Fear is felt across Tennessee. Rural hospitals are closing, especially in poorer areas where the patients are almost entirely on Medicare. Reimbursement rates from Medicare patients are a fraction of what private insurance companies pay for the same treatments. Ramirez says not having a hospital feels like a loss of "security."
Fortunately, there is hope. Clarke's Acute Medical Clinic is owned by Johnny Presley who recently bought Cumberland Regional Medical Center in Celina. He plans to reopen that shuttered Clay County hospital.
"I think you're going to see small people America raise cane because they're wanting their local services back," said Presley who has also launched a bid for Lamar Alexander's Senate seat thanks to frustration over America's health care system.
However, in towns across Tennessee, people feel John's pain. Where do they turn when an emergency occurs. As long as hospital doors remain closed, there is no easy answer in Fentress County and elsewhere.
