Losing a Lifeline -- What Happened when Milam County's Two Hospitals Closed
CAMERON — Days after the two hospitals in Milam County abruptly shuttered in December, Renee Mueck started feeling stomach pain so sharp she couldn’t drive herself to the nearest hospital about 40 minutes away.
Mueck, 60, said her husband drove her to a hospital in Temple, but her appendix burst before emergency room doctors could operate on it.
“It’s been devastating to everybody because in an emergency now, you have to run to Temple or to Bryan-College Station,” Mueck said. “There’s not a local facility, and it makes it hard on everybody because you never know what you’re going to need emergent care for.”
The hospitals in Rockdale and Cameron, about a 1½-hour drive northeast of Austin, are among the latest hospitals to close in the state, which, because of its size and vast rural areas, leads the nation in rural hospital closures.
Read more: http://gatehousenews.com/texas-rural-hospital-closings/home/site/statesman.com
