Personal Stories: Lives Are at Stake
Facts and figures clearly support the
need for a West Maui Hospital. Tthe real evidence, however, comes
from the personal stories of people whose very lives have been
directly impacted for want of an acute emergency care hospital
in on the west side of Maui. Here are a few of those stories.
Tony and Sue Linder
from Napili:
Midnight trips to the "other side," an emergency airlift to to
save a son's life.
"Our 8 year old son Max has a medical condition
known as Hydrocephalus, sometimes called water on the brain. This
condition used to be fatal but because of technology introduced
in the 1970s, our son has a device called a shunt that is under
the skin and allows our boy to have a somewhat normal childhood.
A true God send.
"Over 7 ½ years, Max had never had a
problem. But we knew serious problems could develop leading to
coma and death if not treated quickly. Last year, our son suddenly
became very sick. Doctors diagnosed and treated him for flu but
his condition kept getting worse. The day after our third visit
to doctors, the pain from headache had him in tears, he couldn't
eat or drink and he had lost 5 pounds.
"He finally was admitted to the hospital
where they said there was no more time to waste; he had to be
air lifted immediately to Oahu for possible neurosurgery. The
air ambulance was already in use. We had to wait another 3 hours.
My boy was now in intense pain and pleading with me to help him
make the headache go away. You can imagine my feelings of helplessness.
"Max was finally airlifted to Oahu where
surgery was performed. It turns out we were very lucky. The three-day
delay could have been fatal. This is the reason for our support
of the proposal to build a medical facility in West Maui. Those
two midnight runs to the other side during intense rainstorms
(both nights) are something we hope to never have to repeat."
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Bart Mulvihill of Lahaina:
a daughter almost dies at
birth because of the distance to the hospital.
a ruptured kidney at Lahainaluna High School
Bart told us that he was living in Lahaina
when his wife went into labor a month early. She had what was
later diagnosed as an abruptio placenta, which can result in both
the mother and baby bleeding to death. He said that he drove
100 miles an hour to the hospital.
The doctors delivered the baby, a girl, and
told him she would likely either die or be severely brain damaged.
The baby made it through all right and is a straight A student
today. Her even surviving is credited with how fast Bart was able
to get to the hospital.However, he
never wants to repeat a 100-mile an hour car trip like that one.
In his own case as a youngster, Bart played
football for Lahainaluna High School. Severely injured with
a ruptured kidney during a game, he waited one anguishing hour
for an ambulance and then spent another hour in the ambulance
getting to the hospital. Ultimately he was flown to UCLA Hospital
for surgery to be performed. He is healthy today but "stunned"
that West Maui still hasn't gotten its own hospital. "I returned
to Maui last year after 13 years.
When I moved back, I couldn't believe there
wasn't a hospital on the West side yet," he said. "We have 5,000
hotel rooms in Ka'anapli and another 9,000 condominiums filled
with vacationers. The NFL Conference was just held here. Every
year 32 of the world's best golfers are here competing. If something
happens to one of these people and they can't get to the hospital
in time, you can kiss tourism goodbye."
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Steve Richardson of British
Columbia Canada
the possibility of bleeding
to death.
Steve wroteto us about how after surgery
he had to stay in the hospital days longer than normal because
he was at risk of a post-operative complication requiring quick
access to an emergency room and he lived in West Maui. "I lived
in Lahaina about eight years ago before moving to the mainland.
My doctor told me I needed to have surgery for Sleep Apnea or
I would eventually die.
"Well I had the surgery at Maui Memorial
and was to be released the next day. The doctor told my wife that
I needed to be watched very closely for the next few days due
to the fact there was a chance I could bleed to death. Well this
shook up my wife and she demanded I stay in the hospital a few
extra days. No one wants to stay any longer in the hospital than
necessary, however, since there was a possible chance of a hemorrhage
and it's along way from Lahaina to Maui Memorial, my wife demanded
that I stay. This is one of the many reasons a hospital is
needed on the west side of Maui island."
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Kay Case from Norwood,
North Dakota
driving to the other side on a dark night in a strange area.
Kay writes about the experience she and her
husband had that put her on the highway returning to West Maui
in the dark, in the early morning hours when she was too tired
to drive. She writes: "Boy, oh, boy do you ever need a hospital
in the Lahaina area. My husband had taken a bad fall getting out
of the shower in on Hawaii (the big Island). We went to an urgent
care center there and had all kinds of x-rays done there too.
" We got to Maui and stayed at the beautiful
Royal Lahaina Hotel. My husband got to feeling really bad the
first night so the hotel told me to take him to the doctor next
to the Westin Hotel. We went there, but the doctor felt that he
needed a CT scan.
" So we had to drive over 45 minutes
to the hospital not far from the airport. It is so hard to drive
in the dark in a strange area to a building I had never been to
in my life. We made it ok, but it sure would be nice to have
a hospital in the hotel area or Lahaina. It is well over due!
"The hospital we went to kept my husband
over night and it was a terrible experience for him, but that
is another story. Meanwhile I had to drive all the way back to
our hotel. It was after 1 a.m. when I started back to the hotel.
I was very tired and shouldn't have been driving that late.
Please take these personal experiences seriously
when you consider building the new hospital. It is so-o badly
needed in the area. We love Maui and would love to come back again."
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A West Maui Physician
12 hours to get emergency treatment.
A physician in West Maui shared this incident
with us.
"A 94 year old man got strong, crampy abdominal
pains suddenly about 9 p.m. By 11 p.m. the ambulance was called
and he was taken to the hospital. His wife followed in the car.
The emergency room was so overloaded with patients that there
was no place to sit in the waiting room. He needed to wait with
his wife in their car until about 5 a.m
By the time he was seen and his case was
resolved 12 hours had past - at least three times more than what
should have been involved."
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Lahaina resident Roxanne
Granthan
a mother terrified
. "When I caught pneumonia and had a temperature
of 105, my mother had to drive me all the way to the emergency
room in Wailuku terrified that I was in life-threatening danger.
I have given Maui several instances when a hospital on this side
of the island would be of benefit to those of us who live in West
Maui.
Please take action Maui and bring a hospital
to this side of the island. Someday, my life or yours, could
depend on it."
A retired nurse who
lives in West Maui
a father to be stranded and a youngster who didn't make it
"The husband of a mother-to-be who was in
labor got stopped by long lines of traffic in Lahaina while nervously
trying to get his wife to the Hospital to deliver. The traffic
was so bad that the mother-to-be had to call 911 on her cell phone
to get an ambulance to come and get her. After taking the license
number of the car, the ambulance rescuer team found the woman,
took her out of the family car and rushed her to the other side
of the island.
"Meanwhile, her stranded husband remained
in the traffic line-up not knowing what was happening to his wife
and child. We urgently need a West Side Hospital for emergencies
like this one.
"On an even more serious situation, a youngster
riding his bike in the cane field hit an embankment and was thrown
from his bike, causing a skull fracture. By the time he got
to the hospital he was gone. Maybe a hospital in West Maui couldn't
have saved him either, but we'll never know. "We urgently
need a West Side Hospital for emergencies like this one."
