Thanks St. Mark’s – For Everything

St. Mark’s Medical Center in La Grange will close its doors permanently next week on Oct. 12.

It was 18 years old. To put that in perspective the first two babies born there (twins from Schulenburg) just graduated high school this spring.

St. Mark’s is where the gift of life in this community – old and young – was cared for.

St. Mark’s cause of death is a complicated world of health care finance I can’t even begin to understand. What I do understand is how great the people were that worked there.

My parents and my grandma all got excellent care there.

But my most enduring memories of the place are the days surrounding the births of all three of our sons there, and the great care our boys and my wife received in the maternity ward. Emergency surgery at St. Mark’s saved one of those boy’s life a few years later.

Sure the building is beautiful, but it’s the people that made the place shine. And now 62 hospital employees are going to be out of work.

Lots more had already left over the past few years as more and more services were cut. They stopped delivering babies at St. Mark’s in 2017. More staff was laid off earlier this year when they ceased inpatient care. All those job losses are the immediate tragedy. Then there’s the looming tragedy of not having a local hospital.

According to data presented to the La Grange city council Monday in a last ditch effort to save the hospital, three unnecessary deaths in La Grange and 16 deaths countywide will occur per year without a hospital here. It’s hard to believe how an area as thriving as Fayette County isn’t fertile ground for a hospital.

I applaud the folks who tried so hard to save it.

They say you don’t appreciate something until it’s gone. We have a huge health care void here now. I hope there’s a path to filling it – soon.