More than 70 UCLA medical students protested the potential
closure of the Martin Luther King/Drew Medical Center’s
trauma unit Monday during a hearing held by the L.A. County Board
of Supervisors.
The students joined a crowd of about 1,000 that vocalized their
opposition to the closure of the trauma center that cares for about
2,100 critical patients each year. The students were accompanied by
such prominent community leaders as Congresswoman Maxine Waters,
D-Los Angeles, the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Los Angeles Mayor James
Hahn.
The county board heard testimonies from protestors after Dr.
Thomas Garthwaite, director of the county’s Department of
Health Services, had previously recommended that the King/Drew
trauma center be shut down so other parts of the hospital can
receive more resources.
Having been plagued for decades with faulty patient care, the
King/Drew trauma center, near Watts, has been engrossed in recent
controversy as administrators decide how to handle the
center’s financial aid and management woes.
One speaker from the Drew/UCLA Medical Education Program,
Antonio Bonet, addressed the board with concerns that he and his
fellow students had with the possible closure of the trauma
center.
“My classmates and I have found our place at Drew and we
want to finish our training here, so we can better serve this and
other disenfranchised communities,” Bonet said. “But I
am concerned that the recommendation by the Department of Health
Services to close the trauma unit will compromise the lives of the
people who depend on this emergency care.”
Bonet belongs to the approximately 24-person program which
trains UCLA medical students at the Charles R. Drew University of
Science and Medicine which is adjoined to the King/Drew center.
If the trauma center closes, surrounding hospitals would share
the burden of the thousands of critical patients that would be
displaced.
The Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, which is 11 miles from the
King/Drew center, may have to treat up to 500 of the patients that
King/Drew currently treats, Dr. Gail Anderson, medical director at
Harbor-UCLA has said.
Opponents of the closure, express concern that the extra time
that it would take to transport trauma patients to a hospital
further away would be a matter of life and death.
The influx of patients for neighboring trauma centers may also
strain their resources, as critically injured patients require a
tremendous amount of resources.
Medical students believe that it is essential for them to stay
continually involved in the community they may one day serve.
It is important to get involved in public health issues in Los
Angeles and fight for the education mission of the King/Drew
Medical Center and the Charles R. Drew University, said Steve Rad,
the first-year class president of the UCLA/Drew program.
Jonathan Wu, another first-year medical student, said students
will continue to fight the closure in the future.
“We just felt like its not the right solution to the
problem,” Wu said.