Area hospitals stay busy with new trauma patients

Mary Manning and Ed Koch

Monday, July 8, 2002 | 9:33 a.m.

Three trauma patients arrived at Desert Springs Hospital's emergency room early today, making it perhaps the busiest hospital for trauma injuries since University Medical Center's Trauma Center closed last week.

However, no trauma deaths were reported Saturday or Sunday at area hospitals.

From 4 p.m. Wednesday through 4 a.m. today, Desert Springs has received 13 trauma patients, including five on Sunday. Since Wednesday 11 trauma patients have been treated at UMC, including one overnight.

Lake Mead Hospital Medical Center had 10 trauma patients through Friday. Its weekend numbers were not available this morning.

Since UMC's trauma center closed 7 a.m. Wednesday in the wake of the medical malpractice insurance crisis, local ambulances have taken trauma patients to the closest hospital.

The first person to die of trauma injuries since the UMC trauma center closed was identified as Las Vegas resident Jim "Fisty" Lawson, 59.

He died at Desert Springs Hospital, where he was taken after a sport utility vehicle crashed into his Dodge Neon at Paradise Road and Gus Giuffre Drive near McCarran International Airport about 4:20 p.m. on Thursday, July 4.

Arthur Shelton, 19, the other vehicle's driver, also was taken to Desert Springs Hospital and was treated for moderate injuries.

The second person to die since the trauma center closed was identified today as Nelson Melvin Hill, 45.

Hill was walking across Boulder Highway about 1 a.m. Friday, July 5, when he was hit by a car. He died at St. Rose Dominican Hospital's Siena Campus.

The closure of the region's only level-one trauma center has affected hospitals in surrounding states.

On Sunday a 12-year-old Las Vegas girl who had been hit by a car was flown from UMC by Mercy Air to Children's Hospital in Los Angeles, Mike Griffiths, regional business director for Mercy Air, said today.

Also a trauma victim at Western Arizona Regional Medical Center, who ordinarily would have been taken to UMC, was sent instead by air ambulance to Good Samaritan Hospital in Phoenix, he said.

Since Wednesday two California auto accident victims, who under ordinary circumstances would have been taken to UMC, were instead airlifted to Loma Linda Hospital in California, Griffiths said.

Blood supplies again approached critical as demand increased by at least 20 percent over the weekend, United Blood Services spokesman Dan Perlstein said.

Despite a record-setting donation of 829 units of blood by Suncoast hotel employees and guests, half of the blood was used since the UMC trauma center closed its doors, Perlstein said.

However, area hospitals said they really did not use so much blood over the holidays and had extra supplies on hand.

"We've used relatively little blood," Desert Springs spokesman Mike Tymczyn said.

Stacy Lee-Harrington of Summerlin Hospital and Cheryl Smith of MountainView Hospital said the same was true at their facilities.

UMC spokesman Rick Plummer said his hospital had 265 units on hand at the start of the long Independence Day holiday weekend and, between usage and replenishing of supplies, the hospital had 270 units as of this morning.

Plummer said other area hospitals stocking up on blood in the wake of the trauma center's closure undoubtedly has contributed to United Blood Services issuing its latest critical level demand for blood.

Harrington said since Wednesday, five trauma patients have been treated at Summerlin Hospital, including one overnight who was treated for injuries sustained in an automobile accident. He was released this morning.

Smith said three trauma victims have been treated at MountianView since Wednesday, none overnight.