Desert Springs leads treatment of trauma patients

Mary Manning and Ed Koch

Monday, July 8, 2002 | 11:10 a.m.

Three trauma patients arrived at Desert Springs Hospital's emergency room early today, making it the busiest hospital for trauma injuries since the University Medical Center's Level One 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 and Medical Center had seven trauma patients through Sunday -- three gunshot victims, three auto accident injuries and one stab victim, hospital officials said.

Since the UMC trauma center closed at 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 today by the Clark County Coroner as Nelson Melvin Hill, 45.

Hill was walking in Henderson about 1 p.m. Thursday when he was hit by a car. He died at St. Rose Dominican Hospital's Siena Campus.

Las Vegas resident Jim "Fisty" Lawson, 59, on Thursday became the second patient to die since the UMC trauma center closed.

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.

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

The closure of the region's only 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.

In the same five days, five trauma patients have been treated at Summerlin Hospital, including one overnight who was treated for injuries sustained in an automobile accident, hospital spokeswoman Stacy Lee-Harrington said. He was released this morning.

Three trauma victims have been treated at MountianView since Wednesday, none kept overnight, spokeswoman Cheryl Smith 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.

The same was true at Summerlin and MountainView hospitals, Lee-Harrington and Smith said.

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.

Ann Lynch at Sunrise Hospital said her hospital before the holiday weekend requested and received double its usual supply of O-negative blood, the universal donor type. Extra supplies of other types also were received, she said.

"The closing of the trauma center didn't just affect the patient care at other area emergency rooms, it affected the city's blood supply, where only 2 percent of the community donates blood," Perlstein said.

There have been six critical blood shortages through the first six months of this year, compared with one for all of last year, Perlstein said.