5,500 Signatures for This Regional Resource: Drive Times Are A Big Reason Why

Happy Friday! With your help, over 5,500 people realize what losing this hospital could mean, especially in the middle of summer where traffic is often heavy or even at a standstill in our coastal communities. 

Last week, a 3-year old in LA county was bitten by a rattlesnake. First responders didn't have anti-venom--they took her to the hospital. That's where she received a lifesaving dose of anti-venom. The hospital then transferred her to another facility with a pediatric ICU, where she received two more doses of anti-venom. 

Imagine if this happened to your child in Laguna Beach, Dana Point, Capo Beach, or Crystal Cove right now and there wasn't a hospital around for miles. Santa Clarita has many ways in and out of the city. Laguna Beach has only three: Laguna Canyon Road and North and South Coast Highway.  In the summer, Laguna and surrounding cities are heavily impacted with visitors. This photo was taken right here this week.

Anti-venom must be kept under strict storage conditions at hospitals, administered via IV with the patient monitored for adverse reactions by trained medical personnel. Urgent cares and ambulances do not offer this lifesaving care; only a hospital does. 

Now look at peak-traffic drive-time ranges from LB  hospital: It could take 35-50 minutes to get to Hoag Irvine's ER, 40-60 minutes to get to Hoag Newport, 35-50 minutes to get to Saddleback, 25-40 minutes to get to Providence Mission Viejo and 40-60 minutes to get UCI Irvine's ER on Jamboree Road. 

Imagine. It could take up to an hour to actually get help for your child, your grandchild, even yourself if there was no hospital here. To see more drive times from various locations, please follow "Save Laguna Beach's Hospital Emergency Room" on Facebook.

Closing the Laguna Beach Emergency Room should not even be on the table. It is a regional resource critical to public health. We need an ER here or visitors, residents and workers may die trying to get help at other hospitals in other cities many miles away on traffic-clogged streets. Don't let this happen. Please share this petition and contact the decision makers today. Anyone can sign to save this ER. Thank you!