By Nicole Breskin
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
CHELSEA — Taking away St. Vincent’s Hospital’s emergency room could mean the difference between life and death for patients, especially those who are elderly, according to local politicians and community members who met on Tuesday to discuss the dire situation facing the West Village hospital.
City Council Speaker Christine Quinn convened a meeting with senior citizens at the Hudson Guild’s Fulton Center in Chelsea to discuss the consequences of closing St. Vincent’s emergency room facilities.
“In the crucial seconds of a health emergency, when every second is a difference between life and death, getting to a hospital in time can literally save a life,” Quinn said. “Redirecting patients to a hospital miles away is simply not an appropriate response.
"We won’t allow our community, especially our senior community, to be left without an emergency-care medical center right here, on the West Side of Manhattan,” she continued.
St. Vincent’s has the only emergency medical space on the West Side, from Park Row to 59th Street.
Last year, nearly 9,000 people over age 65 were treated at St. Vincent’s emergency room, with 61,743 patients overall.
Chelsea resident Kathy Andrade, 76, said St. Vincent’s saved her life.
In separate instances, she received care for a gallbladder infection, severe pneumonia and gangrene that nearly caused her to lose a leg.
“A lot of people will die if they close St. Vincent’s,” Andrade said. “The hospital saved my life more than once.”
Gov. David Paterson has added money to the fight by authorizing a $6 million no-interest loan for the hospital, along with $2 million from GE Capital, which holds a combined $300 million of the hospital’s debt with TD Bank.
Congressman Jerrold Nadler, state Sen. Thomas Duane and Assembly Member Deborah Glick have also been vocal about the cause.
Last week, Continuum Health Partners proposed taking over St. Vincent’s and shutting down its emergency room, inpatient beds and surgical services.
St. Vincent’s has battled the neighborhood in recent years over sought-after zoning changes that would have allowed the hospital to build a high-tech extension that many locals thought was out of scale for the neighborhood.
Now, residents said they are willing to put their differences aside.
“We may fight with them over the building’s height,” said Greenwich Village resident Eleanore Korman. “But we need St. Vincent’s.”
