3 months ago
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The hospital officially shut down last Friday. They're working on getting it back up and running. But for now, patient services are on hold at least until the beginning of next year.
Sarniah Minton and her husband wrapped up a trip to the grocery store Wednesday night across the street from Pike County Memorial Hospital. It's a place Minton says saved her life a year and half ago when she had a heart attack.
"The part-time doctor serving at the time was able to stabilize me and put me on an ambulance to Hot Springs," Minton said. "If it wasn't for that, I probably wouldn't be here today."
It's a valuable place that's now closed and making Minton and her hometown nervous.
"We just talked about it at church Sunday and we said if there's an emergency, just get in your car and go as quickly as you can to Hot Springs," Minton said.
"It was a heart-breaker, when you've invested so much in a place. Everyone here's a family," Murfreesboro Mayor Jim O'Neal said.
Mayor O'Neal has worked at the hospital as a chief X-ray technician for 34 years. He says about 45 employees lost their jobs with the closing. But he and about ten others remain on doing building maintenance as the hospital works on recruiting more doctors.
"We lost enough medical staff that we were unable to cover the hospital 24 hours, 7 days a week," O'Neal said.
O'Neal says so far there've been at least two physicians expressing interest in restarting visiting hours at the hospital. Both he and Minton hold out hope for a second chance at life.
"We're anxious for it to open again and we're sure if there's anyway possible, our town is going to try and do that," Minton said.
Mayor O'Neal says the goal right now is to reopen by January 8th. He says there's a chance that the hospital's rural health clinic could reopen as early as next week but that's only if a doctor comes through.
The mayor also confirmed that police arrested two top hospital administrators recently. They're charged with writing hot checks on the hospital's account. But he doesn't feel that had anything to do with the hospital's closing.
In the meantime, folks in Murfreesboro must travel about 20 miles west to Nashville to the nearest hospital.
