I would like to write to you in concern of the ending of labor and delivery services here at the Cook County Hospital. As a concerned community member who had my first child here in five hours, it seriously worries me that I may not have the option to birth my future children in my own town.
I feel every woman who chooses to deliver here knows the full risks she is taking and still wouldn’t have it any other way.
I find it very strange that this matter was just opened to the community. I also do not understand how we have a $20 million hospital expansion happening and are not continuing and bettering the services we already provide, but taking them away. Is it not the community’s tax dollars that are funding this expansion?
Why have they not taken the community’s wants and needs into more consideration?
I believe more people would have attended the hospital expansion meetings if they knew the ending of birthing services would happen here.
As I know this is the unfortunate direction the health care world is headed, we as a rural community need to stick up for our human rights and not allow those to be ripped from us.
To have to drive 2-3 or more hours to a different hospital than our own to deliver our community’s up and coming generations seems a huge loss. This is a major issue for us now and will continue to impact the future of this beautiful community.
Chelsea Robinson
Grand Marais
Leave a Reply