By Eddie Trizzino | Times West Virginian
FAIRMONT, W.Va. – The closing of Fairmont Regional Medical Center will be a hit to the community, but there is still hope.
FAIRMONT – Tylan Watkins, 8, had to get emergency treatment at Fairmont Regional Medical Center after his appendix ruptured at his home in Bellview.
His family took him to the emergency room Feb. 14 and four days later, some 600 hospital employees were given letters that Fairmont Regional would be close in 60days.
The news left the Watkins family worried about the future of Tylan’s care.
“He has appendicitis and had to have it removed,” said LaKeisha Watkins, Tylan’s mother. “It burst on it’s way out. It was touch-and-go at first, like when it burst there was a risk of all the poison stuff.
She said while Tylan is recovering now, she remains concerned about what will happen to the next 8-year-old this happens to.
“He’s doing better now, but he wouldn’t have been. I really truly don’t think he would have made it for not it being so close.”
Word of the community hospital’s closing has led many fearing for the future of their health care. Watkins said that in addition to Tylan, her mother was treated at Fairmont Regional, as well as other members of her family. …
