3 Hours From The Hospital When Every Moment is Critical | NBC Left Field

When a car crashed outside of tiny Tonopah, Nevada, volunteer EMS workers raced to the scene in minutes. But ever since Tonopah’s hospital closed, the town is now hours away from the nearest emergency room. Across the United States, rural hospitals are shutting their doors at a staggering rate—and many more are on the brink of closing. As rural America shrinks and ages, healthcare for millions of Americans is falling out of reach. In this video, NBC Left Field spends time with an EMS worker as she fights to help neighbors in need and look at the factors behind rural hospitals closing.


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Directed by
Valerie Bischoff

Narrator
Katie Engelhart

Cinematography and editing
Valerie Bischoff

Co-producers
Bob Bikel
Katie Engelhart

Animation
Titan Post

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ABOUT NBC LEFT FIELD:

NBC Left Field is a new internationally-minded video troupe that makes short, creative documentaries and features specially designed for social media and set-top boxes. Our small team of cinematographers, journalists, animators and social media gurus aims to unearth stories and breathe creative life into current headlines. While pushing boundaries at home and abroad, NBC Left Field will also be serving as an experimental hub for NBC News style, treatment and audience engagement.

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[Lonedrummer]

I work for an ems agency in Reno Nevada that runs Careflight (the blue helicopter) we have partnered with renown and we are servicing tonapah with a full time paramedic, we’ve offered more advanced training to the current Emts and medical personnel that is run by my agency, and we opened a medical center. It is definitely no hospital but it is something. we have a helicopter and plane that can respond to tonapah from our airbase in Fallon within minutes. Things have started to improve since that video was recorded.

[BoojSportsCards]

This video is an absolute gem. It shows the truth.. Thank gosh for every single volunteer fire fighter and emt who does it.

[atokarchik]

I drove through Tonopah on my last vacation to Death Valley. I never considered the risk of driving on local highways with no medical support in case of an emergency. It might make more sense to stick to the interstate, I guess.

Such important work to be left to volunteers. That's not right.

[Jcrosay]

3 kids, a full time job, AND an unpaid EMT?! I’m a PAID medic with no kids and I’M exhausted.

[diamond_soul_black_gold]

Okay, why not build and open up urgent care clinics in rural communities ?

[windy]

Why do country people think everyone in the city are strangers to each other? They've never been to a city, yet speak with a level of expertise about it that they do not possess.

[PfizerRN_USNavyReserveRN]

I'm a Flight Nurse Practitioner with the New Jersey State Police Aviation Division, operating as NorthSTAR, and fly an AgustaWestland AW139 helicopter. I can tell you from experience, that this young lady is about as dedicated as anyone I have seen recently, and she should be congratulated. However, it's very clear that she is probably one critical call away from a great case of "burnout". I can also tell you that Mercy Air and REMSA/Care Flight are both about 200+ nautical miles from Tonopah, and that is 1.4 hours of flight time, at a minimum. The State of Nevada needs to get involved in this, as they need to do something to protect the citizens, and offer some sort of basic medical services in an emergency.

[chrisblinzinger]

Worked on a volunteer ambulance service in Rural Colorado for 13 years. The Best/Worst/ Funnest/ Saddest job I ever had. But the great people I worked with and community I served was a great reward for it.

[noahjacobs]

God bless these people, they have such a big heart

[farmertyler]

Imagine you’re in an ambulance on the way to the hospital and the ambulance has to stop for gas. This is insane

[a.m.]

How many billions of dollars move through Nevada casinos every year and there's ", No money for hospitals or ambulance services, so sorry!'' 🎲💀🎰💀🎰💀🎲 That has to be just about the stupidest lie I've ever heard in my life!

[dob]

Small hospitals like this are closing left and right yet massive corporations get bailout after bailout

[coover]

I've been through and stopped in Tonopah a few times, and find it sad that the local hospital is closed. Compare Tonopah with a similar sized town here in Queensland, Australia. Here you'd have ambulances providing 24/7 coverage crewed by professional advanced care paramedics. Severe and critical patients get flown out by helicopter or plane to a major hospital that can be 600 miles away. Best wishes to all in Nye County.

[JA-jbti]

This is absolutely heartbreaking. As a fellow EMT, it is really saddening to hear these wonderful volunteers sacrificing all to help others. ❤

[genesisledezmine]

We need to extend our University Medical Centers all the way to places such as these. Here are in Las Vegas, Nevada with University Medical Sub Buildings all over the valley and St. Rose Hospitals and Medical Centers on every corner in the valley. We need to spread our medical resources to small town such as night county, Tonopah, and other rural areas.

We have no room for excuses, just make it happen. As a tax payer, I demand this be put in action ASAP. I also speak as an EMT myself, a lifetime resident of Las Vegas, Nevada, an Educated professional, and a concerned member of the community.

No Excuses!!!

Why do we have gas station on all four corners of one intersection instead of building hospital/emergency rooms sub building and small town as needed???

[mrpoliceemsfire]

This is happening across numerous counties across America. Younger people are steadily leaving rural counties and moving to more industrialized cities that have more resources.

[lafregaste]

It's a very complicated situation, humanely you know you have to help the people in need but love and care don't pay bills. The only rational real way to go is to inject money into the community so more stable jobs are created, so that more people stablish in the area that are capable and NEED to pay for medicals services or insurance. That way you can build, stock and keep medical facilities and the staff you would also need to pay for. There should be also a priority for emergency services and areas that have longer ETAs for ambulances and to a hospital, as well as preparing the EMTs and vehicles to do more drastic procedures to secure the life of the patients.

[kilbeam]

As a Dutch citizen, this story is harrowing and eye-opening to me. In The Netherlands, in almost all cases a victim will be in a hospital within an hour, if not less.

While I always knew how huge the US is compared to my country, I never realized things like medical emergency services aren't a given in many areas of the US. It's insane to me that states do not have a mandated minimum amount of healthcare in each area. That said, I wonder if such a mandated would help.

[MsDmcclymont]

Wait, what ?? Volunteers ... That's a rich country yeah??

[nathansutherland]

Yet Americans still vote republican snd expect huge change you all need a review of your whole medical system and FFS get universal healthcare note than have you taxs go to that universal health thats all states