Plan to Close Hospital Trauma Unit Jolts South L.A. Black and Latino Community
/- "They're building hospitals in Iraq -- what about us? We're Americans."
Los Angeles County supervisors are planning to close
the trauma unit at Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center.
The proposal pitted the poorest section of Los Angeles County -- a
mostly black and Latino community that believes it is frequently
overlooked by downtown power brokers -- against five county supervisors
who insisted they were acting in the best interests of all who use the
public hospital. "They're disrespecting us, that's what they're
doing," said Wilbur Sims, 48, who sells DVDs, digital watches and belts
on the sidewalk across the street from King/Drew. "It's all politics.
They can say what they want about money and all that, but Mexican and
black people in this neighborhood have been saved in that trauma
center. I've been saved myself when I was shot." Short of closing
the hospital, it is hard to imagine anything the Board of Supervisors
could have done with King/Drew that would have been more of an affront
to the community it serves. U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles),
whose district boundaries come within a few blocks of the hospital,
issued a scathing statement that described the proposal as a "cynical"
attempt to divert money from King/Drew to other trauma centers. [more 
] and [more ] Pictured above: King/Drew Medical Center doctor Moises Vargas, left, pulls out a weapon from the pants of a patient in 2002.
