Marjorie Crear suffers from hypertension and diabetes, and is recovering from both a recent stroke and heart attack. The 66-year-old Los Angeles resident lives alone, and as a result of her health problems, is frequently seen in the emergency room at the Ronald Reagan University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) Medical Center. She has been hospitalized numerous times.
When a child comes into the emergency room at Children’s Hospital in Oakland suffering from a serious medical condition, the staff at Northern California’s most active pediatric trauma center is ready to jump into action. But in a rural hospital the family of a critical child faces a much different scenario: there are likely no pediatric specialists in the ER and they are hundreds of miles from the nearest trauma center.
When Campbell mayor Evan Low was asked by the American Red Cross to host a city blood drive in August, he felt conflicted. While he wanted to help, he also knew that as an openly gay man he would be banned from donating blood.