[shawano1]

My wife and I are six months into our life in TV and everything is better than what we were told or seen, with one exception. For a community so full of life, and affluence, I have never had a worst experience with an ER than I have here.

Last August, while purchasing our property, I needed to go to the ER for a pulmonary embolism concern and waited nine hours in the ER to get an ultrasound and diagnosis. We were seen by a nurse practitioner in a conference room, and witnessed people laying on gurneys in the hallway.

Fast forward to Thursday night, and our visiting daughter and her husband were concerned that their 22 month old daughter might have bronchitis or pneumonia and wanted a chest x-ray taken. We took her to TV Regional Hospital and were greeted with a jam-packed waiting room of suffering people. The check in nurse thought it would be an 11 hour wait. I don't know about you, but getting a toddler to handle a half hour doctor's appointment is pretty challenging. The thought of a tired, sick 22 month old enduring eleven hours in a room of misery was not even an option. So we went home and put her to bed. The next morning the 101 degree fever broke and we thought we were on our way to recovery. However, Friday evening came and our granddaughter just wasn't her usual self and was quite congested, so I went to the ER to scout the waiting time. Not as crowded as Thursday night, but still a five hour wait. We decided to put her to bed and try again in the morning. Finally, Saturday morning at 7:00 a.m. we took her in and had a more reasonable hour and a half wait and came home with our anti-biotics.

To see that ER waiting room at night is almost criminal. In talking with others, the recommendation is to get an ambulance to take you to the ER because then you get right into triage. That is a sad testimony to what is suppose to be a premier community.

With a rising and aging population, you would think that our community leaders would have more foresight to serve its elderly population's critical care needs. Shame on all of those leaders who have failed to serve our community in this critical area of support. Having experienced this failure on two separate occasions, at two different times of the year, tells me that this is not a one-time, peak event problem. Our ER needs to expand 300-400% to handle the needs that I witnessed on those three occasions.

For those contemplating a move to a new community, one should not only look at the best that the community provides, they should look at its problematic areas, too. From my perspective, visit the ER some night before signing on the dotted line, in case you might need some critical care in the future.