I also was present and testified at the same hearing which Ms. Sarandon was present. What she actually said was that “St.Vincent’s emergency room is so poorly run, I would not take my children there in an emergency.”

She did not speak in favor of closing the hospital. She complained about how management had allowed the hospital to be so poorly run that people were critical of the care delivered in the ER. I too shared the same feelings. I was hit on my bie in the unprotected bike lane on Sixth Avenue between 15^th and 16^thStreet. In shock and pain, I walked to the hospital and had to wait seven hours to be treated.(If I had called for an ambulance, it would have been seen quicker.) After six hours, I started screaming for a nurse; security was going to throw me out. Luckily, the head nurse did come out and stop the security and got some ice for my arm. It turned out that my arm was broken in two places. Itold this story, not because I wanted the hospital closed, but better run.

Jim Fouratt