PALL MALL, Tenn — As the clot in the back of her neck began to move to her brain, the family of Lottie Crouch could see the signs that the 75-year-old was having a stroke. But from the time her symptoms started to the time she got to an Emergency Room nearly 120 precious minutes had passed.

That’s because the only hospital in the county where Lottie lives had closed its doors back in June.

When Lottie’s daughter Debbie Crouch called 911 she knew the family’s options were limited. An ambulance came to pick the beloved grandmother up at her home in Pal Mall, Tennessee a small town in Fentress County. But with the closure of the county’s only hospital earlier this year, the next closest Emergency Room was a 55-minute drive away.

Critical minutes needed to treat her stroke were lost. FULL STORY HERE