HUMPHREYS COUNTY, Tenn. (WKRN) — The closing of rural hospitals in Tennessee is a lingering issue for local, state and federal lawmakers with fears more hospitals may soon shut their doors.

Since 2010, eleven rural hospital have closed in Tennessee with many of them in the last few years.

Waverly’s Three Rivers Hospital which has been in Humphreys County since 1962 is one of those places with an uncertain future.

The question about whether not it remains open affects just about everyone in this county just east of the Tennessee River 80-miles from Nashville.

On a recent December day, we met Terry Moore inside the Three Rivers Hospital emergency room.

“That’s my guardian angel,” he told us pointing at the hospital’s chief nurse Alana Peters.

She was on duty at the hospital when Terry drove himself there with chest pains in January of this year.

“In layman’s terms, I was dead,” says Terry. “I could not have made another half mile or mile anywhere.”

The retired 62-year-old Moore suffered what’s called a “widow maker” heart attack.

He will tell anyone how the rural hospital in Waverly kept him alive until he was flown by chopper to Nashville for further life-saving treatment.

“I am here because of you guys,” he tells Alana and other members of the hospital staff.

The facility’s CEO, Freda Russell, points to people like Terry as among the many reasons why Three Rivers Hospital is a literally a lifesaver, but with that uncertain future.

“My fear is that more rural hospitals may close and we may be one of them,” says the CEO. “That is my fear.”FULL STORY HERE