Birth Brings Benchmark For MVRH

By VERNON ROBISON

Moapa Valley Progress

A bitter-sweet milestone was reached last week at Mesa View Regional Hospital (MVRH) in Mesquite. Anna Caroline Hopper was born at the hospital on Wednesday, September 26 at 9:52 am. Anna was born to proud parents Jimmy Hopper and Stephanie Leona-Hopper of Mesquite. Anna came into the world healthy at 6 lbs, 9 oz and 20 1/2 inches long. She was delivered by local OB/GYN, Dr. Edward Ofori. And she is the last baby to be born at MVRH before the hospital closed its newborn delivery unit.

Earlier last month, the hospital announced that it would no longer be providing inpatient labor and delivery as of October 1. MVRH has experienced a marked decrease in births over the past decade. The local delivery room has fallen victim to a nation-wide trend toward more specialized care in fields like obstetrics. This trend has driven patients toward larger and busier hospital facilities, leaving very low volumes at smaller hospitals like MVRH.

With so few deliveries being performed in smaller hospitals, facilities like MVRH have opted to close delivery room services. They cite concerns with safety of the programs and maintaining the expertise of a staff that sees so few delivery procedures.

MVRH Business Development Officer Rob Fuller stopped short of agreeing that last week’s happy delivery would be the last ever at the hospital. “That’s hard to say,” Fuller said. “It has been determined that, for now, the program is just not viable. But that doesn’t mean that, in the future ,conditions can’t change; or that the demographics can’t change. Who knows? Someday it could be opened again.”

In any case, Anna’s father Jimmy Hopper had nothing but positive remarks about the service that his family received at MVRH.
“The room was comfortable, warm and cheerful,” Hopper said. “And the nurses were helpful and knowledgable. My wife was also pleasantly surprised at how good the food was there.”

Anna’s birth also brought a milestone for MVRH delivery room nurse Sallie Clatterbuck. Anna was to be the last baby she cared for before a long-anticipated, and much-deserved, retirement. Clatterbuck has worked as a nurse for 46 years, 36 of those were in the field of labor and delivery.

Anna was the Hoppers’ first child. So it was a life-altering experience for both dad and mom. Jimmy Hopper said that they were glad to be able to have that experience locally at MVRH.
“It was wonderful and we are so glad that the facility was there for us today,” Hopper said. “It is just a little bitter-sweet knowing that we won’t be able to have (the service) there in the future. But we also understand that things change.”