There was a message of gratitude Tuesday at Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital as a procession of representatives for local elected officials spoke, providing the usual form of recognition — a certificate — as well plenty of evidence that this wasn’t a typical ceremony for average services.
The trauma center for the Santa Clarita Valley’s only hospital hit a milestone, 40 years of service saving lives with the “golden hour” of treatment — that critical first 60-minute window for those patients when the likelihood is highest that medical intervention will prevent death.
Through its 24-hour-a-day, seven-days-a-week service, the center has treated more than 19,400 patients since 1996, and since 2004, that number is nearly 16,000, according to Dr. Louie-Marc Contreras, a trauma surgeon and the hospital’s chief of staff.
He called the center a “beacon of hope and resilience” for its ability to help people with their most critical battles.
Typically to honor such a milestone, representatives for public officials from City Hall to the state house to Congress present a certificate to honor the achievement on behalf of the office-holder.
On Tuesday, the gilded paper with names in calligraphy came with special, at times emotional messages as community members reflected on the hospital’s contribution to keep their friends, family members or even themselves, “on this side of the dirt,” as one former patient put it.
After Santa Clarita Mayor Cameron Smyth talked about how the hospital’s trauma center saved his son after an accident, he had to make light of his end of the exchange while sharing his gratitude on behalf of the city.
“I know we do have some other officials here, but we do have — boy, it just seems like, after what you guys did for my family, here’s a certificate, ‘That makes us even,’” he joked, taking a break from the seriousness of the talk about saving lives.
The center treats about 900 patients a year, according to Gilda Cruz-Manglapus, the hospital’s trauma program manager, who also was credited for the milestone.
She’s been at the hospital just over 20 years and manager of its award-winning trauma center for the past 15 years.
She said that, traditionally, the hospital’s proximity to Interstate 5, Highway 14 and Highway 126 means the majority of its trauma cases have been motor vehicle-related.
The hospital saw that number decrease as many were quarantined during the pandemic, which led to a rise in home-related injuries, often severe slip-and-fall incidents involving older patients.
Now that people largely have resumed their commutes, those traffic-related numbers have returned, she said.
Cruz-Manglapus also said that’s why another of the trauma center’s important missions is outreach, which it undertakes with community partners to try to cut down on accidents and injuries, like avoiding reckless driving decisions and teaching emergency wound care.
While the hospital is there to treat anyone who needs help, she said, they’d prefer everyone play safe instead.
“We’re the nicest and most capable people to take care of you when you get into an accident,” she said, “but we’re people you don’t want to meet in the hospital.”
Marlee Lauffer, Henry Mayo vice president of marketing and communications, also recognized the contribution of Betty Burke-Oldfield, a former hospital board member who pushed for the trauma center’s creation after her son died from injuries sustained in a car crash.
The hospital was one of the first 10 in Los Angeles County after the designation was created in 1983, according to Lauffer.
“We needed it. My son, who had been injured, had been taken to the middle of Los Angeles to a county general (hospital). We didn’t have anybody here to do that ‘golden hour,’” said Burke-Oldfield, who also helped the hospital’s push to become a Level II trauma center.
To see it now, after more than 20,000 patients have been treated:
“It’s wonderful, it’s amazing,” said the cofounder of the local chapter of the American Cancer Society and 1993 SCV Woman of the Year honoree. “I just hope everyone here knows it and realizes what a wonderful facility we have.”
