CARE CRISIS CONTINUES.

Byline: Troy Anderson Staff Writer

Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich called on Gov. Gray Davis on Monday to convene a special session of the Legislature to address the potential collapse of the county's trauma care network.

``Los Angeles County's trauma network is in a state of crisis and urgently needs a cure to take it off life support,'' Antonovich said.

Antonovich made the call after the county's Emergency Medical Services Commission heard four hours of impassioned pleas from people who said they would have died without the care given to them at the county's 13 hospitals with trauma care centers.

The commission voted 12-0 to recommend the Board of Supervisors ask the governor to convene a special session and immediately restore Proposition 99 tobacco tax funding to the network.

The Governor's Office could not be reached for comment.

The crisis began after five hospitals, including Northridge Hospital Medical Center and Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills, notified county officials they might close their trauma operations.

Rick Lyons, chief operating officer at Northridge Hospital Medical Center, said trauma care doctors are glad the Board of Supervisors are going to vote today whether to negotiate a short-term funding arrangement.

``That is critical for us,'' Lyons said. ``We do need to be able to demonstrate in the short term that there is a mechanism to get funding into the system quickly.''

``I think it's a positive direction that we have legislators recommending the state take this up for a more permanent, long-term predictable solution.''

Assemblyman Martin Gallegos, D-City of Industry, told the commissioners Monday he would lobby fellow lawmakers to find a permanent long-term funding source, but he doubted the governor would call for a special session before the Legislature reconvenes Jan. 4.

``If you ask me if that is something feasible, I'd say we are probably in for an uphill battle,'' Gallegos told the commissioners. ``I'm not so sure we'd be successful in doing that unless we planned a good political strategy.''

Paul Hefner, press spokesman for Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg, D-Van Nuys, said it's the governor's decision.

``Our view is that the problem with trauma care is a symptom of broader stresses inevitable when you have more than 7 million people in the state who are uninsured,'' Hefner said. ``That's why we are working hard to see affordable health care extended to uninsured people.''

Lyons said he doesn't know if the surgeons and employees who staff the trauma centers can wait until January for a permanent fix. ``The time frame of January is not a time frame we are looking at,'' he said. ``But we are confident there is movement in the correct direction and at least an interim solution is coming forward this month. That is what we are supporting and hopeful to see come about.''

At the hearing, a number of San Fernando Valley residents spoke about the importance of the trauma care centers, which treat people who need emergency surgeries after traffic crashes, shootings and stabbings.

Todd Carb, a paramedic with the Los Angeles Fire Department, said two patients he treated in the last year are alive today because of the trauma centers in the Valley.

In one case a girl was crushed in a go-cart accident.

In the other, a boy was wounded numerous times during the shooting rampage at the North Valley Jewish Community Center.

``Both children are alive today thanks to the rapid care they received at these trauma centers,'' Carb said. ``If the trauma care network ends, the mortality rate will rise.''