Riots Pointed Out Shortage of South Bay Trauma Units : Hospitals: Wave of violence flooded area hospitals, many of which have scaled back emergency services.

When victims of the Los Angeles riots flooded dozens of area hospitals, seeking treatment for gunshot wounds, shattered bones and searing burns, they tested an emergency medical network weakened in recent years.

Hundreds of the wounded sought medical care in a portion of the South Bay that has lacked a nearby trauma center since 1987. Although emergency rooms swiftly mobilized to treat the victims, some say the crisis illustrated again that more trauma-ready facilities are needed in a swath of southwest Los Angeles County that encompasses the northern South Bay.

“We desperately need another trauma center out there,” said Virginia Price-Hastings, the county’s chief of paramedic and trauma programs. She added that she intends to keep lobbying for a local trauma center--an emergency facility specially designed to gear up quickly and treat critical-care patients.

Specifically, she hopes to persuade Daniel Freeman Memorial Hospital in Inglewood to rejoin the trauma network it left five years ago--a move, she said, that would have given the hospital a leg up in dealing with the initial onslaught of riot victims.

But a Daniel Freeman official said it is unlikely the hospital will rejoin the trauma network because of the high costs of trauma care. And Price-Hastings acknowledges that a trauma center, while valuable, “would not have solved any major problems because there were so many patients.”

Four South Bay hospitals were among the 10 busiest during the riots, treating nearly 440 of those wounded in the violence, including 41 gunshot victims, according to the latest figures from area hospitals and the Hospital Council of Southern California.

Ironically, the overwhelming number of those patients were seen at two Inglewood hospitals that have both scaled back emergency services in recent years.

When Daniel Freeman left the county trauma network, it blamed the high cost of treating indigent patients. But the Catholic hospital maintains a 15-bed emergency department and its facilities were geared up during the riots, treating 266 people for riot-related injuries and admitting 47, according to updated hospital figures. That places it as the third-busiest hospital in the county as a result of the turmoil.

Nearby Centinela Hospital Medical Center in Inglewood curtailed its emergency care more dramatically in 1989 when it closed its emergency-room doors to all non-obstetrical patients brought by paramedic ambulance. The reason given by hospital officials, again: a rapid growth in uninsured patients.

After the rioting erupted, Centinela officials temporarily lifted that ban but received no riot-related patients brought by paramedic ambulance. The 64 patients treated in its 10-bed emergency room all arrived by private car or private ambulance, a hospital spokeswoman said.

That first night, Centinela declined to accept one Inglewood paramedic ambulance carrying a gunshot victim, who was then taken to Daniel Freeman Marina Hospital in Marina del Rey. Centinela officials said they were too busy at the time to properly care for the patient.

The third-busiest South Bay hospital was Harbor-UCLA Medical Center near Torrance, which has a trauma center; the hospital treated 60 riot-related patients and admitted 18. Robert F. Kennedy Medical Center in Hawthorne saw 48 riot-related patients, admitting two.

Despite the surge of patients, several hospitals report that they were able to cope by calling in extra staff.

Dr. Albert Yellin, a USC surgery professor and trauma expert, said that local hospitals can activate their disaster plans in emergencies such as the riots. “Functionally, they are becoming trauma centers,” Yellin said.

Although Daniel Freeman is no longer a trauma center, said its Executive Vice President Peter Bastone, “We’ve proven that we’ve been able to expand our ability to function to meet the emergency demand.”

Yet simple economics prevent Daniel Freeman from becoming a full-scale trauma center again, Bastone said, adding that the nonprofit Catholic hospital lost $3 million a year on trauma services.

“Right now, we have no plans to go back to it unless there’s a commitment by the local county and state governments to support us. We can’t do it alone,” said Bastone, who expects the hospital to lose $1.5 million to $2 million in May alone because of the riots.

But Price-Hastings says the county will continue trying to woo Daniel Freeman back to the 13-hospital trauma network, especially in the riots’ wake.

David Langness, spokesman for the Hospital Council, said: “We’re operating at a real disadvantage without having the trauma resources that we used to have.”

Added Langness: “The lack of a trauma center in the southwestern part of the county is most felt during disasters like this one.”

He noted that the area contains LAX, oil refineries and other industry. “It’s one of the most disaster-prone areas of the county, and yet we have no trauma centers,” he said.

Some medical officials point out that because riot injuries were spread out over several days, emergency rooms were not stretched as they might have been in a disaster such as an earthquake or air crash.

And even if another trauma center were operating, the sheer numbers of wounded from the riots would have overwhelmed it, some said.

“In the heat of this, you could have dumped another couple of trauma centers into that area, and they would have been filled up,” said Frank Maas, director of emergency services at Lynwood’s St. Francis Medical Center, which reported 460 riot-related casualties, including 50 admissions.

Another riot-stressed hospital was Los Angeles County Martin Luther King Jr.-Drew Medical Center in Willowbrook, which saw 254 riot-related patients--including 54 gunshot victims--and admitted 59.

King-Drew, which is a trauma center, began receiving more patients after Daniel Freeman left the system, officials said.

But Dr. Arthur Fleming, the hospital’s director of trauma, said he does not necessarily believe that civil unrest should dictate new things such as trauma centers.

He added: “To reduce the amount of trauma and injury in America is not one step. It’s poverty, it’s drug abuse, it’s gangs, it’s the whole spectrum.”