In the Wrong Place--Twice : Tragedy: A friend drives the victim to a hospital with no emergency room, where he dies while waiting for paramedics.

Robert Sapinoso’s luck was as bad as it gets.

First, the 19-year-old was shot in the chest. Then his friend mistakenly drove him to one of the few hospitals in Orange County with no emergency room.

“They could not have been more unlucky,” said Edward J. Foley, regional vice president of the Hospital Council of Southern California in Santa Ana. “To take someone to that hospital was a serious mistake.”

Figuring wrongly that a hospital was a hospital, Sapinoso’s friend took him to Vencor Hospital-Orange County--a respiratory-care facility that is not licensed to handle life-threatening emergencies. Once a full-service Westminster hospital, Vencor changed ownership two years ago and has not provided emergency services since.

Signs are posted on the grounds to inform people of that fact, hospital administrators said. But by the time Sapinoso arrived there, bleeding profusely, shortly after 7 p.m. Wednesday, it was too late to turn back. Horrified nurses accustomed to treating patients recovering from surgery and chronic illnesses were called upon to save a man bleeding from gunshot wounds. According to Vencor administrators, the staff could do little more than administer cardiopulmonary resuscitation and call 911.

“We tried to give him whatever level of support we could at the time,” Vencor administrator Richard McCarthy said Thursday. “Someone administered CPR on the spot. But we don’t have the trained personnel for emergencies like this.”

Sapinoso died of his injuries while waiting for help to arrive, police said.

The young man’s wounds were so serious, police said, that there is a good chance he would have died even if he had been taken straight to the nearest trauma center. But in other instances, when a few minutes can determine whether a person lives or dies, ending up on the doorstep of the wrong hospital could be disastrous, emergency medical experts said.

There are only three trauma centers in Orange County. They are at UCI Medical Center in Orange, Western Medical Center in Santa Ana and Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center in Mission Viejo. Although all but a handful of the county’s 34 hospitals have emergency rooms, those facilities do not provide specialized trauma care for gunshot wounds and other serious, life-threatening injuries.

According to Orange County Medical Services, the following hospitals are not certified to receive ambulance patients: Santa Ana Hospital Medical Center, Orange County Community Hospital in Buena Park, Buena Park Medical Center, College Hospital Costa Mesa and Doctors Hospital of Santa Ana.

Emergency response officials said Thursday that it is usually advisable to dial 911 in extreme emergencies, rather than relying on one’s own wits.

“The big difference is that the paramedic units can stabilize a patient and start treatment, whereas if you just pack them in the car, you don’t have that advantage,” said Garden Grove Administrative Division Chief Jerry Halberstadt.

For instance, he said, when a person has been shot, paramedics often use an inflatable device to force the flow of blood from the limbs to the brain. Intravenous lines are also inserted during the ride to the hospital to allow replacement of bodily fluids or infusion of medication.

Finally, when the ambulance reaches the hospital, the trauma center staff has already been notified and has had time to make advance preparations.

“If you just drive your relative over to the hospital, you catch the staff completely unaware,” Halberstadt said. “You just walk in and offload on them.”

Officials at the Orange County Fire Department echoed those sentiments.

“The paramedics can also tell you what to do before help gets to you in cases like a drowning, choking or childbirth,” said spokeswoman Maria Sobol. “If you try to take them yourself, all kinds of things could occur.”

Trauma Centers

Just three hospitals in Orange County are equipped to handle traumatic injuries. In addition, two trauma centers in Long Beach serve parts of western Orange County.

Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center

27700 Medical Center Road, Mission Viejo

(714) 364-1400

UCI Medical Center

101 The City Drive, Orange

(714) 456-6011

Western Medical Center- Santa Ana

1001 N. Tustin Ave., Santa Ana

(714) 835-3555

Long Beach Memorial Medical Center

2801 Atlantic Ave., Long Beach

(310) 933-2131

St. Mary’s Medical Center

1050 Linden Ave., Long Beach

(310) 491-9000

Sources: Individual hospitals