AYER, Massachusetts — When Christina Hernon was 5, her throat swelled from an infection and her mother rushed her to a local hospital in Massachusetts in the middle of the night. She couldn’t breathe, had a seizure and nearly died when a doctor saved her by inserting a tube down her throat.
Hernon is now an emergency physician at one of two hospitals in the state that due to closure on Saturday. She and others among the 1,250 affected staff members at Nashoba Valley Medical Center in Ayer and Carney Hospital in Boston believe patients like them will suffer and even die as a result of the closures because they won’t have time to get to other hospitals farther away.
“I would consider it guaranteed that there will be some negative outcomes,” Hernon said. “Adding 20, 25 minutes or more of extra travel time is potentially the difference between life and death.”
Employees are furious because they say the bankruptcy of Steward Health Care, the Dallas company that owns the hospitals, is a tale of alleged corporate greed involving one of its own employees.
Former Massachusetts heart surgeon Ralph de la Torre, who founded Steward and remains its CEO, spun more than $100 million out of the company before it filed for bankruptcy in May, according to court filings and bankruptcy filings. The company had previously made money by selling all of its hospitals for $1.2 billion and then leasing them back from the new owners. The company described it as an “asset-light” model designed to prioritize patient care.
But a lawsuit filed by Aya Healthcare in Texas alleges that Steward chose to shower money on shareholders during the COVID-19 pandemic rather than pay bills and keep critical hospitals operating at peak capacity. Aya alleges Steward owes $45 million after it failed to pay for hospital nurses it provided.
The lawsuit alleges that de la Torre used ill-gotten gains to fund a lavish lifestyle, including the purchase of two luxury yachts valued at more than $65 million. In recent weeks, as Hernon and other associates fought to keep their hospitals open, de la Torre and his family on holiday during the Olympic Games in Pariswatching the dressage competitions at the Palace of Versailles.
A spokesman for de la Torre said that under the terms of the bankruptcy, he does not have the authority to make decisions about which hospitals to sell or close. He was “unfortunately on a family vacation that was planned and paid for last year” when the decision to close the two Massachusetts hospitals was announced in late July, the spokesman added.
“Of course it feels like a betrayal,” Hernon said. “I think it would feel almost the same way if he wasn’t a doctor. But the fact that he is makes it hard to understand how that got to where it was. Where the goals changed from protecting and caring for patients, and ensuring their health and well-being, to taking actions that are so destructive.”
In Nashoba Valley, where Hernon works, signs in the parking lot urge people to keep the hospital open, and pink hearts and text on the emergency room window read, “Save NVMC. Save Lives!”
The carnage left by Steward’s failure is widespread. After starting 14 years ago in Boston with funding from a private equity firm, Cerberus Capital Management, Steward has grown to 31 hospitals in eight states, with about 30,000 employees and more than 2 million patients a year. Cerberus cashed out in 2020, walking away with a profit of about $800 million.
Steward even ventured internationally, including to the tiny Mediterranean nation of Malta. Steward claimed it had found rapid success there after running three hospitals for the Maltese government. But the scheme ended last year and authorities in Malta have accused Steward of fraud and collusion. Steward said its dealings in the archipelago were “conducted professionally and in support of our service to the people of Malta.”
Steward’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in Texas details how the company ended up with $9.2 billion in debt and liabilities. De la Torre has previously argued that his company bought many struggling hospitals that might not have survived otherwise.
But the staff doesn’t believe it.
“If he gets away with it, he’s in France, he’s doing what he’s supposed to do, he’s got his yachts, his planes, and he doesn’t have to answer?” asked Michael Santos, who works as a security guard at the Nashoba Valley hospital. “What would happen if it was me or you?”
Santos himself has had to rush his daughter, who suffers from severe asthma, to the hospital in the past, but he says the hospital is still vital to the community.
“This closure will result in deaths,” Santos said.
About 50 miles (80 kilometers) southeast, in one of Boston’s most diverse neighborhoods, stand the imposing buildings of Carney Hospital. Mary Ann Rockett, an emergency room nurse, said she considers the staff and patients like family.
“We have patients here who, when they come in, they know their allergies, their medications, their medical history,” she said. “And in some cases, I can tell you what they’re here for before they even check that box on the questionnaire.”
Rockett said she also believes the closures will have negative consequences, including deaths.
“It’s hard,” she said. “It’s heartbreaking.”
Neither Steward nor a patient care ombudsman appointed for the bankruptcy process responded to questions about whether deaths or other negative consequences were expected as a result of the closure of the two hospitals.
This month, Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey said announced deals to sell four Steward hospitals to new owners and for the state to seize a fifth through expropriation before transferring ownership.
Healey said no buyers had made qualifying bids for the hospitals in Carney or Nashoba Valley and the state could not be expected to run them, so they would have to close. She said the state had contributed $30 million to keep them open through the end of August.
“I’m happy to say that we’re closing the book on Steward once and for all in Massachusetts,” Healey said at a news conference announcing the deals. “Good to be done with it and goodbye.”
A spokesman for the state Department of Health said it had worked with other hospitals and health centers in affected regions to maintain access to essential medical services, help patients transition their care and connect staff with new employment opportunities. The department also was in discussions with fire chiefs near the Nashoba Valley hospital to develop plans to maintain a strong emergency response system there, the spokesman said.
Steward’s bankruptcy is currently under investigation by the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. De la Torre has been subpoenaed to testify on September 12.
Saturday marks the second Steward hospital closure Rockett has endured. She worked at nearby Quincy Medical Center when Steward closed that 124-year-old hospital, citing operating losses. She said many of the neediest patients, those who slip through the cracks, have also moved from Quincy to Carney, and she doesn’t know where they’ll go now.
“There is no place for profit in health care,” Rockett said. “We should be there for the patients.”