One Man’s Story About Fighting Cancer at One of Rhode Island’s Bankrupt Hospitals
GoLocalProv News Team and Josh Fenton
One Man’s Story About Fighting Cancer at One of Rhode Island’s Bankrupt Hospitals
Roger Williams means life or death.
One Rhode Islander wanted to make sure people knew about what he says has been the tremendous care he has been receiving at the hospital for the more than six years as he has been battling cancer.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTW. Taylor Horridge spent his career as a cabinet maker, and one day, he went to check on his hip pain.
It wasn’t a hip injury.
“I thought there was something wrong with my hip. And I said, well, this happens to older people and everything like that. So, I need to get in and take a look at it," said Horridge.
"And so I said, I'm going to need a doctor. So, I went to Roger Williams' residence clinic. And I really did get great care there, because I actually had two doctors. So they said, well, we'll need to get a CAT scan. We'll see if you hit this bad or whatever. Well, I came to find out it wasn't my hip," said Horridge.
"It was my kidney. The kidney had, I guess, cancer eating it alive, and so it was there. And they had called me up one Saturday morning, the resident that I had. She calls me up on a, and she says, if it explodes, there's nothing we're gonna be able to do for you. You'll probably die from that, so get in the hospital. So I went in, and they took that kidney out," Horridge said.
"And, so I guess in that time period, the cancer had spread; it had gone on to go to my bladder. My lymph nodes. So I've been dealing with that ever since," he added.
Now, Roger Williams Hospital is one of the 16 hospitals and over 160 outpatient sites across four states. It is owned by Prospect Medical Holdings and is now in bankruptcy.
Roger Williams, Fatima, and other assets in Rhode Island were supposed to have been sold by Prospect to the Georgia-based Centurion Foundation. The review of that sale by the Attorney General and the Rhode Island Department of Health took more than two years. Now, that deal is delayed at best, or now may be in peril.
For Horridge, Roger Williams’ Cancer Center is critical to his care — and his life.
“The staff does not stop from when they come in at seven o'clock in the morning till five o'clock that night. They don't even eat lunch. They work right through their lunches. They eat their lunches while they're doing their duties. The care — I just can't believe the care that I got is the best. [When it started] and they said, you're going to go to Roger Williams, I was one of those people in Rhode Island that [thought] you either went to Rhode Island or Miriam,” said Horridge.
But the treatment he has received at Roger Williams, he says, is unmatched. He said he couldn’t imagine what would happen to him and other cancer patients.
“How can they let this happen? Are they going to let this hospital go the way of Memorial Hospital? I don't get it,” said Horrodge.
Memorial Hospital in Pawtucket was a critical part of the healthcare network for the Blackstone Valley. Care New England closed the hospital on January 1, 2018.
Nearly 2,000 jobs were lost, and the closure put additional pressure on Rhode Island and Miriam Hospital's emergency rooms.
Today, Horridge is 74-years-old. He went from the strapping cabinet maker to 135 pounds. He says his grandchildren are his ultimate medicine.
The former Cranston resident who now lives in Pawtucket said retaining Roger Williams is critical.
“It is so important to the state that our hospital needs to stay. My hospital has to stay,” said Horridge.