The staff at Prince George’s Hospital Center saved Brian Boyle’s life three years ago. Now the 21-year-old is hoping to return the favor by trying to help save the county’s troubled hospital system.
In July 2004, the Charles County resident had recently graduated from high school when a dump truck struck his car as he was coming home from swim practice.
Boyle said his heart was pushed across his chest, he lost 60 percent of his blood, had a lacerated liver, a variety of broken bones and spent two months in a coma.
He said he was airlifted to Prince George’s Hospital Center’s trauma unit in Cheverly from Charles County and had 15
minutes to live. “If they weren’t here,” Boyle said, “I wouldn’t be here talking to you.”
Now Boyle is fully recovered and back in the pool as a swimmer for St. Mary’s College. “I believe that the reason why I was saved is to help them out now,” Boyle said.
On Thursday, Boyle was part of a group that joined Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown for a tour of the Cheverly facility.
Dimensions Healthcare System, which operates the county-owned hospital system, and Prince George’s officials are involved in standoff over money the county pledged to keep the system operational through June 2008. Prince George’s is withholding the money until four members of Dimensions’ board resign.
Brown said Thursday that he and Gov. Martin O’Malley are committed to keeping the hospital system open and finding a long-term solution. He said the solution requires “a stable funding source until the hospital could achieve … financial stability on its own and also a long term framework, which the governor and I had proposed.”
On April 9, before the conclusion of the General Assembly session, County Executive Jack Johnson and the state reached an agreement to save the system, but the County Council refused to approve the deal.
“It’s obvious that what happened at the last day of the session when they were left at the table has made [O’Malley’s administration] somewhat reluctant to take the lead, and understandably so,” said Dr. Carnell Cooper, chief of trauma surgery at the hospital.
