News of the planned closure of Tufts Children's Hospital shocked the Boston community, and now parents and patients are fighting to save the hospital, advocates told Jim Braude on Greater Boston.
"We're most concerned about the children and their families. Tufts serves an underserved population. We accept all kinds of insurance and even no insurance, and we don't turn away children," said Mary Havlicek Cornacchia, Massachusetts Nurses Association co-chair at Tufts.
The hospital announced it would convert the beds in the children's unit to serve adult patients, noting that the children's inpatient unit is usually only half full.
Amanda Crowley, whose three children recieve care at Tufts for PANDAS, an autoimmune disorder, said the hospital provides a "crucial lifeline " to families like hers.
"We're scared and we feel stranded," Crowley said. "We're dependent on Tufts for a very specialized kind of care for really complex kids."
Crowley is one of more than 60,000 people who have signed a Change.org petition to save Tufts Children's Hospital.
Cornacchia said the closure likely has to do with the hospital's bottom line. "It feels like they're putting dollar signs on children," she said.
Watch: Boston community fights to save Tufts Children's Hospital
