Emergency Room

Doctors traded their scalpels for carving knives on Friday to help prepare Christmas Eve meals for the less fortunate of Washington County. Dr. Stephen Kotch, an emergency room physician at Meritus Medical Center, said doctors, hospital staff and volunteers planned to deliver 600 meals during the annual Lend-A-Hand Dinner, an event that provides food for the elderly and for people with low incomes and physical disabilities. The meal, which included ham, turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing and pumpkin pie, was prepared at Dimensions Dining & Catering near Funkstown.

A Sharpsburg teen died Wednesday when the vehicle he was riding in struck a fence and two trees, according to the Washington County Sheriff's Office. Reed Alexander Cantler, 14, was pronounced dead at the scene of a late afternoon crash on Geeting Road near Sharpsburg, Washington County Sheriff's Department Deputy 1st Class David Izat said. At about 3:50 p.m., Reed and three other Sharpsburg teens were traveling southbound on Geeting Road when the driver lost control, a sheriff's office news release said.

The new Meritus Medical Center remained on red and yellow alerts until Wednesday afternoon because of an unusually high volume of patient visits, hospital spokeswoman Nicole Jovel said. Meritus, located east of Hagerstown, was placed on yellow alert, meaning all of the emergency room beds were full, at about 5 p.m. Tuesday. It was put on red alert, meaning all of its telemetry-monitored beds were full, at about the same time. Both alerts were lifted at 5 p.m. Wednesday. Jovel said the Emergency Department had a record-high 250 patients on Monday and 235 patients on Sunday.

Build it and they will come — to the Emergency Department at Meritus Medical Center. In just the few days since the new hospital outside Hagerstown opened its doors to patients, the medical center has been running above it projections for the flow of patients to the emergency room, spokeswoman Nicole Jovel said. She said there were about 220 patients on Sunday in a department that budgeted for a patient flow of about 195 a day. The hospital was on yellow alert, meaning all of its Emergency Department beds were full, starting at about 5 p.m. Tuesday, Jovel said.

At 6:04 a.m. Saturday, the doors of the emergency room opened with a whisper, and a woman in labor made it official.   Meritus Medical Center was now accepting patients.   Across town, another story was unfolding.   After more than 100 years, Washington County Hospital was closing its doors. Saturday was moving day.   The sky was dark and most of Hagerstown was still asleep when fleets of trucks and ambulances began lining up around the hospital.

Two Florida residents were taken to Washington County Hospital after a single-vehicle accident Wednesday on Interstate 81 near the Maugans Avenue exit. Maryland State Police Trooper T. Brown said Morgan and Isaline Smith were traveling south on I-81 at about 1:50 p.m. when their vehicle went off the roadway and rolled into the median. The Honda Accord in which they were riding came to rest on its roof in a shallow drainage ditch that runs down the center of the median. Morgan Smith was listed as registered to the emergency room this morning at Washington County Hospital, according to a hospital spokesman.

It might make for good laughs on a television sitcom, but to millions of older adults, falling is no joke. One mishap can alter a person's life, resulting in surgery, disability or even death. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, every 18 seconds, a person 65 years of age or older is in the emergency room because of a fall. Every 35 minutes, someone in that same age group dies from falling injuries. The center also reports that nearly one-half of older Americans who incur a serious injury never fully recover and many lose their ability to function independently for the rest of their lives.

SMITHSBURG -- The driver of a 1997 Dodge truck that crashed into the garage portion of a house Tuesday night on Chewsville Road remained in the emergency room of Washington County Hospital on Wednesday, according to a hospital spokeswoman. The truck driven by Stephen Allen King, 53, of Chewsville, left the road at about 9:20 p.m., crashed through a brick wall and struck a 2008 Honda van parked inside the garage, according to the Washington County Sheriff's Office. No one inside the home was hurt, police said.

HANCOCK -- A Frederick, Md., woman was seriously injured Wednesday night when she was thrown from her Harley-Davidson motorcycle in a crash on Interstate 68, about three miles west of Hancock, according to Maryland State Police. Kerrie Ingle was being assessed Wednesday night in the emergency room at Washington County Hospital but her injuries were not believed to be life-threatening, according to police and a hospital spokesman. Ingle was traveling west on I-68 near Sandy Mile Road at about 6:10 p.m. when her motorcycle went off the right side of the road and overturned, according to Trooper 1st Class Robert Care.

A Falling Waters, W.Va., man was injured early Wednesday after the motorcycle he was riding collided with a van on Interstate 81 near Maugans Avenue, Maryland State Police said in a news release. The accident happened at about 3 a.m., when a southbound 2006 Harley-Davidson motorcycle operated by Arthur Charles Duffey III of Falling Waters collided with the rear of a van driven by Richard Phillip Campello of Hagerstown, police said. Duffey was injured in the crash and was taken to Washington County Hospital for treatment, police said.