Published Jan. 21, 2010                                                        

Hospital expansion plan earns 7-0 approval
Helistop earns 6-1 vote from plan commission; project now goes to village board for final vote

By Pamela Lannom
plannom@thehinsdalean.com
 

   Two emotional pleas from residents who believe a helistop is needed at Adventist Hinsdale Hospital helped convince Hinsdale Plan Commissioners to approve it along with a $75 million expansion project.
   “If this saves one life — one life — all the rest of this is just data, really,” Commissioner Jim Brody said.
   Commissioners voted 6-1 to recommend approval of a text amendment to the village code to allow helistops as special uses in hospital service districts and 6-1 to approve a special use to allow a helistop at Hinsdale Hospital.
   “I am still concerned that there’s a safety risk for neighbors,” said Julie Crnovich, who was the dissenting voice for both votes. “When they bought into the neighborhood, they knew they were getting the trains, not the helicopter.”
   Commissioner Luke Stifflear, who had not been appointed to the plan commission when the public hearing on the project began Dec. 9, recused himself from the vote and Commissioner Pamela Sullins was absent. The other three votes related to the expansion project passed unanimously.
   Before the vote, commissioners listened to Patty McKay describe one awful night when her daughter had to be taken from the Hinsdale emergency room to the University of Chicago. Because of weather conditions, she was taken in an ambulance, but her mother spoke strongly in support of a helistop.
   “At that crucial moment when you are told that transport is necessary, your child needs to be rolled into the elevator, taken right up stairs, put on a medical helicopter and whisked off to safety as quickly as possible,” she said. “There is no other acceptable option.
   “If the patient is your child, your spouse, your friend, your parent, your neighbor, the sound of those blades will be the sound of angels’ wings,” she said in closing.
   Katie Mosquera, who was crying as she approached the microphone, recounted the day her husband was hit by a car while riding his bike. He had to be airlifted to Loyola, where he remains with severe traumatic brain injury.
   “When I read in the paper there was opposition to the helistop, I couldn’t believe it,” she said. “I couldn’t believe that people could be bothered by the noise of a helicopter. Maybe some of you think like we thought — ‘It was never going to happen to us.’ ... Tragedy knows no bounds. Tragedy does not discriminate. This is not a joke. We’re not calling a helicopter because it’s fun. We’re calling it because someone’s life is on the line, and as a community you need to support that family. I’m going to ask that you drop your opposition for families like mine and for those that are going to come behind me.”
   Five residents did speak in opposition to the plan, citing noise, the danger of helicopter crashes and the affect on property values.
   Alex Howson, who lives on Flagg Court, said he and residents he’s talked to at holiday parties have two questions about values.
   “The real fundamental question amongst many Hinsdale residents who live near or not near the hospital is what really is going to happen to property values if the helistop were to be agreed (on) and to be built?” he said.
   He also asked whether Hinsdale is an appropriate spot for a helistop.
   “Will that enhance or even fit with who we are as a village?” he asked.
   Commissioner Matt Kluchenek addressed those comments when he spoke.
   “I certainly don’t want to be offensive, but I actually think the notion is fairly repugnant to contend that something like a tangible, identifiable risk of potentially saving somebody’s life should be trumped by conjecture involving potentially reduced real estate values and so forth,” he said.
   Commissioner Laura Johnson said she was skeptical at first but found the personal accounts moving.
   “I can’t even ponder the thought of noise or the property values because I really think that what’s being proposed here — both for the hospital renovation plan and the heliport — is something that far benefits Hinsdale for a long time,” she said.
   Commissioner Lisa Moore said she had been worried about noise levels and the possibility that one day patients might be flown into the hospital, but both those fears were allayed at the hearing.
   “I wasn’t comfortable with the previous noise study but I feel a lot better with the new study from Mr. Barry’s company,” she said. “I think that showed us that really is minimal. That is a nuisance. It’s no big deal.”
   Commissioner Mike Nelson said his only concern was safety but cited information presented by Gary Stevens, flight safety coordinator for the Illinois Department of Transportation’s aeronautics division.
   “If the data is — which there’s nothing to controvert it — that we haven’t had a crash at a site in 40 years in Illinois, that tells me that this sounds like the good outweighs the risk,” Nelson said.
   Chairman Neale Byrnes said he had gone back and forth on the issue a few times. He listed several items that were on his list of negatives regarding the project: noise, safety and worries that the helistop won’t save sufficient time.
   “Transferring critically ill patients, I think, trumps all of these things that I just said,” he said.
   The project now goes to the zoning and public safety committee and ultimately must be approved by the full village board. The item will be on the agenda at the Monday, Jan. 25, ZPS meeting, which is at 7:30 p.m. at the Memorial Building.
   If the committee votes that night and the plan commission approves its findings and recommendations Jan. 27, the project will be on the village board’s agenda for its Tuesday, Feb. 2, meeting.

Plan details

   Adventist Hinsdale Hospital officials are seeking approval for a $75 million expansion project.

Location: south of existing building along Oak Street
Size: five floors, 120,000 square feet
Patient beds: 130 to 140 additional private rooms
Other new space: helistop for transporting patients to level 1 trauma centers, atrium, chapel, 30,000 square feet of remodeled space in existing building
Plan requires: village board approval of a special use permit to modify the planned development under which the hospital operates, site plan and exterior appearance, exterior appearance for construction of a hospital addition, a text amendment to allow helistops as special uses in hospital service districts and a special use to allow a helistop at Adventist Hinsdale Hospital