Editor,

I urge everyone of voting age with a pulse to vote yes on Proposition #1, the WhidbeyHealth Medical Center levy lid increase.

That place saved my life. On a 17-hour trip back home from Zimbabwe, unbeknownst to me, blood clots formed in my legs and at 3 a.m. on my first night back I woke up with what I thought was a heart attack. Ann drove me to the WhidbeyHealth Emergency Room where the docs diagnosed what was going on in ten minutes and then went full court press to deal with it before those clots continued their merry way to my brain or my heart.

It’s also the small stuff about WhidbeyHealth that I so much appreciate. I love having that Clinton walk-in clinic just three miles from my house, knowing that I can get at least first tier treatment there anytime if, at my 79 years, something goes wrong.

Sure, my stories are personal, but I know there are lots of other stories like mine. Small rural hospitals like WhidbeyHealth are going belly up all over the country or being absorbed by huge chains. But Whidbey Health is local. It’s ours. And it’s an enormous to this entire community.

It deserves our full support.

About my only complaint is that my “primary” physician at WhidbeyHealth has changed three times in the last two years. I’m guessing the organization has a hard time attracting and retaining good staff and for sure that all comes down to money. Like the money the levy lift could provide.

So please join me in voting “yes” on Proposition #1.

John Graham

Clinton