Rural America's working-age adults die at wildly higher rates than their counterparts in cities. Why?

[Cheezoholic]

35. I live 30 miles from the closest hospital equipped with a Cath Lab

I also live 3 miles from a small town that used to be a full blown hospital capable of handling any emergency that most people needed. Its still got 75 beds and it served the rural area within a 40 mile radius of it. I was born there. I had a massive heart attack in October 2022. I drove myself to that hospital. They could do nothing but give me an IV and some drugs, slap an ECG on me to monitor and wait for an ambulance. Oh, and try and jump start me if I died. Weather was too bad for a chopper. City has 2 750k dollar ambulances but they can't go out of town. They held a phone to my ear while I was screaming in pain so a heart surgeon 30 miles away could explain the risk of having a chemical thrombolysis procedure. He basically told me without knowing how soon they could get me to him (at the same medical system as the local hospital) and seeing my ECG I may die without it. That was 90 min after I had gotten there. I had to sign a freakin' release form. Yeah, it probably saved my life but also significantly increased the possibility of a stroke for the next 90 days or so. I finally got to that specific hospital (in their ambulance). I went straight from the ambulance to my ass hitting the Cath Lab table and the last words I heard were "his ECG is looking really bad" before they knocked me out. I came close to losing consciousness but was afraid I'd die, so I just screamed in pain the whole time to stay awake. That was FOUR HOURS after I got to the hospital in that small town.

I lost 30% of my heart muscle that morning because IMO, it took them too long to get me to a capable facility. I did a little research, there are 10 Cath Labs within 35 miles. There are over 100 ambulances both fire rescue and private (hospitals, private companies) within 35 miles. But theres only 1 hospital with a couple Cath Lab's and 6 Ambulances within 35 miles directly associated with this hospital system. 4 hours is not acceptable with that much availability within a 30 min ambulance ride.

Yeah, don't get sick in a cornfield.