Man Appalachian Regional Hospital (Abandoned)
The abandoned Man Appalachian Regional Hospital in Man, West Virginia.
There is perhaps no sadder sight when it comes to abandonment in America than an abandoned hospital. A facility that was once busy, operating 24/7, full of nurses and physicians, and stocked with the latest technology money can buy, now sitting empty, forlorn, rotting, and void of purpose. This is sight that has become increasing common in modern America and perhaps there was no better example than the abandoned Man Appalachian Regional Hospital in Man, West Virginia. In 1954 construction would begin on a hospital in this small coal-mining town by the United Mine Workers of America, as part of the union’s Miners Memorial Hospital Association (MMHA), an attempt by the union to bring modern healthcare to the remote coalfields of Appalachia. The Man Memorial Hospital would open its doors in 1956 with great fanfare, not just to the miners but also to the community as a whole. Over time the MMHA would evolve and eventually become Appalachian Regional Healthcare (ARH), who would rename the hospital Man Appalachian Regional Hospital. In the early 1990s, a new wing was added to Man ARH to house the hospital’s emergency department and expand the busy hospital. However, by 2000, ARH announced it would be closing the Man hospital, citing five straight years of financial losses by the facility, but many people blamed mismanagement of the facility by ARH as the reason for the losses and subsequent closure. Immediately the hospital was sold to a community non-profit organization that renamed it Man Community Hospital. Yet this hope was short lived and the hospital was permanently shuttered in 2001 under suspicious causes and a lack of funding, including millions of dollars set aside for hospital operations that mysteriously disappeared. The employees walked out, locking the doors behind them, leaving a fully stocked hospital behind as they did. Patient files, blood samples, beds, computers, TVs, x-ray machines, even the hospital’s CT scanner and mobile health unit, were left to rot as they wait for patients who would never return. For over 12 years the old hospital sat decaying, stripped, and vandalized, in a region desperate for good healthcare. The hospital was demolished over the summer of 2013, leaving now just a memory of the facility and the lives that started, ended, and were saved within its walls.
There is perhaps no sadder sight when it comes to abandonment in America than an abandoned hospital. A facility that was once busy, operating 24/7, full of nurses and physicians, and stocked with the latest technology money can buy, now sitting empty, forlorn, rotting, and void of purpose. This is sight that has become increasing common in modern America and perhaps there was no better example than the abandoned Man Appalachian Regional Hospital in Man, West Virginia. In 1954 construction would begin on a hospital in this small coal-mining town by the United Mine Workers of America, as part of the union’s Miners Memorial Hospital Association (MMHA), an attempt by the union to bring modern healthcare to the remote coalfields of Appalachia. The Man Memorial Hospital would open its doors in 1956 with great fanfare, not just to the miners but also to the community as a whole. Over time the MMHA would evolve and eventually become Appalachian Regional Healthcare (ARH), who would rename the hospital Man Appalachian Regional Hospital. In the early 1990s, a new wing was added to Man ARH to house the hospital’s emergency department and expand the busy hospital. However, by 2000, ARH announced it would be closing the Man hospital, citing five straight years of financial losses by the facility, but many people blamed mismanagement of the facility by ARH as the reason for the losses and subsequent closure. Immediately the hospital was sold to a community non-profit organization that renamed it Man Community Hospital. Yet this hope was short lived and the hospital was permanently shuttered in 2001 under suspicious causes and a lack of funding, including millions of dollars set aside for hospital operations that mysteriously disappeared. The employees walked out, locking the doors behind them, leaving a fully stocked hospital behind as they did. Patient files, blood samples, beds, computers, TVs, x-ray machines, even the hospital’s CT scanner and mobile health unit, were left to rot as they wait for patients who would never return. For over 12 years the old hospital sat decaying, stripped, and vandalized, in a region desperate for good healthcare. The hospital was demolished over the summer of 2013, leaving now just a memory of the facility and the lives that started, ended, and were saved within its walls.
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