By Ivan Pereira
Mary Immaculate and St. John’s Queens hospitals closed their doors permanently Monday after providing more than a century of service for Queens residents.
Emergency medical technicians, ambulance drivers, nurses and other staff from both medical centers gathered outside St. John’s after their final shifts Sunday for a midnight candlelight vigil to mark the end of their jobs. The hospitals’ parent company, Caritas, filed for bankruptcy last month after it could not get additional funding from the state to fill nearly $100 million in debt.
“They told us that we’d be closed by the end of the month. You can’t get evicted from an apartment this quick,” said Devin Mone, an emergency physician’s assistant at St. John’s, who attended the vigil.
Nearly 2,500 people worked at Mary Immaculate, located at 152-11 89th Ave. in Jamaica, and St. John’s, located 90-02 Queens Blvd. in Elmhurst.
Some hospital administrators remained at the hospital until Monday to finish some duties, according to staff members.
St. John’s Hospital, which opened in 1881, had a Level 1 trauma center and 227 beds. Mary Immaculate, which opened in 1902, also had a Level 1 trauma center, 225 beds, a nursing home and a cancer treatment center.
Regular patients such as Lynette Pereira, 69, of Queens Village, who had a knee replacement procedure at Mary Immaculate, said she’ll miss the hospital’s convenient facilities and hard-working staff.
“This hospital has a lot of people who care. Where I live, I could take a bus and come often,” she said.
Reach reporter Ivan Pereira by e-mail at ipereira@timesledger.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 146.
