Editorial: Trump shooting shows need for hospitals and first responders

The shooting Saturday at the Donald Trump campaign rally in Butler County will be a dark day in American history.

But amid the finger-pointing about what went wrong with law enforcement and how the Secret Service should have been better prepared, there are things being neglected. Namely, there should be attention on what was there when it was needed.

Southwestern Pennsylvania has gone from being a manufacturing and mining-driven economy to one built heavily on the health care industry. That made a difference Saturday.

Butler Memorial Hospital was there to provide the emergency treatment needed for Trump after the former president and GOP nominee was struck in the ear.

“Obviously, the former president is a very high priority,” Dr. Dave Rottinghaus, emergency physician and president of the Butler Physicians Network, told TribLive.

That priority includes safety precautions such as locking down the facility, which meant other people — staff and patients alike — could not enter or leave the building. But the Independence Health System hospital was present and prepared to help Trump and the everyday patients who normally turn there in need.

Then there were the others.

Three area men also were shot. Volunteer firefighter Corey Comperatore, 50, of Buffalo Township, died at the scene, shielding his family like the first responder he was. But James Copenhaver, 74, of Moon, and David “Jake” Dutch, 57, of Plum, needed more profound treatment.

That care was a medical helicopter ride away. Both were transported to Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh. They remain there, with their conditions upgraded Wednesday from critical to serious.

Both families released statements through the hospital. They asked for privacy and the time and space to recover. But they also gave credit where credit was due.

They lauded the medical staff of the hospital and the emergency responders. They gave thanks to the LifeFlight personnel and trauma surgeons.

These are not resources every community has.

More and more small and rural communities — like those that pepper Pennsylvania — are losing their local hospitals. Butler Health System and Excela Health in Greensburg merged in 2023, combining their five hospitals into one larger entity in an effort to better compete and to stay relevant and accessible in the changing climate of medical care.

Emergency medical services are struggling to stay on the road to be able to take people from the scene of a tragedy like the one that occurred Saturday.

There is a wealth of health care options in Pittsburgh. But just outside the city, that can be a different story. It just happens to be a story that was put in the spotlight by a gunman, a former president and three Pennsylvania men whose lives changed in a flash Saturday.