NEWS
IMPACT: BOWIE MEMORIAL HOSPITAL ‘Golden Hour’ will deteriorate when patients must travel further for care
Editor’s note: IMPACT is an ongoing series exploring the consequences the possible closure of Bowie Memorial Hospital could mean for the community and county.
This is part two of a story on the Bowie Ambulance Service. It focuses on the medical services provided by the EMTs and how time plays a vital role in that care. Without a local hospital available to send a patient, the “golden hour” for a trauma event could be jeopardized.
Doctors often call the first hour after a traumatic or medical event as the “golden hour,” the time where the event can be treated with the most positive results.
Dr. Surinder Aujla has served as medical director for Bowie Ambulance Service since 1985, when he and a few others organized a training schedule for the service moving it from “load-and-run” to more sophisticated care.
“The ambulance service was upgraded and is now state-of-the-art. They treat and stabilize in the field, which has resulted in an increased quality of care and the number of lives being saved,” said the director.
The “golden hour” term comes from the military battlefield, where it was determined those stabilized within one hour had a much better outcome.
Aujla said nothing has changed. Read the full news feature in the mid-week News.
Pictured above: Last May, Bowie ambulance personnel rushed an injured city worker to an ambulance and then a helicopter after he was crushed while working inside a fiberglass tank. Firefighters worked diligently to extricate the man from inside the tank, while trying to care for his medical needs as much as possible. (Photo by Barbara Green)
The Bowie City Council will meet at 6 p.m. on June 23.
The agenda includes both old and new business items.
City Manager Bert Cunningham will make his report on the 2026-27 budget process, bid opening for the Glenn Hills lift station on July 16 and the bid for Rock and Pillar repairs.
In new business a pair of planning and zoning committee recommendations for replats at 107 E. Nelson and 412 Green will be reviewed. An ordinance adopting an office of emergency management amending a present ordinance will be offered.
Old business will see the second reading of the pickleball court reservation fee ordinance and the ordinance prohibiting drilling and mining or the reopening of an abandoned well or mine in any public park in the city limits.
A HEAT ADVISORY will be in effect from noon until 9 p.m. today (Thursday). Please plan accordingly.
Hear Audio Alert:https://hrpow.us/oeFZANN
Montague County Sheriff Marshall Thomas has confirmed human skeletal remains were recovered on June 13 in the Sunset area, and they could possibly be those of a flight attendant believed to have been murdered almost a year ago in the Fort Worth.
The murder suspect, Dennis William Day, 66, admitted in June 2025 to strangling Rana Soluri, 47, an Envoy flight attendant who lived with Day during that last year. She was reported missing by a co-worker on June 11 and had not been seen or heard from since March 2025.
Day initially denied any involvement, but later admitted to the murder and indicated he dumped her body somewhere in the Montague County area. Lawmen have scoured the areas in questions in both Montague and Wise County, but found nothing.
Sheriff Thomas said on June 13 the SO received a call of possible skeletal remains in the Brushy Creek area north of Poss Dyer Lane on Farm-to-Market 1749. A deputy went to the scene and confirmed it was human remains.
Investigators responded and kept the scene secure overnight until staff from the University of North Texas Forensic Anthropology Center could arrive and made the recovery on June 14. A Texas Ranger and staff from the Fort Worth Police Department also were on scene.
“There is no determination made yet on how long it has been there,” said Thomas. “The anthropologist was pleased to recover most of the skeleton in these conditions. Heavy rains previously made the past searches difficult. We are working jointly with Fort Worth to make an identification and if it is the victim in their homicide.”
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