Trauma Time

The now infamous 2,000 pages in the federal health care reform bill probably seem like a pamphlet to Dr. Brian Kimbrell and Lynne Grief.
Consider: The duo compiled at least 8,000 pages of text, documents and statements in their yearlong effort to bring the first-ever hospital trauma center to Manatee and Sarasota counties. Then they lugged the binders back and forth from Bradenton to Tallahassee for a multitude of meetings, hearings and strategy sessions.
The undertaking, at least on an interim basis, was successful. Their hospital, Blake Medical Center in west Bradenton, opened a trauma center Nov. 19 under provisional approval from state officials.