THOMAS HARDY

Vero Beach resident Trevor Smith, a Trustee and Treasurer of the Indian River County Hospital District, died tragically on Tuesday when his car hit a utility pole.

I first met Mr. Smith on Monday after a meeting of the Hospital District Trustees. I approached him and inquired if I could ask him a few questions. He graciously agreed and we sat in the lunchroom together for about 45 minutes. I thought to myself what a privilege to be sitting here with this man. With what appeared to be a British accent, he came across to me as a statesman, very kind, humorous, and above all very concerned about doing his duty for the taxpayers and indigent population of Indian River County. He was transparent, forthright and generous with his time.

In fact he encouraged me to attend the Medical Center’s Finance Committee meeting the next afternoon, which I did; and he gave me a wink.

As a new resident of Vero Beach I became interested in all the controversy surrounding the Indian River Medical Center. I researched the situation and was given an opportunity by Inside Vero to publish the first in a series of articles to bring everything together and help educate the community with factual information. I found a lot of people didn’t even know there was an Indian River Hospital District that owns the hospital and taxes county residents to reimburse the hospital for indigent car. My article was published on June 19.

Mr. Smith emailed me on June 26, saying “I would like to congratulate you on a well researched and balanced article.” He went on to say he was “delighted to see that the new COO (at the Medical Center) is in place and making a difference…and that the mandate for the Indian River Hospital District is to provide funding to care providers in Indian River County for the treatment of indigent residents.”

On Monday I felt as though I had made an important new friend, and on Tuesday I lost him.

What a tragedy and such a loss for the community and Mr. Smith’s family.