This story is part of “Critical Condition,” a series investigating Texas’ rural health care crisis. Read Part 1 here.
Inside a tiny frontier hospital at the Texas Panhandle’s southern boundary, Judy Borton is hunched over the same gas stovetop that she’s cooked on for the past 47 years. This summer morning, Borton is right on schedule: She’s simmering hamburger steaks, grabbing canned green beans from the pantry, and whipping up a bowl of powdered mashed potatoes for the few remaining folks on the local Meals on Wheels program. “I don’t want to brag, but I’m known for my rolls,” she says. Borton apologizes for not making a batch today. There’s just hardly anyone around to eat them anymore.
Borton used to be one of two cooks at Chillicothe Hospital, a health care hub in this town of about 700 people, an hour northwest of Wichita Falls. For years, the pair had stayed busy making meals for the doctors, nurses, patients, and their families. Now, all the doctors are gone. All but one of the nurses have retired or been let go. There hasn’t been a patient in the hospital for several months now.
