only hospital closed its doors for good in 2015. >> medical evans on scene. >> reporter: local residents have taken matters into therapy own hands. dawn good manson is one of several volunteer emts who act as the community's only lifeline. >> it's scary. it's scary to live here. i'm scared for our residents, i'm scared for my family. >> reporter: hen the hospital closed, the entire county, an area roughly the size of the u.s. state of massachusetts was left without any emergency medical care. any area that's more than 30 miles away from a hospital is known as a hospital desert. tonopa, more than 200 miles from emergency trauma care. >> if you need trauma care, you're looking at reno or las vegas which is 3 1/2 hours by vehicle. i know of some people that did not make it on the transport. they expired en route. >> my aunt, she had a lot of medical problems, and we weren't able to get her to higher level