PITTSBURG COUNTY, Okla. — A family member said 53-year-old Robecca Garrett saved her two grandchildren in trouble before going underwater herself and drowning in Lake Eufaula near the community of Longtown on March 21.
According to a lake patrol report from Oklahoma Highway Patrol, the water temperature was just 53 degrees.
WATCH: As drowning claims grandmother, Eufaula builds first hospital in a decade
Garrett was pronounced dead at McAlester Regional Hospital a half-hour away.
At half that distance to the west, work continues at the old Epic Medical Center Hospital, which closed in 2016.
Later this year however, the site will be a Saint Francis Health System expansion. The hospital group made the announcement Feb. 27.
"Oh it's huge for us," Eufaula City Manager Jacob Foos told 2 News Oklahoma on March 10, eleven days before the accident that claimed Garrett's life. "As a tourist community we're only about 2,800 people throughout the year, but in the summer we get up to 10,000 people."
"Especially around the lake we can be prone to accidents, and we need that urgent care," Foos added. "One great thing is up on the hill, we have air evacuation with the helicopter, so they can get them up there and get that urgent care then get them in that helicopter if they need to get them to a major hospital."
Whether a hospital being open would have made a difference in the March 21 drowning has not been confirmed by any authorities. What is known from Garrett's family however, is that she will be remembered as a hero, and a loving grandmother.
The family has an active GoFundMe page to raise funds for Garrett's funeral and memorial services.
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