Remodeling and construction has begun on medical suites that will become the Barragan Family Diabetes Center, made possible by a gift From Mary Ann Barragan. The donation to the Hazel Hawkins Hospital Foundation to fund the center — the only one of its kind in San Benito County — was the second largest in its history.
The gift will be used for the development of facilities, equipment and furniture for the new center. The facility will be located in the Sunnyslope Medical Complex.
Barragan is the co-founder of Golden Memorial Insurance Services based in Hollister. Golden Memorial was established in 1963, operates in 12 states and employs more than 2,200 agents.
When the gift was announced earlier this year, Barragan noted, “My late husband, Ray Barragan, who suffered from diabetes for many years, faithfully believed that nothing was impossible. He would say the phrase ‘I can’t’ really meant ‘I choose not to.’ In honoring him, our family is saying ‘we can’ help residents in San Benito County who have been diagnosed with the disease. I have many friends and family members with diabetes and this is the one way I can support them.”
Health officials have noted that the number of patients with diabetes locally has doubled in the past decade. Current data indicates that 17.5 percent of the adult population in San Benito County has diabetes. An estimated 30 percent of the adult population is considered pre-diabetic or at risk of becoming diabetic. That is nearly half of all adults living in San Benito County.
The center will provide personalized care, education, counseling and treatment, along with motivational programs, screenings, informative literature, seminars and outreach efforts.
Diabetes is a leading cause of death in the United States. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than 25 million people have diabetes, including both diagnosed and undiagnosed cases. This disease can have a harmful effect on most of the organ systems in the human body; it is a frequent cause of end-stage renal disease, non-traumatic lower-extremity amputation, and a leading cause of blindness among working age adults. Persons with diabetes are also at increased risk for ischemic heart disease, neuropathy, and stroke. According to the CDC, the direct medical expenditures attributable to diabetes are more than $116 billion.
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