Due to give birth to her first child the same day a 265-bed Oxnard hospital closed for fumigation, Darcy Gomez of Ventura worried that crowded maternity wards at other hospitals might tarnish the experience.

Ten days later on Friday morning, as St. John's Regional Medical Center reopened, Gomez was still pregnant. Still waiting.

"She is stressed and walking around the block right now," said her husband, Christopher Young.

The closure of St. John's emergency room Aug. 8, followed by the hospital closing Aug. 14, caused some stress for just about everyone: ambulance providers, urgent care clinics, other hospitals and, of course, patients.

The number of people admitted at a Camarillo hospital nearly doubled at times during the closure, with a cardiology office scrambling on Thursday to find a bed for someone who needed a pacemaker implant. The maternity ward at Community Memorial Hospital in Ventura became so busy that induced deliveries were postponed. Staff members at St. John's called 911 an average of once a day because someone in dire need of care showed up at the hospital not knowing it was closed.

However, the increased numbers didn't bring disaster, said healthcare officials throughout the county. People who needed help got it in time.

"The biggest hospital with the biggest emergency room in Ventura County closed, and yet the healthcare delivery system stayed intact," said Jerry Conway, president at St. John's Pleasant Valley Hospital in Camarillo. "Healthcare in the county remained uncompromised, which to me is incredible."

The timing even helped Gomez. She wants natural childbirth, and the closure meant that inducing labor wasn't a possibility. Now the reopening could mean more room at Community Memorial where she plans to give birth naturally.

"Every factor will help," Young said.

St. John's was fumigated Sunday with chlorine dioxide gas for mold. Five days later, the scent of chlorine and bleach was noticeable but dissipating.

Repairs were being made Friday to the hospital's oldest catheterization lab because of operational problems that may have been caused by chlorine dioxide corrosion, said the hospital's president, T. Michael Murray. He said the impact was minimal, noting two newer catheterization labs were working properly.

He said the gas also caused rust on the wheels of stools and carts. A few televisions also weren't working.

"It did have an effect on certain machines," he said of the gas. "We've corrected them."

About 25 patients go to ER

A spokeswoman for the California Department of Public Health, which approved the hospital's reopening, said inspectors didn't find any problems that compromised patient care.

About 25 people came to the emergency room by mid-afternoon Friday. About seven patients were admitted, including five to the maternity ward. Elective admissions begin Monday morning and about a half-dozen surgeries are scheduled.

As the hospital opened on Friday morning, Betty Redlin sat in her wheelchair waiting for a bus on Oxnard's C Street. She has a neurology appointment next week and, if problems emerge, could be admitted at St. John's.

"I just don't like to see a hospital closing. There's too many people left hanging," she said, expressing relief at the reopening.

"It's available to people who need it, and at 78, who knows, that might be me."

Elsewhere, the owner of a cafe said she just hopes the mold is gone once and for all. An Oxnard firefighter called the closure a wake-up call for people who take it for granted they'll always have quick access to a hospital. Administrators at other hospitals waited for their patient counts to slide back to normal levels.

St. John's Pleasant Valley Hospital may have been hit the hardest. Its emergency room visits doubled during the closure, and at times the hospital was so full patients had to be transferred to hospitals in Ventura.

Luck may have had a role

Emergency room visits rose about 25 percent at both Community Memorial and Ventura County Medical Center in Ventura. The patient census at Community Memorial went up as much as 70 patients at one time.

"I don't think there was a single patient that was not cared for in western Ventura County during the closure," said Gary Wilde, president of Community Memorial. "I feel euphoric that we did it."

The planning paid off and healthcare staff members throughout the county worked together, said Mike Powers, director of the Ventura County Health Care Agency. He thanked everyone from the county hospital staff to the St. John's employees who worked at other hospitals during the closure.

Luck may have played a role, too. There wasn't a train wreck or a huge traffic accident. But Barry Fisher, administrator of the county's emergency medical services, said the closure shows the healthcare system can survive even when its busiest hospital is knocked out. "If we have a big earthquake and one of the hospitals falls to the ground or has issues where they can't do business we know we can adjust the system accordingly to handle a situation like that," he said.