iinnLight Technologies, the emerging leader in optimizing light to transform and energize lives, today launched iinnLight Pro(TM), its debut product for the spa industry that enables spas and wellness centers to powerfully contribute to the wellness revolution by delivering the world’s first Molecular Massage(TM) while providing a new therapy option to increase profits. iinnLight Pro is a patented therapeutic delivery system that uniquely uses non-invasive light energy to deliver an energizing, stress relieving and skin rejuvenating experience during a 30-minute session.

“The iinnLight Pro marks a major milestone in the spa industry,” said Kathleen Buchanan, chief executive officer, iinnLight Technologies. “We’re taking a proven technology, LED light therapy, and packaging it in a one-of-a-kind delivery system exclusively for spas to help them respond to the skyrocketing demand for new, non-invasive wellness treatments.”

iinnLight Pro light therapy sessions or Molecular Massages can be packaged with other services such as massages and facials, or offered as a stand-alone service. This gives spas a natural pathway into the $1 trillion wellness market and the opportunity to offer their clients a unique, safe and non-invasive wellness and anti-aging solution with no increase in labor. In addition to feeling revitalized, spa guests who experience iinnLight’s Molecular Massage report seeing a visible reduction in the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles.

“The iinnLight Molecular Massage provides an added healing therapy for my patients,” said Dr. Jolanta Lukawski, internal medicine. “In my wellness practice, the goal is to be healthy, feel good and look good, and the non-invasive healing benefits of iinnLight therapy are a successful part of a holistic program. My patients experience benefits in their general sense of wellbeing, smoother skin and reduction of inflammation.”

How it Works

iinnLight Pro emanates three specific wavelengths of modulated light during each 30-minute session. The light, typically applied directly over the face, is absorbed into the body’s tissue then translated into energy which stimulates cellular growth, repair and regeneration of the body. iinnLight Pro specifically stimulates the immune system to promote the most natural form of healthy aging.

No larger than a standard floor lamp, the mobile delivery system enables spa employees to easily maneuver iinnLight Pro to accommodate treatments in different rooms. iinnLight Pro does not require a licensed technician to operate; the employee simply presses a button to start the light therapy and it automatically turns off after 30 minutes. The aesthetician is free to provide spa services to another guest while the Molecular Massage is in process, thereby increasing productivity and revenue for spa owners without increasing labor and training costs.

Pricing and Availability

iinnLight Pro is currently available for sale to destination and resort spas, day spas, and hotels that are focused on providing the latest wellness and anti-aging solutions for their guests. Priced at US $17,500 per iinnLight Pro system, early owners of the iinnLight Pro have achieved payback within four months of purchase. Contact iinnLight Technologies for sales and trial offer information at 949-340-1695.

About iinnLight

iinnLight provides energizing light therapy technology that enables spas to seamlessly increase profits and dramatically capitalize on the wellness revolution with the world’s first Molecular Massage(TM). iinnLight’s safe and non-invasive light treatments pave the way to the benefits most important to today’s busy individual: stress relief, beauty, restfulness and healthy aging. iinnLight is headquartered in Laguna Beach, Calif. For more information, visit http://www.iinnlighttherapy.com or call 949-340-1695.

Note to editors: A photo of the iinnLight Pro can be downloaded at http://www.iinnlighttherapy.com/media. iinnLight, iinnLight Pro and Molecular Massage are trademarks of iinnLight Technologies, Inc.

By Jane Liaw, The Sacramento Bee, Calif.

Aug. 4–When it comes to AIDS, the attention is on Africa and other parts of the world. But the epidemic hasn’t disappeared from our backyard.

In Sacramento County, an estimated 5,000 people are living with HIV/AIDS. Nationwide, 1.2 million people live with HIV, a larger number than ever before, according to CARES, a Sacramento HIV health care center.

And the face of HIV is changing: Although men who have sex with men are still the largest affected population, other demographic groups are yielding alarming rates.

African Americans make up half of all new AIDS cases. AIDS kills more women than any other disease except cancer and heart disease.

Advances in treatment also have allowed infected people to live longer. And more people older than 50 are becoming HIV-positive, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2005, older people accounted for 15 percent of new HIV/AIDS diagnoses.

HIV can be managed for years with medication. A study published last week in the journal Lancet showed that because of access to combination drugs, people are living with HIV 13 years longer than a decade ago.

Michael Jentes and Gary Parent are HIV-positive and living longer with the disease than was thought possible 20 years ago.

“The bulb is not as bright as it used to be, and my actions are slower than they were,” said Parent, 58. “People have to remember we’re in a constant state of infection.”

Jentes, 53, lived with HIV for 22 years. His condition has now progressed to AIDS.

Parent is a Vietnam veteran whose partner died of AIDS in 1995.

“I immersed myself in drugs then,” Parent said.

In 2003, he became ill and was diagnosed with HIV and hepatitis C. He got clean and became an HIV activist.

Parent said he is grateful to be alive, but acknowledges that life is not easy.

HIV drugs can only suppress the virus and slow down — but not cure — the disease. They often produce side effects that keep patients from leading active lives.

Parent is not healthy enough to hold a job.

Now that people are living longer with HIV, secondary conditions such as cancer and osteoporosis are new concerns. And conditions such as diabetes and high blood pressure are made more likely by certain HIV drugs.

Most HIV-positive patients have onerous drug regimens and take dozens of pills a day. Any lapse may allow the virus to develop resistance.

Research into the new challenges requires continued financial support. Yet federal funding for HIV/AIDS organizations is not keeping up, said Adrienne Rogers, Sacramento County program coordinator at Ryan White CARE.

“They haven’t taken into consideration any special needs of special populations,” she said.

Primary care doctors cannot treat diabetes, high cholesterol and other secondary conditions in aging HIV/AIDS patients. Medications for HIV and other diseases can counteract one another, so primary care is often left to HIV specialists, Rogers said.

“Also, many of the people we’re seeing who have had HIV for 20 years are now in phases of resistance for most of the drugs,” she said. These patients require new — often more expensive — drugs.

The need for stronger drugs has helped push up the cost of HIV care by as much as 20 percent a year, Rogers said.

Sacramento HIV/AIDS organizations have had trouble raising funds, and recent county and state government budget cuts will mean fewer preventive services, said Staci Syas, an HIV program coordinator with the Sacramento County health department.

Jentes believes the people who hold the purse strings consider HIV just another disease, like cancer, and forget that it is infectious.

“If we don’t keep it under control, it’ll spread like wildfire,” Jentes said.

Jentes wants a national AIDS strategy, and he has a vision of future HIV education in Sacramento: “Sacramento is the most diverse city in the nation,” he said. “If Sacramento can bring the numbers down and become the healthiest city, the rest of California would follow.”

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To see more of The Sacramento Bee, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.sacbee.com/.

Copyright (c) 2008, The Sacramento Bee, Calif.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

By Elie Dolgin, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Aug. 4–Nearly one-quarter of the human stem cell lines approved for federal funding by the Bush administration may have serious ethical problems, according to a report by University of Wisconsin-Madison bioethicist Robert Streiffer.

Streiffer reviewed the informed consent forms of the 21 embryonic stem cell lines eligible for taxpayer dollars and concluded that five of the lines were marred by major ethical concerns.

“There was a range of acceptability,” Streiffer said. “Some (consent forms) were well done, but others did not provide enough information and detail to count as informed consent.”

On Aug. 9, 2001, President Bush, citing moral concerns over stem cell research, announced that federal funding would be restricted to only those colonies, or “lines,” of embryonic stem cells derived before that date. The consent forms were completed by the donors between 1997 and 2001.

For three of the Bush-approved lines derived by Athens, Ga.-based BresaGen, the informed consent forms were not for research but for patients to begin fertility treatment, with only a vague mention that some embryos might be used for research.

For two other cell lines, created by Swedish biotechnology company Cellartis, women donated embryos for a specific research experiment, but the consent forms stated that the cells would subsequently be destroyed.

“It’s not that they are unacceptable consent forms; they’re just acceptable for only certain kinds of research,” said Streiffer, who published his findings in the journal Hastings Center Report. “Without looking at the original consent forms, I don’t think you can say you can use them for any type of research.”

All 21 cell lines are routinely used by researchers around the country without additional stipulations or limitations relating to the original informed consent given by the donors.

Last year, UW-Madison created a Stem Cell Research Oversight Committee that will soon consider the ethical appropriateness of all current and future stem cell research projects on the campus.

“All human stem cell research will need to be reviewed and approved by the committee, and that will include how cells were obtained and if the consent was adequate,” said Norman Fost, a committee member and UW-Madison pediatrics professor.

The committee has not discussed Streiffer’s specific findings, though, said committee chair and UW-Madison physiology professor Richard Moss.

“An important step for us is to take into account these findings,” Moss said, “but we haven’t done that as a group, and we haven’t reached a decision on these cell lines.”

Other large research institutions, however, including Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif., and Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, have responded directly to Streiffer’s study and are assessing the appropriateness of these particular cell lines, the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning think tank in Washington, D.C., reported last month.

UW-Madison does not maintain a record of what cell lines are used by its researchers, and until the committee is active, they will not know if any of the five cell lines are currently used, both Fost and Moss said.

Stephen Duncan, director of the program in regenerative medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Wauwatosa, said no one in his program uses any of the five lines in question.

Madison-based WiCell, an affiliate of the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, maintains and distributes 15 of the Bush-approved cell lines — including the three BresaGen lines called into question — through its National Stem Cell Bank.

WiCell has been distributing the three BresaGen lines only since January, however. And since then, they have been dispatched only twice among over 700 total cell line requests, said Janet Kelly, WiCell’s communications director.

WiCell is under contract from the National Institutes of Health to host the cells and will continue to distribute all the available cell lines unless told otherwise by the NIH, Kelly noted.

A statement released by the NIH said that it “required the deriver or provider of each candidate cell line to provide written assurance that all the criteria set forth by the President had been fulfilled, including the specified components of the informed consent process.”

Since 2001, scientists have developed hundreds of new embryonic stem cells lines using ethically and scientifically improved methods, but none of these lines has been eligible for federal funds.

Based on his findings, Streiffer argues that cell lines should be judged on how, rather than when, they were obtained.

“It doesn’t make sense to fund or not fund research just because of when a stem cell line was derived,” he said. “It’s preferable to use cell lines that have even better consent than ones used on the (Bush-approved) registry.”

The study “points to the fact that this policy is not tenable anymore,” said Jonathan Moreno, a medical ethicist at the University of Pennsylvania and a senior fellow with the Center for American Progress.

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To see more of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.jsonline.com.

Copyright (c) 2008, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

By Harris, Linda

Morgantown-based MedExpress has opened an urgent care clinic in Wheeling, its third in West Virginia.

In addition to locations in Morgantown, where the company is headquartered, and Parkersburg, MedExpress also operates eight clinics in western Pennsylvania and is partnering with the former Acute Injury & Illness Center and ImmediaCare Urgent Care in Colorado to provide similar service at five locations in and around Denver.

Another clinic is slated to open next month in Beckley.

Erich Lipphardt, vice president of business development, said the MedExpress philosophy is to provide “great care, fast.” Open daily, each clinic operates on extended hours – from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. – and no appointments are needed.

“Really, more than anything, it started with a few physicians wanting to put their vision for medicine into play,” he said. “Our business model is focused solely on convenience for patients and employs a customer service model to treat people the right way.”

The idea, he said, is to ensure people suffering from non-life threatening injuries or illnesses get the care they need quickly and efficiently, without sacrificing quality.

“We’ve created a good flow model to get people in and out, and we’ve been diligent in treating patients the way they want to be treated.”

The Wheeling clinic opened June 25 at 620 National Road. Serving as its district medical director is Dr. David Burkland, who recently received the Excellence in Emergency Medicine Award from the West Virginia chapter of the American College of Emergency Physicians. He also has received statewide recognition as an expert in quality assurance and customer service.

“We are not an emergency room, we are an urgent care provider,” Lipphardt said, adding they handle unscheduled – but not life- or limb-threatening –urgent needs ranging from illnesses like colds, the flu, viruses, bronchitis/pneumonia or rashes, to fractures, sprains, strains and dislocations, lacerations and work-related injuries.

Clinics also handle worker’s compensation cases, offer sports physicals and provide other workplace services. X-rays, lab services, EKGs and IV fluids also can be administered on site.

Copyright State Journal Corporation Jul 18, 2008

(c) 2008 State Journal, The. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.

By Bednar, Joseph

Edward Reilly needed a new kidney. His wife, Karen, volunteered to be his donor, but she wasn’t a match.

Meanwhile, Calvin Denson also awaited a kidney donation. After a year of submitting to dialysis three times a week, he felt close to giving up hope.

Then Karen Reilly learned about the New England Program for Kidney Exchange, which helps people whose living donors aren’t compatible matches. The program uses a computer program to find cases where the donor in an incompatible pair can be matched to a recipient in another pair. By exchanging donors, a compatible match for both recipients may be found.

So she decided to enroll, knowing her willingness to donate would boost her husband’s chances as well. As it turned out, she was a match for Denson. Meanwhile, a woman named Lydia Carollo, who had decided to become a living kidney donor after reading a flyer about someone in need, was eventually matched with Edward Reilly.

“I still wonder why she did this wonderful act, and I will always cherish this selfless act of kindness,” Reilly said. Carollo said simply, “I did this to help someone live a longer and healthier life.”

Meanwhile, “I wanted to give up on life,” said Denson, “but when the transplant office called me, I got a second chance. A person, an angel, who didn’t know me was going to do something so selfless.”

These interlocking stories had happy endings, but tens of thousands of people across the country are still waiting anxiously to see how their stories will unfold – because demand for organs far outstrips the number of donors.

In fact, about 77,000 people are on the waiting list for kidneys nationally, with another 10,000 to 20,000 adding their names each year. The waiting list in Massachusetts is about 1,500 at any given time, a number that’s also rising.

“Donations have actually been stable or slightly increasing, but the number of people coming on the list is so much greater than it was,” said George Lipkowitz, director of Transplantation at Baystate Medical Center, the region’s only transplant hospital.

Even with a dramatic uptick in donations, the situation would be dire, he noted. For example, if someone dies in an accident or otherwise suddenly but has not expressed any intent to donate organs, family members are asked for consent. “The consent rate has actually risen over the past five years or so, and we’re in the neighborhood of 55% to 60%,” Lipkowitz explained. “But even if everyone consented, we’d still have a donor shortage. It’s just a losing proposition.”

Part of the problem is actually a real positive for society in general: a marked decrease in road fatalities due in part to cars designed with a broader focus on safety. In addition, he noted, “many traumatic injuries, such as gunshots and stabbings, are related to drugs, so those individuals are not good donors.”

For a variety of reasons, “there just aren’t enough organs from deceased donors,” he told BusinessWest, “so we’ve relied more and more on live donations over the past 10 to 15 years” – people like Reilly and Carollo, who simply want to make a difference.

Parting Gifts

Massachusetts now has a law on the books requiring anyone getting or renewing a driver’s license to be offered the option of organ donation, and those willing will have the preference printed on their license, so a kidney or other organ may be salvaged quickly in case of sudden death.

“At least that makes everyone think of it,” Lipkowitz said. “A lot of times, someone would be willing to donate, but the family doesn’t know that. This way, they have documentation, and everyone knows what your wishes are.”

Still, kidney donations by living donors have many advantages over postmortem, or cadaveric, transplants, including better genetic matches and less risk for rejection – not to mention that surgeries can be scheduled at the convenience of the donor and recipient.

Fortunately, attitudes toward organ donation have changed for the better, said Lipkowitz. In years past, living donations were typically made only between relatives; then, as demand rose and people became more comfortable with organ donation, there was a rise in donations from non-relatives – spouses, friends, and others known well by the recipient.

“Now, it has become acceptable to have anonymous donors, people who just want to do some good by donating a kidney to someone they don’t know,” he said. “It’s not very common, but they’re becoming more common, and we’ve done several.”

Anonymous donors are a special case, and all such volunteers are given a psychological workup to clarify their intentions. Some are turned down, “but there are some truly good people in the world who just want to do help someone else,” Lipkowitz said.

In all, Baystate typically performs between 30 and 50 organ transplants per year, with a recent high of 57. That leaves the region with a lengthy waiting list for kidneys. Some people never make it to the list because a living donor is immediately found among their family members, but others, like Denson, wait a long time – and wonder.

“We transplant kidneys, liver, pancreas, intestines, heart, lungs … kidneys are the most frequent, because, obviously, we can keep people alive with dialysis,” Lipkowitz said. “With a liver or heart, if someone doesn’t get an organ, they die. That’s why the kidney list becomes so long.”

Baystate has made efforts to create public awareness of the need for living kidney donations, which account for virtually all such transplants because of the body’s ability to survive minus one of them – as opposed to, say, a heart or liver. And that provides a teaching opportunity for this teaching hospital.

“With living donations, we have a long time to talk to people” about their anxieties, expectations, and often misconceptions about giving up a kidney, said Lipkowitz. “Some people worry about pain afterward or think it shortens their life, but it doesn’t. There is some risk, just like anything in life; no surgery is completely safe. But it makes no difference in quality of life. We do these procedures laparoscopically, and the patient is usually back to work in a couple of weeks. The amount of pain compared to the old way of doing the surgery is much less.

“When we talk to people,” he continued, “when we describe things to them and are honest with them, we can usually allay their fears about donating.”

Tell the Story

Stories like those of Reilly and Denson demonstrate selfless acts of kindness and overwhelming gratitude, but also involve intricately planned surgeries and follow-up care, said Joan O’Shaughnessy, director of Renal & Transplant Services at Baystate.

“We have been making more efforts at publicity for cadaveric and living donations, and we’re part of the National Collaborative for Organ Donation, which is one of the attempts nationally to increase organ donations.”

Those efforts have managed to get more organ donors to commit on their driver’s licenses, pushed family consent rates higher, and made it mandatory for hospitals to report all imminent deaths before the fact, creating fast-moving lines of communication between hospitals, organ banks, and those waiting for transplants.

“We can rule out some people as donors, but we’d rather know everything in advance and send someone to talk to family members,” said Lipkowitz. “If families are approached by personnel trained in these issues, consent rates are much higher than when approached by just anyone.”

Copyright BusinessWest Jul 7, 2008

(c) 2008 BusinessWest. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.

By Anonymous

Merle S. Elliott, chairman of the board of the Hagerstown- Washington County Industrial Foundation, received the Volunteer of the Year award from the Maryland Economic Development Association. He has been instrumental in developing the county’s first business parks, attracting Citicorp to Washington County, and tackling projects that private developers considered too risky.

Susan O. Schall of SOS Consulting in Front Royal was appointed to the 2008 Board of Examiners for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, given by the National Institute of Standards and Technology. The board consists of 500 experts selected from industry, professional and trade organizations, education and healthcare organizations and government.

Jen Stanley, with 12 years of experience in the banking industry, has joined CoxHollidaPrice LLP in Martinsburg as the client relationship manager.

The Winchester-Frederick County Bar Association elected the following officers for 2008-9: Marc H. Abrams, president; N. Randolph Bryant, president-elect; Mark A. Vann, secretary; Barbara S. Williams, treasurer; Lawrence P. Vance, member-at-large; and Thomas A. Louthan, immediate past president. The Blue Ridge Legal Services, Inc. presented the 2008 individual Pro Bono Awards to James R. “Spiz” Larrick, Jr. and Marilyn A. Solomon, and the 2008 Law Firm Pro Bono Award to Buchbauer & McGuire, P.C.

Doug Lentz, CSCS, director of fitness and wellness at Results Therapy and Fitness in Chambersburg, taught strength and conditioning techniques to coaches of future Olympians and other high-caliber athletes at the Shanghai Sports Institute in China.

Dr. Lisa Dunn, director of dental health programs at WVU Robert C. Byrd Health Sciences Center’s Eastern Division in Martinsburg, was named a 2008 Health Care Hero for Community Service in West Virginia.

Jeff Owens II, of Winchester Environmental Consultants, Inc., has recently completed necessary training for certification and licensing as an Asbestos Project Designer and also as an Asbestos Project Monitor.

Chris Que, M.D., board certified internal medicine and fellowship trained in geriatric medicine, has opened Internal Medicine & Geriatric Specialists, Inc. in Martinsburg on the City Hospital campus. He recently completed a fellowship in geriatric medicine at Harpers Ferry Family Medicine through the WVU School of Medicine, and has been a member of the medical staff of WVUH-East’s Jefferson Memorial Hospital and the VA Medical Center for the past year.

The Rotary Club of Woodstock elected the following officers: Cena Simmons, owner of Four Star Printing, president; Michael Monahan, an Internet professor, president-elect; Kim Ryman of First Bank, vice president; George Daugherty, accountant, treasurer; and Peter Nadanyi of BB&T Bank, secretary.

Copyright News for Business, Inc. Jul 2008

(c) 2008 Quad – State Business Journal. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.

By Dan Gross, Philadelphia Daily News

Aug. 4–CHARLES BARKLEY needs to shed some pounds, so he’s taken up boxing as his exercise of choice.

The soon-to-be not-so-Round Mound of Rebound has been training at Joltin’ Jabs (4313 Main) in Manayunk. Barkley told us that he’d read that “Joltin’ ” Joey DeMalavez had recently trained NBC 10’s Vai Sikahema for what turned out to be his first-round knockout of Jose Canseco.

“My doctor told me I was a Happy Meal away from diabetes,” Barkley told us Friday. “I have to get my fat ass back together,” he said.

Barkley says he was 330 pounds, but is now closer to 300 and plans to work with DeMalavez throughout the summer while he’s living on the Main Line.

Huggins’ scholarship lives on

Those wishing to donate to a charity in memory of beloved NBC 10 broadcaster Edie Huggins may contribute to the Edie Huggins Nursing Scholarship Fund, c/o Bright Hope Baptist Church, 1601 N. 12th St., Philadelphia, PA 19122. Before she got into television, Huggins — who died Tuesday at age 72, after a long battle with cancer — was a nurse at two New York City hospitals. She started a nursing scholarship for young women some years ago at Bright Hope, where she was a devoted congregant. Huggins’ memorial will be held at Bright Hope at 7 p.m. tomorrow.

Meanwhile, the Mid-Atlantic Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences has postponed the announcement of Emmy nominations until Wednesday from a previously scheduled event tomorrow out of respect for Huggins. Huggins, who spent 42 years at NBC 10, was to pick up the Board of Governors award at the Sept. 13 Emmy Awards. She will still be honored at that event.

Out and about

Tom Jones avoided being pelted with panties during a visit to Club Worship at the House of Blues at Showboat in Atlantic City the other night. The “What’s New Pussycat?” singer performed that night at the Trump Taj Mahal before hitting up on reggae night at Club Worship, where he happily posed for photos with fans.

_ “Today” show financial editor Jean Chatzky was among guests at Philadelphia magazine’s Best of Philly party Wednesday. Chatzky, a Penn grad, is dating Penn grad Eliot Kaplan, a former Philly mag editor, who was part of a magazine staff reunion that took place before the Kimmel Center bash.

_ “Little Miss Sunshine” star Abigail Breslin accompanied CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric on a visit to Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia earlier this week to interview doctors and patients about cancer. The CHOP visit was taped for “Stand Up to Cancer,” the Sept. 5 hour-long telethon that will be simulcast on CBS, NBC, and ABC, and co-hosted by Couric, Brian Williams and Charlie Gibson.

Visit PhillyGossip.com for Dan’s latest stories. Have a tip? Call 215-854-5963, or e-mail [email protected]. For recent columns, visit go.philly.com/dangross.

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To see more of the Philadelphia Daily News, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.philly.com.

Copyright (c) 2008, Philadelphia Daily News

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

By Held, Shari

TECHNOLOGY CHANGES so rapidly that it is often difficult to know who is doing what and where. Here is our annual look at cutting- edge technology and techniques that help keep our Indiana hospitals among the leaders in health care.

Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Cancer Center, Indianapolis. The new $150 million patient care building at the Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Cancer Center (IUSCC) is slated to open this August.

“The actual demographics of the state of Indiana and the fact that the incidence of cancer was rising . . . was the impetus for us to build this facility,” says Debra Uhl, COO for Indiana University Hospital. “It represents a combined commitment between Clarian Health and IU School of Medicine to deliver top-notch, integrated, state-of-the-art care and to bring different practitioners together so we can assess patients and provide prompter service than we can today.”

The Center is the only National Cancer Institute-designated cancer center in the state that treats patients. There are only 63 centers nationwide. It is one of the nation’s leading hospitals when it comes to two procedures: minimally invasive hepatopancreaticobiliary (HPB) surgery for pancreatic cancer and transanal endoscopic microsurgery (TEM) for rectal cancer.

Minimally invasive HPB surgery techniques involve much smaller incisions, so recovery time is much improved. IU is one of the top three hospitals in the nation in terms of volume for pancreatic tumors and pancreatic surgery. IUSCC has been performing TEM for less than a year – often on an outpatient basis. It spares patients from having an incision and a colostomy.

Lutheran Health Network, Fort Wayne Recent studies have shown a direct correlation between decreased kidney function and higher risk for other medical problems. The more kidney tissue saved, the better for the patient. Radical nephrectomy (removal of the entire kidney and surrounding area) is only performed when absolutely necessary. But until recently many patients had to choose between open surgery with a partial nephrectomy (in which as much kidney tissue is spared as possible) or less invasive laparoscopic radical surgery which removed the entire kidney.

“To try to combine those two benefits, we, one, try to take only the tumor out and, two, we try to do this laparoscopically,” says Dr. Erik Weise, urologist and medical director of robotic surgery at Lutheran Hospital. “That is the best of both worlds.”

Weise, who has been with Lutheran Health Network for two years, has taken partial laparoscopic nephrectomy to another level by using the da Vinci Surgical System. The benchmark for a center of excellence for this procedure is that it is used on one out of every five patients with a kidney mass. The first year Weise performed the surgery, he hit that benchmark. Since then he has surpassed it – in the subsequent six months, his numbers increased to 32 percent; the next six months they reached 49 percent and in the most recent six- month block they reached 67 percent.

“What that means, is that out of all patients that walk through our door with a kidney mass, two-thirds will have laparoscopic nephrectomy and keep most of their kidney,” Weise says. “This is huge given the fact that we are saving heat attacks, strokes, hospital admissions and lives. The [da Vinci] robot has taken me from [the benchmark] one-in-five to two-out-of-three.”

It’s also made Lutheran Hospital Fort Wayne the world leader in the number of robotic partial nephrectomies performed.

Deaconess Health

System, Evansville. In November 2007, Deaconess began offering patients a state-of-the-art procedure for treating inter-cranial aneurysms. Aneurysms develop when a weakened or diseased area of a blood vessel bulges or “balloons” out. Most people don’t realize they have an aneurysm until it ruptures, when it can cause life- threatening bleeding. In the past, open cranial surgery was the mode of treatment. In the new technique, brought to Deaconess by Dr. Neil Troffkin, a catheter is threaded from a vessel in the groin to the aneurysm. A thin wire coil, typically made of platinum, is placed in the aneurysm, causing it to clot. The coil remains in place to protect patients from re-hemorrhaging.

It’s a great technique,” says Dr. Emil Weber, the neurosurgeon who was instrumental in putting the program together, and who now serves as a consultant for Deaconess. “It is minimally invasive – all done from inside the blood vessel. That’s the beauty of it.”

To provide the new procedure, Deaconess invested in the latest biplane imaging system, which plots the progress of the catheter and the coil in real-time to ensure they stay contained in the blood vessel. It is the first system of its kind that can cover the lateral and frontal anatomy simultaneously.

Other new endovascular procedures offered by Deaconess include the use of the Merci catheter for embolic stroke (when a clot in the heart embolizes to the brain) and for arteriovenous malformations which cause seizures and bleeding.

“Previously we had to send seriously ill people nearly 170 miles away [to get treatment],” Weber says. “Now we can treat them right here, and do it promptly.”

Methodist Hospitals, Northwest Indiana.

Methodist Hospitals recently invested in the latest 3D/4D ultrasound equipment and other advanced technologies for its Maternal-Fetal Medicine program. 3D/4D ultrasound allows physicians to look at a fetal heart or other structure in 3D and provides picture-like quality (4D ultrasound adds movement). That means defects, such as cleft lip, and complications, such as prematurity and fetuses that are not growing properly, can be recognized and treated earlier.

“Complicated pregnancies are fairly common,” says Dr. Howard Grundy, maternal-fetal medicine sub-specialist. “We follow twins and triplets closely because they have more complications, birth defects and slower growth than single babies.”

Other services offered by the program include testing for Downs Syndrome, monitoring of fetuses, and consulting with and creating management plans for patients with complicated pregnancies, such as women with diabetes, high blood pressure or heart disease. Methodist has stepped up to the plate to provide this needed service across the board to area women of all economic strata.

“No one [in the area] had made a major investment in technology and providing maternal-fetal specialists on a regular basis to help manage these patients,” Grundy says, “but Methodist decided they would be the leader in this and made a huge commitment.”

This summer Methodists’ Southlake Campus is installing a biplane imaging system that will diagnose and treat strokes, aneurysms and vascular disease faster and more efficiently than other systems. Procedures also require fewer x-ray images and contrast injections, resulting in less radiation exposure for patients. Earlier this spring, Dr. May Oka, a neuron-interventional radiologist at Methodist Hospitals, performed the first minimally invasive endovascular coiling technique in northwest Indiana. The new biplane imaging technology will allow the hospital to provide this highly specialized care to more people locally.

Goshen Center for Cancer Care, Goshen. This May the Goshen Center for Cancer Care (CCC) became a HOPE award winner for its model of integrated care, named by Hematology & Oncology News & Issues Magazine. It was cited as the “best example of integration of care among medium-sized community-based oncology practices.”

Included alongside medical, surgical and radiation oncologists are naturopathic physicians, dietitians, social workers and pastoral support.

“Having that added strength really complements our whole program of care,” says Dr. Doug Schwartzentruber, CCC’s medical director. “When you talk about cancer in broad terms, I would say we cure about 60 percent of cancer. But our goal is to heal everybody. Even though we may not cure the physical component, we can provide healing in terms of emotional and spiritual needs that for that particular person is extremely important and very meaningful.”

Patient satisfaction at the CCC consistently runs in the 95th to 98th percentile compared to the rest of the cancer centers nationwide.

Schwartzentruber credits the hospital’s strong mission statement, its board and administrative leadership “for making choices that are patient-centered” and allowing the CCC to “think outside the box a bit and invest where we think it is going to be best for the patient.”

The not-for-profit, comprehensive adult cancer center was the first to bring Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT) to the state of Indiana several years ago. The CCC is also actively involved in clinical research so it can bring new treatments and options to cancer patients. Its radiation department has two patents to its credit – one for mobile radiation therapy and the second, an improvement on a method of delivering high doses of radiation therapy to breast cancer patients.

Schwartzentruber calls that “pretty exciting” for a small community hospital. “Our premise has been to incorporate in this model, the best people and the latest technology in an integrative fashion to create a delivery of healthcare model at its best.”

Cancer Care Services, St. Francis Hospital Health Centers, Indianapolis. This April,

St. Francis Hospital & Health

Centers became the first hospital in central Indiana to deliver radiation treatments via TomoTherapy technology. Used to treat areas of the body that require a high degree of precision, TomoTherapy employs a helical mode of delivery (360 degrees of continuous treatment) with thousands of radiation beams – other technology may deliver only 180 degrees of treatment. TomoTherapy treatments are painless and are most often used for prostate, head and neck, central nervous system and cranial tumors.

“It’s unlike any other,” says Kent Brumbaugh, executive director of St. Francis Cancer Care Services. “TomoTherapy is a complete system. The treatment machine and the treatment planning system are integrated and incorporated into one, helping us make changes on the fly.”

Each time a patient comes for treatment, a scan is performed to catch any changes so the treatment is more precise and targeted. That precision allows the treatments to spare healthy tissue and promotes better outcome with fewer side effects.

Brumbaugh says St. Francis’ next step for utilizing TomoTherapy technology is stereotactic radiosurgery, a method of targeting radiation beams in a very precise manner so higher-dose levels can be administered. The stereotactic radiosurgery technology will be used primarily for targeting intercranial brain lesions.

Center for Advanced Medicine, St. Mary Medical Center, Evansville. When St. Mary’s Center for Advanced Medicine opened in December 2006, it featured $10 million of world-class imaging technology, including a 64-slice CT, 1.5 Tesla Open MRI and PET CT. The center remains a technology leader in its area.

Julie Wolowitz, director of imaging services, says the high- profile technology is probably the Center’s biggest selling point, but there are other technologies that are also important to providing quality health care.

The center’s rooms are equipped with digital x-ray and fluoroscopy, which delivers results approximately two-and-a-half times faster than traditional analog systems. Besides speed, the digital system allows minor adjustments to be made to images for optimal quality.

The Powerscribe digital dictation and transcription system provides faster reporting to physicians. “We are averaging a little over an hour to get reports to referring physicians,” Wolowitz says. “And that’s the final interpretation in their office, printed on their fax machine.”

The gold standard in centers of excellence in imaging is 24 hours. When fast-growing, aggressive cancers are involved, that one- hour turnaround can make a significant difference in patient outcomes.

Another new technology that St. Mary’s Medical Center offers patients is radiofrequency ablation (RFA). RFA is a minimally invasive treatment in which alternate currents are delivered to a targeted tumor to dissolve it, sparing the patient from major surgery.

Center for Wound Healing, Community Health Network, Indianapolis. Diabetes is on the rise. That means an increased demand for centers dedicated to healing the ulcers associated with that disease, as well as other wounds that are difficult to heal. Community Health Network responded to that need with the Center for Wound Healing at Community East, which opened this March. The center features four wound-treatment rooms that utilize the latest therapeutic methods. Patient progress is recorded via digital camera during every treatment. The center is managed by National Healing Corp., which has a heal rate of 85 percent within 16 weeks.

Approximately 10 percent of the center’s patients are candidates for its two state-of-the-art hyperbaric oxygen (HBO) chambers. The chamber surrounds patients with pressurized oxygen, which stimulates the red blood cells to heal the wounds.

“The Wound Center takes a big burden off family-care physicians, because, one, wound care is very time-consuming, and, two, the products used can be very expensive,” says Amy Propst, director of the Center for Wound Healing. “Physicians can refer patients to a wound center that specializes in that care and they don’t have to carry that high overhead. We supply referring physician monthly progress reports on their patients all the way through until they are healed.”

Memorial Hospital and Health System, South Bend. Memorial Hospital, one of the leaders in stroke prevention and treatment in northern Indiana, has been offering patients an alternative to carotid endarterectomy for years. That alternative is minimally invasive angioplasty in which a catheter is advanced from a blood vessel in the groin and the blood vessel reopened with a balloon. This is followed by the insertion of a stent to keep the vessel open.

“There was a need in our community,” says Dr. Gerard Duprat, medical director of interventional radiology for Memorial, “so we have refined the technique over the last decade and can offer this as a very safe alternative to surgery when surgery is not feasible.”

One refinement was the modification of Doppler ultrasound to monitor patients during the procedure initiated at Memorial. The resulting trans-cranial device gives physicians critical input about blood flow in real-time. Memorial has also begun using a “wind sock” filter to rapture any resulting debris from the stenting process to prevent it from reaching the brain and causing a stroke.

Another cutting-edge therapy offered for stroke patients is catheter-directed thrombolysis. TPA, a drug that dissolves blood clots, can be administered intravenously within three hours of the onset of symptoms, but now the medication can be administered directly to the clot in the brain via a catheter from the groin area from three to six hours after the onset of symptoms.

“It can prevent the patient from going into full neurological deficit following a stroke,” Duprat says. “We can now help more patients recover more quickly from stroke.”

Porter Health Systems, Valparaiso. Porter leads the region in diagnosing and curing complex heart ailments. This March, the hospital became one of the first five hospitals in the nation to implant a Livian heart device into a heart-failure patient. The devise, implanted in conjunction with the traditional defibrillator and a pacemaker, auto-synchronizes all the chambers of the heart. Average life expectancy of patients with the Livian heart device is improved three-fold-from three years to nine years.

Porter was the first hospital in northwest Indiana to perform minimally invasive hip surgery with the OSI PROfx Table. The table provides optimal positioning patients so muscle and nerve tissue can be spared during surgery. Patients recover more quickly, getting out of bed within 24 hours versus one week.

Porter is currently in the process of constructing a larger 261- bed, private room hospital situated on a wooded property overlooking a lake. The new facility in Porter County is slated for completion in 2011. It will feature a Cardiac and Vascular Institute; a 65,000- square-foot Mother/ Baby unit for labor and delivery, pediatrics and neonatal intensive care unit; and an expanded emergency department “within steps” of the hospital’s diagnostic and imaging services.

“We love the fact that we are building the hospital, but we are continuing to invest in technology and equipment that aids our staff and our doctors today, so we continue to be a leader in the region,” says Jonathan Nalli, CEO of Porter Health Systems.

Women’s & Children’s Hospital, Parkview Hospital, Fort Wayne. When Parkview Hospital began the design process of its $20 million Women’s & Children’s Hospital, the main focus was to make it feel like home.

Despite the activity, it is quiet and soothing with soft lighting and a central courtyard, where patients and families can find a few minutes of peace. The artwork is created by the children and grandchildren of hospital staff.

The hospital, which opened this February, features 24 post- partum rooms, 10 labor/delivery/recovery/ rooms, two labor/deliver/ recovery/ post-partum rooms with laboring tubs, four pre-term rooms, six private triage rooms, two operating suites and 20 private neonatal intensive care rooms with sleeping quarters for parents. Sue Ehinger, COO of Parkview Hospital, says patient satisfaction is very high.Women’s Diagnostic Center, Community Healthcare System, Munster. MRI detection of breast cancer has long been available, and is especially useful in detecting cancer in high-risk women that may have small, elusive breast cancers. MRI-guided breast biopsy, a new technology, just became available at Community in April. Already the technology has made a huge difference in treatment and planning for women with breast cancer. MRI biopsy is a minimally invasive breast biopsy, performed under local anesthetic, which requires only a tiny three-millimeter incision. The procedure provides information that cannot be obtained by other means.

It also can be performed in less than an hour, and there are no dietary restrictions and no need for a driver to and from the facility At Community, same-day results are available.

Traditional methods often require an open biopsy, a 20- millimeter incision, stitches, and a follow-up to get results. It may take a week or more.

“Happily, we have been able to condense everything and do it faster, with less pain and less breast tissue removal than the open method,” says Dr. Mary Nicholson, the only fellowship-trained breast radiologist in Northwest Indiana, and medical director of breast imaging services for Community Healthcare System. “Statistically 70- to 80-percent of breast biopsies are benign. But if it is cancer, you have the opportunity to take your cancer diagnosis and meet with your surgeon and plan your treatment with potentially just one visit to the operating room.”

Copyright Curtis Magazine Group, Inc. Jul 2008

(c) 2008 Indiana Business Magazine. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.

By Stevenson, Jaclyn C

It’s called stachybotrys, and by some accounts, it’s the stuff of horror movies.

Dubbed ‘toxic,’ ‘black,’ or ‘killer’ mold, stachybotrys has been the subject of frightening news reports concerning deathly ill children, businessmen with major memory loss, and families fleeing their homes with nothing but the clothes on their backs after discovering the greenish-black substance in their walls or floors.

Bruce Tease, senior environmental scientist with Environmental Compliance Services (ECS) in Agawam, said he’s heard those accounts and doesn’t doubt their validity. However, he does caution that these are extreme cases involving substances detrimental to indoor air quality, or IAQ, and one reason why the term ‘sick buildings’ has become part of the lexicon, prompting employers, building owners, and property managers across the country to perk up their ears in hopes of finding a solution.

“The media has created an hysteria around black mold without providing a lot of education,” said Tease. “It’s a very uncommon occurrence to have an IAQ problem affect everyone in the building. Usually, it’s a couple of people, and everyone automatically thinks it will lead back to mold.

“But even finding black mold doesn’t mean you have a toxic mold problem,” he added. “Plus, people are allergic to a lot of different things.”

Still, Tease said there is one positive side effect to mold panic – it’s bringing IAQ to the forefront of more people’s minds. That, in turn, gives environmental professionals an opportunity to break down the lingo and the myths, and to offer some solutions for healthier work and living environments.

The Towering Infirmary

First, said Tease, ‘sick building’ is a term that often strikes an unnecessary level of fear in the hearts of many people. But it is a very real phenomenon.

“Sick-building syndrome refers to a situation in which the majority of people in a building are exhibiting the same kind of response, regardless of a genetic predisposition such as an existing allergy,” he explained, noting that this generally translates to more than 20% of a building’s occupants experiencing the same or similar problems.

That can be a hard statistic to pin down, because the EPA does not mandate any specific regulations or safety levels for IAQ. But it does offer a series of guidelines geared toward specific groups such as builders, public officials, school administrators, facilities managers, and others that are helping to shed a little light on what can be construed as sick-building syndrome, and what can’t.

These include plans such as I-BEAM (Indoor Air Quality Building Education and Assessment Model), a guidance tool designed for use by building professionals and others interested in IAQ in commercial buildings; and BASE, the Building Assessment, Survey, and Evaluation study, which collected data from 100 randomly selected office buildings in the U.S. to create a set of basic statistics regarding HVAC features, pollutant concentrations, and occupant symptoms. The database is aimed at researchers, scientists, building professionals, public-health officials and policy makers, while the Building Air Quality Action Plan (BAQ) was drafted to meet the needs of building owners and managers looking for an easy-to-understand path for taking their building from current conditions and practices to the successful IAQ management practices. The BAQ Action Plan follows eight steps, and includes a 100-item checklist to get started.

Christine Arruda, a certified indoor environmental consultant with the environmental consultancy firm O’Reilly, Talbot, and Okun Associates in Springfield, said she tends to focus more on these types of basic guidelines when first entering a property, rather than on the possibility of a pervasive case of sick-building syndrome.

“In fact, I’ll go so far as to avoid the terminology altogether,” she said. “It sounds so scary, and people tend to look at it in the wrong way – as a lot of people having symptoms equating to the building making them sick, when really, often it’s a case of many people with varied symptoms without an associated cause.”

Among the types of irritants that make a property suspect of sick- building syndrome are organic substances such as mold, bacteria, or pests, non-living particulates such as dust and dirt, and chemicals either used or produced in the workplace that can affect overall air quality. Sometimes, said Arruda, this means that a group of people exhibiting allergic symptoms are experiencing very different reactions to different things, and this doesn’t constitute a sick building by strict definition.

“A lot of times, we’re called in to assess IAQ in varied sites, from commercial to industrial to residential. We see a whole host of symptoms, and sometimes we can find out what a cause may be. But more often, we find building constraints, either structurally or in terms of the type of occupancy, that we need to help the occupants work around to create healthier, more comfortable environments.”

Pyramid Scheme

Indeed, there are a number of indoor-air-quality issues to address at varying levels in buildings of all shapes and sizes, and Tease offered a specific reason for this within certain properties – a new syndrome of sorts that he calls ‘Egyptian Tomb.’

“Buildings prior to 1950 or 1960 rarely have problems unless there’s a water leak,” he said. “Buildings constructed after the 1970s are where we see the problems. Older buildings aren’t getting sicker, but newer buildings sacrificed clean air in their design.”

Tease explained that homes and buildings, including multi-office suites and high rises, built over the past three decades have followed a trend of ‘tight construction’ that can make the structure more durable in broad terms. However, this type of construction also limits the exchange of inside air with outdoor air.

“There’s no way outside air can come in and dilute the dust, dirt in the carpets, fungi, chemicals, you name it – and all of this starts to build up,” he said. “The exchange of indoor air with outdoor air is the key. If the ratio is right, particulates won’t build up and condense, and moisture can be controlled.”

Both Tease and Arruda agreed that often, these problems can be remedied through solutions that are simpler than many might first think.

“A key thing in alleviating symptoms is ventilation, so that leads us directly to the HVAC system,” said Arruda. “It’s important for owners and managers to have an ongoing, thorough HVAC maintenance schedule, making sure that there are no obstructions, everything is clean and flowing properly, and the system is balanced throughout the building.”

Tease added that there are even more proactive moves offices can take as a whole before HVAC concerns are addressed.

“Housekeeping, ventilation, and fixing leaks are the three things to address, and the solutions are pretty simple,” he said. “We tell people to make sure they schedule routine cleaning events in office areas, perhaps using a HEPA (high-efficiency particulate air) filter vacuum to remove fine particulates. Those can run $500 to $1,000, but they’re great for people who have hypersensitivities to dust or mold spores, for instance. They can also be rented to help decide whether or not that step is even necessary.”

Even more straightforward than a HEPA vacuum, though, is good old- fashioned dusting – a tactic Tease said he and other environmental specialists will suggest early on when working with a client.

“Dusting is not a common practice in our society,” he said. “But it’s common sense for keeping an area free of fine particles. Air purifiers can also help.”

To Have and to Mold

As IAQ becomes a more-prevalent concern, however, a bigger arsenal of proactive measures is being devised to allow for more accurate readings within a given building and help property owners and managers take action.

One such solution is IT-based, said Tease. Computer-driven tactics such as the ‘Eclipse’ program, now in development at ECS, can monitor various locations within a property and automatically generate reports based on predetermined acceptable levels.

It’s being introduced to property managers now, especially those who manage multiple properties, as another option that can track IAQ and thus help identify or avoid problems.

“IAQ is very hard to track otherwise,” said Tease. “There could always be more than one needle in the haystack making people sick, and currently, it’s the squeaky wheel that gets the grease.”

Having plans in place to monitor IAQ, be they technology-based or otherwise, is also becoming a more noticeable aspect in new construction and renovation projects within many types of properties. Arruda said this speaks further to greater understanding of the importance of clean air in the home and workplace.

“Now,” she said, “in terms of new construction, we’re seeing better understanding leading to people making more proactive moves, and putting more thought into not just making the building look great, but also making sure occupants are going to be comfortable and able to perform their tasks.

“It’s just the smart thing to do,” she continued. “We can only imagine the costs to evaluate IAQ and upgrades to remedy problems; once they all add up, those numbers can be huge.”

As for stachybotrys, Arruda agreed that the public may have a skewed view of this toxin, though she admits that it, too, is easy to find in large numbers.

“When it comes to mold, I can walk into any building and find it,” she said. “There are situations where there is clear evidence of damage, but a lot of times, I don’t think that’s the problem.”

The real issue, she said, is education – and the more individuals have, the easier they can breathe.

“Any IAQ program put in place should include an educational component,” Arruda said. “This helps people regain the perspective that breathable buildings are better.”

Copyright BusinessWest Jul 7, 2008

(c) 2008 BusinessWest. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.

By Beau Wicker, Pharos-Tribune, Logansport, Ind.

Aug. 3–When Michael Anderson was running down the stretch of the Tower Park Triathlon for Kids on a hot and sunny morning Saturday, the finish line couldn’t have seemed any farther away.

After completing a 200-meter swim, a 5.6-mile bike and a 1.6-mile run as fast as he could in 52:01, the 15 year old said he was “completely and horribly” fatigued.

“I felt like I was going to pass out,” he added.

“I didn’t have too much trouble with the swimming and biking. When I started the run I had a little bit of trouble.”

But Anderson, like most triathletes, enjoyed the overall experience.

“I enjoy challenging myself to do things that I find to be pretty difficult,” he said.

A total of 16 boys and girls competed in the inaugural event. Anderson, who will be a sophomore at Logansport where he runs cross country and swims, was the lone competitor in the 15-18 boys division.

Sasha Neumann won the 13-14 boys division in 55:49 and Zach Ulrich was runner-up in 59:29.

Ashley Fawcett won the 13-14 girls division in 1:08.45, edging out Kassie Neumann by .01 of a second.

The younger-aged kids had different distances to complete. Both the 11-12 and 9-10 age groups were faced with a 100-meter swim, a 4.6-mile bike and a 1.3-mile run.

Dylan Bice won the 11-12 boys division with a time of 36:31. Alexi Neumann was second in 42:36, Landon Neumann was third in 46:27, Spenser Ulrich was fourth in 49:15 and Carter Ulrich was fifth in 54:52.

Jennifer Crafford was the lone competitor in the 11-12 girls division, winning in 53:01, and Damien Gordon was the lone competitor in the 9-10 boys division, winning in 1:00.56.

The 8-and-under division had a course that included a 50-meter swim, a 1-mile bike and a 0.3-mile run.

In the 8-and-under boys division, Owen Bice won in 10:14, Calvin Brown was second in 10:46, Alex LeDonne was third in 10:47 and Jacob Myers was fourth in 13:08.

Anderson’s older brother, Alex Anderson, who will be a senior at Earlham College, organized the event towards completion of requirements for his internship for college credit. Alex Anderson deemed the event a success.

“All the parents were happy; that makes me happy,” he said. “It was a good turnout.

“In the pool in the shallow end there was shade but when they got to the deep end they were in the sun and they started to sweat immediately. When they got on the bike they were wet, and it’s that much easier for them to sweat. … Sweating’s good for cardio.”

Logansport Mayor Mike Fincher was in attendance and handed out awards at the end of the event.

“I didn’t expect anyone from city to be there, let alone the mayor,” Alex Anderson said. “So that was great.”

Alex Anderson thinks the event can become an annual one.

“I think it will,” he said. “At the Board of Works meeting Mayor Fincher said he thinks it’ll be something that will grow. I did it as an internship for college, and I don’t want to do it all by myself now. Next year we could divvy out the work to other lifeguards. Now everything’s in order. I did a lot of work and a lot of that can carry over to next year. The mayor said he would OK it.”

Alex Anderson, who’s majoring in business at Earlham, is a 2005 graduate of Logansport High School, where he starred in baseball. He plays baseball at Earlham and earned All-NCAC honors and was the team MVP this past season despite battling injuries. He posted a 3.98 ERA on the mound and at the plate he hit .280 with 17 stolen bases.

Beau Wicker can be contacted at (574) 732-5113 or via e-mail at [email protected]

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To see more of Pharos-Tribune, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.pharostribune.com/.

Copyright (c) 2008, Pharos-Tribune, Logansport, Ind.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

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A GIRL of four has died five weeks after suffering severe burns in an arson attack.

Alana Mian had been in hospital since the June blaze which killed her grandmother Hameeda Begum, 71. Alana’s mum Saima, 24, is recovering.

The two, from Sydney, Australia, were visiting Hameeda and her husband Mumtaz Chisty in Bolton when a bin was set alight outside the couple’s front door. Mumtaz, 73, escaped.

A man aged 22 and boy aged 12 were later arrested and bailed.

Cops have launched a murder probe and Det Chief Insp Jeff McMahon said yesterday: “We still believe there are people out there not talking to us.”

(c) 2008 People, The; London. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.

By Macollvie Jean-Francois, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Aug. 3–FORT LAUDERDALE — Information systems staffers at four area hospitals have fixed a computer glitch that had personnel resorting to paper, a Broward Health spokeswoman said today.

The glitch happened about 11 p.m. Saturday during a system-wide upgrade that had been underway for about four months at the four Broward hospitals, district spokeswoman Sara Howley said. Some databases went down as a result, prompting hospital staff to pull out the paper for such things as collecting patient information and printing lab results, Howley said.

Howley said the computers were all back online as of 2 p.m.

The discharges, transfers and admissions reference is done by paper during downtime, Howley said.

Each of the medical centers — Broward General, North Broward, Coral Springs and Imperial Point — also has its own back-up, stand-alone computer system, enabling staffers to continue taking care of patients, she said.

Hospital administrators received no complaints about patient care during the period the systems were down, she said.

“Needless to say, companies have networks and information systems and they will have problems and issues from time to time,” Howley said in a email. “Thankfully, we have backup procedures and processes — as most companies have — to assist and keep the [company] moving during downtimes.”

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To see more of The South Florida Sun-Sentinel or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.sun-sentinel.com/.

Copyright (c) 2008, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

By Melissa Mcever, The Brownsville Herald, Texas

Aug. 3–The floodwaters in the canal behind Solara Hospital in Brownsville rose perilously during Hurricane Dolly. Water rose so quickly that officials at the long-term care facility feared the building would flood and that the hospital’s power would go out.

So Patricia Dye, director of community education at the hospital, called for an ambulance to transfer some of the hospital’s most critically ill patients — the ones on ventilators — to Valley Regional Medical Center, just across the street.

No ambulances came. Officials at Brownsville’s emergency-medical services department told Dye the winds were too strong and the waters rising too high.

Eventually, the storm subsided and the hospital never lost power. But Dye said she doesn’t understand why the ambulances wouldn’t risk it.

“What’s the alternative?” Dye said. “Isn’t there some other vehicle, some other way?”

The region’s emergency medical service providers say they must protect their paramedics by shutting down their services, except in major emergencies. Putting the medics in peril doesn’t help patients, said Brownsville Fire Department Chief Lenny Perez. The city’s EMS program is part of the fire department.

“It’s not good for responders to get themselves hurt — it defeats the purpose of what they’re here for,” Perez said.

Brownsville stops sending out ambulances during a storm once wind speed hits 65 miles per hour, Perez said. At that point, the ambulances are prone to being tossed around or tipped over in the wind, he said.

At South Texas Emergency Care Foundation, which provides EMS service to Harlingen and several cities in Cameron County, ambulances stop going out when winds reach approximately 50 miles per hour, said Rene Perez, director of transport services. Valley Air Care, the region’s air-ambulance service, doesn’t venture out in high winds.

Strong winds just pose too much danger for the average ambulance, which is top heavy because of its extra head room, said Jaime Castillo, supervisor for Pro-Medic EMS, which provides service to Donna, Alamo, San Juan, San Benito, Edcouch-Elsa and other cities in Hidalgo and Cameron counties. The company stops sending out ambulances when winds reach 35 miles per hour, he said.

“Anything above 35 miles per hour can change the direction of the vehicle and cause a collision,” Castillo said. “We’ve had reports that during a hurricane, (the ambulance) will literally tip back and forth.”

In a crisis, emergency medical technicians and paramedics will sometimes take a fire truck, which is sturdier during a storm, officials said. Or fire trucks will escort an ambulance by staying alongside it, protecting it from the brunt of high winds.

Emergency responders with South Texas Emergency Care Foundation decided to risk the storm when a 17-year-old boy fell off a balcony on South Padre Island during Hurricane Dolly, STEC’s Rene Perez said. But the ambulance had a fire truck escort.

Although generally the ambulances stop transporting once high winds hit, the responders make exceptions in life-threatening situations, Perez said.

“Every call is different,” he said. “We have to look at what the weather is doing at that point in time.”

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To see more of The Brownsville Herald, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.brownsvilleherald.com.

Copyright (c) 2008, The Brownsville Herald, Texas

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

NASDAQ-NMS:STEC,

By Jessica Legge, The Times West Virginian, Fairmont

Aug. 3–FAIRMONT — Dr. Govind Patel has served the community for 25 years, and he’s not stopping now.

Patel, who is originally from a small village in India, said his older brother knew that he was smart and encouraged him to be a doctor.

In India, Patel attended Patan Arts and Science College and B.J. Medical College at Gujarat University. He then went to the University of Louisville in Kentucky for his residency.

He worked as an associate with Dr. Robert Mutch for six months, and when Mutch retired, Patel went out on his own. In 1983, he established a private practice in internal medicine and allergy at 1844 Locust Ave. in Fairmont.

“It’s a family dream for him to be a doctor,” Patel’s wife Shobha said.

As the office manager, Shobha works closely with the staff of her husband’s practice. The couple lives in Fairmont and has four children.

Dr. Patel is also a Fairmont General Hospital staff member and is part of the Hospitalist Program. He splits his time between doing rounds at the hospital, seeing patients at his practice, and other medical-related commitments.

“The only time I’m not busy is when I’m on vacation,” he said.

Patel serves as a health director at several facilities, including the Marion County Health Department, Arbors at Fairmont Nursing Home and St. Barbara’s Nursing Home. In addition, he works with patients at Wishing Well and is an American Medical Examiner for the Federal Aviation Association.

“I like to help people,” he said, “and the more I’m involved in the community, I touch more people that way.”

Patel said every day is a challenge because each patient has a unique problem. He has to keep his mind active and stay up-to-date with current medical knowledge to solve these problems.

Several of Patel’s patients have been with him since he started 25 years ago, and they take pride in this. Patel said he enjoys interacting with his patients, and he has helped three generations of some families. He even makes house calls.

“He’s a typical country doctor,” Shobha said of her husband.

Working in medicine over the years, Dr. Patel has seen some medical mysteries and miracles that he can’t explain, and he has grown as a doctor. He said he is more humble and has learned to have more faith in God in order to keep going.

On Aug. 1, a special dinner at Fairmont General Hospital celebrated Patel’s 25 years in medicine. Hospital staff, patients and members of the public gathered to honor Patel and his achievement.

“It’s nice to be recognized,” he said. “It’s nice to see how many people you’ve helped.”

As for the future, Patel will continue using the knowledge that he has gained to help others and serve the community.

E-mail Jessica Legge at [email protected].

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To see more of The Times West Virginian or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.timeswv.com/.

Copyright (c) 2008, The Times West Virginian, Fairmont

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

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By NOTE: Exhibition Hall hours for public viewing: Monday, 1-9 p.m.; Tuesday through Friday, 10 a.m.-9 p.m.; Aug. 9, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. The hall is closed to the public today.

Today

9 a.m. Youth Dairy Goat Show

9-11 a.m. 4-H, FFA Horse Western Riding

9 a.m-1 p.m. 4-H, FFA Horse Trail

11 a.m.-1 p.m. 4-H, FFA Horse Reining

1-3 p.m. 4-H, FFA Horse Working Cow

Noon Open Class -judging of needlework, arts, crafts, photography, fiber arts, wool and honey. (Exhibition Hall closed to public)

1 p.m. FFA Market Goat Showmanship followed by FFA Market Goat Show, 4-H Market Goat Showmanship and Market Show

2 p.m. Lovable Mutt Contest (open). Main gates off 8th Ave.

6 p.m. Fashion Revue (Archer)

(c) 2008 Wyoming Tribune-Eagle. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.

By Ron Bartizek, The Times Leader, Wilkes-Barre, Pa.

Aug. 3–WILKES-BARRE — A $100 million expansion of Wilkes-Barre General Hospital has been halted as the Wyoming Valley Health Care System seeks funding to complete the project.

The stoppage, which hospital officials describe as temporary, comes months after they spurned a $40 million offer of support for project costs from Blue Cross of Northeastern Pennsylvania.

Plans for adding space and upgrading facilities at Luzerne County’s largest hospital were announced in July 2006, days after Geisinger Health System revealed a $60 million expansion project at its Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center in Plains Township, three miles away from the city hospital.

The plan for General included nearly tripling the emergency care department and expanding the cancer treatment, cardiac and surgery areas within three years, as well as improvements to the computer infrastructure and electronic medical records system.

WVHCS Chief Executive Officer Dr. William Host said three operating rooms and a new information technology center have been constructed and a new high-tech scanning machine that can move between two rooms has been installed.

Beyond that, “every piece of the expansion that is not complete is on hold,” Host said last week.

The keystone of the project, a 96,000-square-foot critical care pavilion to be built along West Linden Street, was to incorporate the enlarged emergency department. General’s emergency room is the busiest in the Wyoming Valley, treating more than 50,000 patients annually in a cramped, 13,000-square-foot space.

Charles “Rusty” Flack, chairman of the health system’s board of directors, said the project will be back on track soon.

“We’re certainly going to continue to move the institution ahead,” he said. “There’s other ways to do it. At the moment we’re exploring all the options,” including reopening discussions with Blue Cross.

Host said in May that “the negotiations were intense and were extended over the better part of an 11-month period.” Neither he nor Flack would disclose the reason for the breakdown in talks.

The potential Blue Cross funding was announced in December 2006, part of the “Building a Healthy Future Together” initiative to allocate $175 million from the insurer’s surplus, which was valued at $462 million at the end of 2007. Another piece of that program, $50 million to assist the merger of Community Medical Center and Moses Taylor Hospital in Scranton, remains unspent after the state Attorney General’s office stopped the combination over fears of reduced competition.

“We’re still committed to finding ways to invest in the locally controlled, community-based health care delivery system,” said Blue Cross spokeswoman Michelle Davidson. She said that includes being open to new talks with Wyoming Valley Health Care and continuing to find ways to support the Scranton hospitals.

Meanwhile, the 178,000-square-foot Geisinger Wyoming Valley addition is slated to open ahead of schedule on Sept. 1, said spokeswoman Anne Green. Also incorporating a critical care wing, the project will create a 32-bed emergency department, new surgical suites and two floors of unfinished space that could hold 35 inpatient beds and 25 intensive care unit patients. Green said an $11.5-million plan to build out the intensive care unit is in the works.

Flack said funding for the General Hospital project would be resolved in “months, not years” and in the context of a larger vision. “We have a 10-year strategic plan; we’re looking at a long view.”

The General Hospital expansion drew substantial financial support from John and CeCe McCarthy and Charles and Mary Parente. Calls seeking comment from them were not returned.

—–

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Copyright (c) 2008, The Times Leader, Wilkes-Barre, Pa.

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By Jonathan Del Marcus, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Aug. 3–Organizations concerned with the effects of state criminal justice system policies recently agreed to measures aimed at reducing the number of offenders sent to prison.

Participants at the Alternatives To Incarceration Summit at First Presbyterian Church of Fort Lauderdale’s Fellowship Hall focused their efforts on groups of offenders that could be effectively and safely diverted from the costly facilities.

Representatives from more than 15 organizations listened to speakers, prioritized goals, and passed a resolution urging adoption of strategies to reduce Florida’s prison population.

The Coalition to end Homelessness, a Broward County-based nonprofit, helped organize the event, and its chief executive officer, Laura Hansen, facilitated the program. Others participating included Henderson Mental Health Center, Opportunities Industrialization Centers Inc. of Broward County, and the Salvation Army.

“We are here to come together for a program of action, a legislative agenda to safely reduce the rate of incarceration for nonviolent offenders,” said Shane Gunderson, director of client services, Broward County Public Defender’s Office.

Participants ratified four goals to pursue at the state level: increased use of diversion programs; reform of mandatory sentencing laws; reform zero-tolerance laws and policies; and issue citations for nonviolent offenses rather than formal criminal charges.

There was consensus to decriminalize offenses such as possession of fewer than 28 grams of marijuana, driving with a suspended license and petit theft less than $100. Rather than hard time for these offenses, fines, treatment and education programs were advocated.

District 105 State Rep. Joseph A. Gibbons, D-Hallandale Beach, and District 93 State Rep. Perry E. Thurston, Jr., D-Plantation, said they would present the resolution to the Florida Caucus of Black State Legislators.

If approved there, the resolution would then be introduced to the Florida House of Representatives. Gibbons acknowledged it would be a tough sell in the Republican-dominated House.

“The only people who did well in this year’s budget were prison builders,” he said.

To build grass roots support, those involved will widely circulate the resolution.

“I am hoping that this resolution … will be handed out at a lot of different clubs and organizations to build support for reforming the criminal justice system in Florida,” said Gunderson, a 19-year veteran of the Public Defender’s Office.

Florida is a national leader in prison construction and incarceration rates. In “One in 100: Behind Bars in America 2008,” a recent report by The Pew Center on the States, Florida is cited as a case study for an explosion in new prison construction.

“Between 1993 and 2007, the state’s inmate population has increased from 53,000 to over 97,000. Without a change in direction, Florida is expected to reach a peak of nearly 125,000 inmates by 2013,” according to the report.

Alan Elsner, a Maryland-based journalist and author of Gates of Injustice: The Crisis in America’s Prisons, was the keynote speaker. Elsner focused on understanding the causes of criminal behavior as well as relationships between incarceration and drug offenses, mental illness, race and public health.

Elsner noted many enmeshed in any state’s criminal justice system are homeless or mentally ill. Often, they do not need to be incarcerated, but are in need of social services, he said. He referred to this association as the “Bermuda Triangle,” linking mental illness, the emergency room and jail.

Frequently, he said, these populations are ill-served by being locked up, but are instead in desperate need of social services and diversionary programs.

“It’s a question of making our society function for all of us. Let’s look at it in a way that understands that we’re all members of society,” he said.

Howard Finkelstein, ‘s Public Defender, put it another way: “Don’t call them ‘these people,’ ‘the homeless,’ ‘the mentally ill.’ They are human beings who need our help.”

—–

To see more of The South Florida Sun-Sentinel or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.sun-sentinel.com/.

Copyright (c) 2008, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

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By Pamela McLoughlin, New Haven Register, Conn.

Aug. 3–WEST HAVEN — A 2-year-old girl has died from injuries sustained when she pulled a large television down on top of herself while staying overnight at a family friend’s house.

Janiyah Powe-Santiago, who has been in grave condition since the July 25 accident, died Friday afternoon, said family friend Crystal Webber. The accident happened in Webber’s house.

The girl is an organ donor and the family was working with the hospital on the process of organ donation, although details weren’t available Saturday.

“The mother is very courageous. This has been very draining for the family,” Webber said Saturday of Sylvia Santiago of New Haven, who said last week she was praying for a miracle, but didn’t expect she would be bringing the child home. “She’s going to work very hard on the issue of organ donation.”

Santiago, 21, has said she is determined to publicize the story of her daughter’s tragic accident in the hope of preventing other families from going through the same suffering she is enduring.

Santiago and her daughter were staying overnight July 25 at the Arlington Street home of Webber. Santiago is close friends with Webber’s daughter, and Janiyah is close friends with Webber’s 2-year-old granddaughter.

Early Saturday morning, everyone in the house awoke to a boom and soon found Janiyah trapped underneath a large television that she apparently pulled down on top of her from a small table.

—–

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Copyright (c) 2008, New Haven Register, Conn.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

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By Merri Hanjora, The Lima News, Ohio

Aug. 3–HARROD — Linda Evans, formerly of Harrod, now of rural Pineville, Ky. has recently become a published author. Her children’s book, “The Sleepover,” is available on the website pineorchard.com for $12.

Linda and her husband, Jerry, lived in the Harrod region with their five children. They became grandparents and Linda’s creative touch took hold. She explains that she would make up stories to entertain her grandchildren. This story is about four boys spending the night in a house. Linda explains that this took a couple of months to write, but she had always told it to her grandkids. At one point, they corrected her saying, “no grandma, that’s not how it happened,” she said laughing.

She wrote this for children ages six to 12, but points out that her neighbor across the street from them in Kentucky grabbed the first book once it was delivered. He asked her to sign it and put the number one on the inside. He left and then came back telling her that he couldn’t wait to finish it. “So, it’s not just for kids, adults like it too,” she said. Her neighbor snatched another book from Linda’s home and had her autograph it for his sister, “just in case I became famous,” Linda added with a laugh.

The illustrations in her book are from Vince Whitehead, another Harrod native. He had never illustrated a book, but complied with Linda’s request.

Evans has been back to the area once already autographing her books. She is coming back to The Anderson’s at 3000 W. Elm St., Lima on Aug. 16 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., and will be signing her books. She will be at Stites Grocery, located at 8100 Harding Hwy., Lima on Aug. 15 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. autographing her book.

She is currently in the process of writing not just one, but two more books. “My Life As I Lived It,” is an autobiography depicting her life story.

Wapakoneta and Van Wert

buildings make Ohio’s Top

Preservation List for 2008

WAPAKONETA — The Elk’s Lodge in Wapakoneta and the Marsh Hotel in Van Wert have made the Top Preservation Opportunities List for 2008 by Heritage Ohio.

The preservation and revitalization organization chose 10 buildings located throughout the state. The ten structures represent a variety of building types and a variety of opportunities to investors and communities. The Top Preservation Opportunities show the public that what may appear as a vacant building today, could be a showpiece building tomorrow. Suggestions such as loft housing, restaurants or retail establishments or new commerce center could spring from these buildings.

The criteria for selection takes into consideration the historic significance; the potential impact for the community and the readiness and availability of community support.

The 1924 Elks Lodge in Wapakoneta is listed as a contributing building to the Wapakoneta Commercial Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places, and is located at the corner of West Main & Perry Streets. The mixed styles representing both Prairie and Spanish Colonial Revival make the 13,000 square foot building distinctive in the community. The lodge was dissolved in late 2007. Unfortunately a neighboring business would like to see it demolished, but the community sees more potential with adaptive reuse. The fraternal lodge is for sale.

The Marsh Hotel of Van Wert was built in 1884. This hotel boasted 90 fireproof rooms, proclaiming itself “Best in the Middle West.” Later its location along the Lincoln Highway as well as two additional national highways kept this hotel busy and well known. Much of the building is left intact and has great potential in the thriving Main Street district of Van Wert.

Heritage Ohio’s Top Preservations Opportunities List is in its second year, and has partnered with the Durable Restoration Company to provide the technical support communities may need to prioritize rehabilitation work; finding appropriate adaptive reuse options and understanding how their historic assets contribute to the economic vitality of each individual community. Representatives from Heritage Ohio and Durable Restoration will visit each site to meet with the building owners or community members, provide a basic building assessment and suggest reuse options.

Shawnee United Methodist

Church helps Haitian attain

goal of college in the U.S.

LIMA — Michele Imler can barely contain her enthusiasm when talking of David Philippe Auguste. She spouts off information so fast, just so she’s sure to get everything in. Shawnee United Methodist Church members have been instrumental in the fulfillment of Auguste’s dreams of becoming a doctor.

Church members have been going to Haiti on mission trips for 12 years. The last five years some members have gone two to three times a year. An important entity to have during these mission trips is an interpreter. In 2005, the church members met David Philippe Auguste when he served as Dr. Imler’s interpreter.

Auguste has a mother, an older brother and younger sister in Haiti. Life in Haiti is hard, as they have no electricity and no running water. David’s mother works at a local hospital cleaning so that her children can attend school. In Haiti, you must pay for your children to attend school, if you can’t pay, they don’t go. By enabling David and his brother and sister to further their education, she opened the doors for them to succeed in life. English and French are taught at their school, which is how David became proficient enough in English to become an interpreter. But David had the drive to learn more than what he was taught at school. “He learned so much more and self-taught and studied,” said Imler. Imler and her husband advised David to further his education in Haiti. He was interested in the medical field. He attended medical school in Port Au Prince. The church members and congregation helped finance his schooling in Haiti. Unfortunately, there were so many kidnappings due to students getting foreign aid, that they closed the school.

Imler, her husband and the church have worked for two years getting David accepted into pre-Medicine at Pensacola Christian College in Florida. He was accepted, but then was denied a student visa. More waiting and praying ensued. Finally, when David tried again for the visa, it was approved.

David has one month in the United States to prepare for his college time. He is coming with virtually nothing. There are needs for spending money, clothing to fit the school’s dress code, travel expenses, book purchases, etc. The church has set up a donation center to help David in his quest to obtain a college education. Donations can be sent to SUMC, 2600 Zurmehly Road, Lima, OH 45805. Clearly mark on the envelope that this is to help David Philippe Auguste, and clearly mark to the attention of Charlotte Hefner.

St. Marys Community

Public Library announces

Artfest winners

ST. MARYS — The St. Marys Community Public Library announces the winners of the 19th annual St. Marys Summer Artfest, judge by Jaye Bumbaugh and Doug Drury.

Jessica Davis won the Hunter Printing and Office Supply Best of Show Award for her painting, Ooops! Charlotte Wallace won for Kalispell, Montana: 19th Annual Friends of the Library Award; Barbara Sailor for The Old Crow; WSULake Campus Watercolor Award; Wanda Dammeyer for Red River Cowhand, Donald Glaser Three-Dimensional Award, Alice Schneider for Cades Cove Church, Coldwell Banker-Plus One Professionals Photography Award; Mary Jo Knoch for One Sad Tuesday, Doris Lawler Ohio Theme Award, Patti Keister for Fort Wayne Rose Garden, Bill and Jamie Carpenter Charcoal/Pastel Award; Jessica Davis for Ooops!, The Peoples Bank Co. Acrylic/Oil Award; Jerry Whited for Timeless Afternoon, First Financial Bank 1st Place; Marcy Shaner for Beautiful, WSU-Lake Campus 2nd Place; Doug Gray for Old Truck Graveyard, First Financial Bank 3rd Place. Honorable mentions were awarded to Barbara Sailor for Bountiful and Phil Hugo for The Louvre.

The exhibit will be on display beginning with a Meet the Artist reception today, from 2 to 4 p.m.; then carrying on Monday through Thursday, from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Friday, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and next Sunday from noon until 4 p.m.

The St. Marys Community Public Library is located at 140 S. Chestnut St., St. Marys, or visit the website at http//www.stmarys.lib.oh.us. They can be reached by phone at 419-394-7471.

You can comment on this story

at www.limaohio.com.

—–

To see more of The Lima News or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.limanews.com.

Copyright (c) 2008, The Lima News, Ohio

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By Matt Ehlers, The News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C.

Aug. 3–ENGELHARD — It’s a long commute for Sally Messick every week, making the four-hour drive from her home outside Pittsboro to Engelhard in Hyde County on the coast.

As a family nurse practitioner, she could find work closer to home. But it would not bring her the same satisfaction. “Health care providers are one per square inch in Wake and Durham and Chatham counties,” she says.

There is only one medical practice in mainland Hyde County, and Messick is in charge.

She works at the Engelhard Medical Center, which operates from an 1,800-square-foot double-wide trailer next to the town fire department. In this rural, coastal county famous for its bird-watching, she is an essential link in the basic-survival chain. She frets over sick children, draws up wellness plans and writes prescriptions for the county’s 5,300 or so residents.

Officially, she sees patients on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and on Friday mornings. Unofficially, if she’s in town, she will help no matter the hour.

About a year ago, Messick stitched up Ann Spencer’s right pinkie finger after she caught it in the garage door. Spencer, who lives in nearby Fairfield, called Messick about 10:30 p.m., and the pair met at the clinic.

Otherwise Spencer would have driven to Belhaven, about 50 miles away. Spencer appreciates that Messick is always available and takes the time to get to know her patients.

“She’ll listen to you,” says Spencer. “She sits there and talks to you. She explains everything.”

People know they can call her when they need help.

“I guess half the people here have her cell phone number,” R.S. Spencer Jr. says before rattling off the digits.

R.S. Spencer, who is not related to Ann Spencer, owns a hardware store in Engelhard and serves on the board that runs the medical center.

“The county loves Sally,” he says. “She’s an angel.”

For more than 50 years, county residents depended on Dr. Henry J. Liverman, a family doctor. After he retired in 2002, Hyde County was without primary-care services for about two years.

Engelhard Medical Center opened in 2004. It is one of 30 rural health centers that operates with help from the N.C. Office of Rural Health and Community Care. The nonprofit centers are public-private partnerships, each with a local board. The state provides limited funding, recruitment help and technical assistance.

The Engelhard center is not free, but everyone is seen regardless of ability to pay. In addition to Messick, a group of five, including a registered nurse and an office manager, helps staff the practice.

Before the center opened, Messick worked some temporary assignments around the state for the rural health office. She came to Engelhard not long before it opened its doors to help get the center running.

No longer temporary

This assignment was supposed to be temporary. That was four years ago, and Messick has no plans to leave.

“I love this practice,” says Messick, 59, who enjoys being a part of an everybody-knows-everybody community. “I feel like I’m doing something worthwhile.”

It can be difficult to recruit physicians to rural areas, as doctors burdened with student loans gravitate toward bigger paychecks and communities where their children can play soccer and dance ballet.

The Hyde County Health Department provides immunizations, as well as child-health and nutrition programs. The medical center and health department work together closely, but Messick is the county’s only provider of primary-care services.

If someone needs to see a physician, Messick can send patients to doctors in Belhaven or Greenville.

She generally leaves her Chatham County home on Sunday afternoon or Monday morning, and leaves Engelhard on Friday afternoon or Saturday morning.

While she’s working, the responsibility of maintaining the Chatham County household — which includes five dogs and a couple of dozen chickens — rests with Messick’s husband, Paul.

He doesn’t seem to mind.

“I miss her, but I appreciate what she’s doing out there,” Paul says. The couple speaks on the phone nearly every night.

She is particularly suited for this kind of work, says John Price, director of the state’s rural health office. Hyde County can boast of some old Southern money, but it also has its share of low-paid, transient workers on fishing-boat crews.

“I think Sally has a unique ability to interact with people, whoever they are,” he says. “She’s just as caring for the person who has no money as the person who has a lot of money.”

Larger clinic on way

The practice has been a huge success, serving an average of 22 patients per day. The clinic has outgrown its beginnings, with a waiting room that sometimes extends to the rocking chairs on the front porch.

By this time next year, Messick expects to be working in a new, 6,000-square-foot clinic to be built just down the road. The community secured more than $1 million, the bulk of it in grants and money from the rural health office, to build it. The Hotel Engelhard, where Messick stays when she’s in town, held a series of spaghetti suppers to help raise money, too.

Rural health care in North Carolina has come a long way since Messick graduated from school, as more and more clinics have been built. Access to it is still an issue, she says, although the core of that problem has shifted.

Decades ago, transportation might have been the biggest hurdle for a rural resident looking for health care. Today, it is a lack of health insurance.

When first approached about coming to Engelhard, Messick said she would, as long as she had a place to stay. For the first year or so, she lived out of a standard hotel room at the Hotel Engelhard.

She became friends with the owners, Bob and Ursula Hayes, and fell into a routine of speaking with them on the phone each weekend as she was driving to town. One night, after leaving home particularly late, she called the hotel and asked the Hayeses not to wait up for her. But they insisted.

When she arrived at the hotel about midnight, they presented her with a key to her new living space. Bob Hayes, with help from others in the community, had completely renovated a room for her, refinishing the floors and re-tiling the bathroom. The room, which is much larger than her first one, is furnished with a gorgeous oak sleigh bed, a pull-out couch and satellite television.

Dr. Tom Irons is the associate vice chancellor for regional health services at East Carolina University and a professor or pediatrics. As Messick’s supervising physician, he reviews medical records with her and offers guidance.

He says Messick loves the people she cares for.

“She’s one of the most gifted nurse practitioners I’ve ever known,” he says. “But above all, she has a wonderful heart.”

[email protected] or (919) 829-4889

—–

To see more of The News & Observer, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.newsobserver.com.

Copyright (c) 2008, The News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

By Katherine Leal Unmuth, The Dallas Morning News

Aug. 3–Krystle Gonzales looks like a princess in her tiara and glimmering gold gown. She sits on a throne in a ballroom rented for her quinceanera, the 15th birthday celebration for Hispanic girls.

Girlfriends crowd around her, and Krystle is the center of attention until the real show begins.

“Tenemos una sorpresa,” the emcee tells the crowd. “We have a surprise.”

The Sweet Sensation Cadets run onto the floor — a dozen teenage boys with spiky hair, spotless white tennis shoes and diamond-studded ears.

The girls scream as the professional dance group bounces, steps and flips to a mix of hip-hop and Latin music. Sometimes, the dancing becomes sexually suggestive.

Much like weddings, these coming-of-age parties can be lavish. They may include a church service, a presentation of the girl to society and a waltz at the dinner and dance party.

Birthday girls used to invite friends and relatives to be their escorts and dance partners. But Dallas glitz has reshaped years of Hispanic tradition. Hiring cadets, named for their military-style uniforms, is now the norm.

“They’re more presentable than regular guys,” said Dana Garza, 15, after watching a show. “They’re professionals.”

Alberto Serna, publisher of Quinceaneras y Novias magazine, says the addition of cadets to the modern quinceanera is unique to Texas and most popular in Dallas.

“I can tell you straight,” he says. “In other states, no one has cadets.”

Cadet crews first appeared in Dallas about 10 years ago. Sweet Sensation and a dozen more dance crews like it count on a simple formula: Girls like cute guys in uniform who can dance well. And they will persuade their parents to hire them.

Parents pay $1,000 to $2,000 for seven to 14 cadets to escort their daughter to the quinceanera — typically called “the 15.” They roll to the party in flashy limousines, sit at the head table with the “15 girl” and pose for photos. The package includes dance lessons for the girls, and each cadet earns $50 to $80 per party.

Cadets are only part of the cost. Parents also pay for catering, banquet hall rental, the dress, portraits and party favors. The tab can run into many thousands of dollars.

Alex Jimenez, who is 23 and grew up in Farmers Branch, started Sweet Sensation four years ago. His parents, immigrants from El Salvador, own Migueleno Restaurant & Club in Oak Cliff.

“This is taking kids out of the streets, instead of them doing gangs, they’re here,” Mr. Jimenez said. “I’d rather say, ‘Jose, you’re the best Latin dancer.’… My goal is to get them to MTV or a music video.”

Most of the cadets grew up in Dallas or its suburbs. They range in age from 14 to 18.

The Web site my15.com advises girls on dancers: “They do all the work while all you do is look cute, of course.”

Cadet groups build their names with huge dance competitions known as blowouts. The Internet builds their brand. On MySpace pages, girls debate which group has the hottest guys. The best dancers can become famous.

Dallas crews such as the Latin Boys, Latin Illusion and the Dallas Dream Boyz have dance videos on YouTube that get thousands of hits. In online comments, girls shout out “I love you!” and rival groups hurl insults: “These stupid clowns aren’t dancing.”

Practice time

Migueleno, which serves as headquarters for Sweet Sensation, sits on a rough stretch of Davis Street in Oak Cliff. A trailer park and several rundown motels line the road. A tattered Mexican flag flies nearby.

Outside the restaurant, three gleaming limousines — two Hummers and a Cadillac Escalade — look out of place in a parking lot ringed with barbed wire.

Inside, the cadets practice dancing with their 15-year-old clients on the Mondays and Wednesdays before the Saturday quinceanera.

In one corner of the restaurant’s mirrored salon, a cadet group practices the waltz with a girl. Another group works on hip-hop steps. Competing boom boxes blare a deafening fusion of classical waltz, bachata and hip-hop.

At 15, Vincent Portillo is already a veteran dancer. He runs Sweet Sensation practice sessions like a drill sergeant, shouting instructions at rookie cadets learning the traditional waltz, which involves the twirling of swords.

Vincent wears spotless white tennis shoes and a red T-shirt that proclaims: “I lost my number, can I have yours?” His hair is closely cropped and his eyebrows groomed. His grin reveals a mouthful of braces.

“Watch it with the swords!” he shouts after a girl narrowly misses walking into one.

“Ready!”

“Turn. Out. Turn. March.”

Vincent guides the girl and her escort along the dance floor. Then he spins the girl. She laughs and blushes.

“The girls are shy at first, and then you get to open them up — make it a fun experience they will remember,” Vincent says.

He and his older brother, Nixon, 17, worked hard to become the top dancers and captains of Sweet Sensation. They also wrestle and play football at R.L. Turner High School in Carrollton. Girls often request them at their parties.

“They’ll find me on MySpace and say ‘Do you remember me? You did my 15,’ ” Nixon said.

Mr. Jimenez, their boss, sets the rules. No sagging. Don’t look like a thug. No cursing. No drugs. No gangs. He wants the cadets to project higher quality than “regular” high school boys.

“The girls are very picky,” Mr. Jimenez said. “They look at the face. They look at the butt.”

‘If you got to flirt …’

It’s 2 p.m. Saturday, and the Sweet Sensation cadets are headed to San Juan Diego Church in Dallas for a pre-party Mass for 15 girl Adriana Castillo.

Dressed in crisp U.S. Marine uniforms purchased at a surplus store, they cram into a black Hummer and speed off to church. They stand at attention in the front row. They all take communion.

After the ceremony, the 15 girl and her cadets pile into the Hummer to drive around and take pictures. They stop at Irving’s Mustangs of Las Colinas, a popular photo spot.

The limo doors fly open and rap music pours out. The girl and her friends grin and stare at the cadets. The boys are craving McDonald’s drive-through. They pose and tease the girls.

“Part of our job is to put a smile on the 15 girl’s face,” Vincent says. “If you got to flirt, you got to flirt.”

Showtime

Krystle Gonzales and her entourage arrive at the Fiesta Event Center in southwest Dallas about 6 p.m. Just inside the entrance, chocolate flows from a fountain. A huge video screen flashes childhood photos of the 15 girl.

The cadets are nervous before their opening performance because an Air Force brigadier general and a real U.S. Marine are in the audience. Sometimes, the dancers’ uniforms offend real troops.

But both military men say it doesn’t bother them.

At 8:30, it’s showtime. The song “Tiempo de Vals,” or “Time to Waltz,” plays.

The boys walk in a circle around Krystle, spinning their swords. Each kneels before dancing with her. Their faces are serious. The waltz’s elegant formality awes the adults. But the teens have come for the second, more exciting act.

Cumbia music blares with a bass so strong the ground seems to shake. The quinceanera becomes a dance party. Then, at 11:30 p.m., it’s time for the popular hip-hop baile sorpresa, or “surprise dance.”

The cadets leave the room and return wearing white gloves, jeans and matching red tops under white polo shirts. Girls surge to the front row, where there’s standing room only.

“Take it off!” one shouts.

“I want to see this,” another says.

Vincent and Nixon are out front, bobbing and gyrating through the dance. Girls scream the loudest when the boys bend over for a signature “booty shake” — the grand finale.

The sexually suggestive dancing can be controversial. Boys in other groups have been known to tear off their shirts. Some pastors won’t allow the cadets to appear at the girls’ church service before the party.

Pedro Portillo, pastor of Santa Maria de Guadalupe Church in Irving, said many of the cadets attend his church and are respectful during the quinceanera’s religious service.

“In the church it’s very elegant,” he said. “The problem comes when they dance at the salon. The boys dance very un-Christian.”

Parents can specify what sort of dancing they want, and the cadets will adjust their moves on request.

Blanca Aguilera, Krystle’s mother, said she found it much easier to hire professionals than train her daughter’s friends, who often didn’t show up for practice.

“It’s more of a convenience,” she said. “A lot of people are opposed to it because … they think the boys are like strippers. But they’re fully clothed.”

‘Role models’

The cadets’ popularity is huge among teens.

Amaris Anguiano, 16, who attended Krystle’s party, giggled as she explained the attraction.

“They can booty dance, and they’re attractive,” she said.

“They’re role models for other men,” said Monica Vazquez, 15.

The boys who don’t dance watch the show from the back of the room and make fun of the group. But 16-year-old Luis Morado expresses envy.

“I wish I could dance like that,” he says. “I think they get a lot of girls.”

THE LINGO

Quinceanera: The traditional celebration of a Hispanic girl’s 15th birthday, also seen as a coming-of-age party. Usually held on Saturday evenings.

15: Slang term used by teens to refer to a quinceanera.

15 girl: Slang term describing the honoree.

Cadets/Cadetes: Groups of teenage boys hired to escort girls to their party and perform dances with and for them. The boys are named for the Marine-style uniforms they wear.

Damas y Chambelanes: Traditional girl-and-boy couples who escort the birthday girl and dance the waltz with her. Cadets are replacing them in Dallas.

Rookies: New cadets still learning dance moves.

Captains: Experienced cadets who train and lead the groups.

Surprise dance/Baile sorpresa: Cadets perform this contemporary hip-hop dance for the birthday girl. She can either participate or remain seated.

Blowout: Events where dance and cadet crews perform and compete. Often held on Fridays.

Salon: Ballrooms where many quinceanera parties and blowouts are held.

SOURCE: Dallas Morning News research

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NYSE:MCD,

By Rothstein, Ted L Olanow, C Warren

Shaking and slowness of movement may be the most obvious symptoms, but they are often not the most debilitating ones Parkinson’s disease may not be an epidemic, but it’s more common than you might think. Approximately 1,000,000 Americans suffer from the illness, with 60,000 new cases appearing each year in the United States alone. This neurodegenerative disorder, which is both progressive and incurable, usually begins around age 60, so neurologists believe that its prevalence is likely to increase dramatically with the graying of the nation’s population. But Parkinson’s disease shouldn’t be thought of only as an affliction of old age; it can also strike considerably earlier in life, a fact that has become well known through such prominent examples as Michael J. Fox (diagnosed at age 30) and Muhammad Ali (at age 42).

For decades, researchers have understood that such classic symptoms of the disease as shaking, slowness of movement and problems with balance result from the loss of dapaminergic nerve cells (so named because they use the chemical dopamine as a neurotransmitter) in a part of the brain stem called the substantiel nigra pars compacta. One of the greatest success stories of modern medicine came when neuroscientists recognized that there was a dopamine deficiency in the brains of patients with Parkinson’s disease and used this knowledge to develop treatments designed to boost levels of this important brain chemical. This strategy has now benefited millions of people, enabling patients who once would have been crippled by the illness to live relatively normal lives.

There are, however, aspects of the disease that do not respond to this treatment. Unfortunately, many physicians are not particularly familiar with these nondopaminergic manifestations. Such features, which include sleep disorders, dementia and difficulty walking, are very important for the clinician to address, both because they are common and because they frequently represent the main source of disability for patients. They are also interesting to study because they may provide investigators with clues to why cells degenerate in Parkinson’s disease, which in turn may help researchers to develop more effective therapies. What’s more, there is mounting evidence that certain nondopaminergic symptoms may antedate the development of the classic motor features of the disorder and thus may permit early diagnosis.

By recognizing these early warning signs, physicians might even be able to treat patients preemptively. The hope is that doing so could delay or perhaps even arrest the disease before the more typical problems emerge and the damage wrought by Parkinson’s becomes irreversible. Before considering such promising opportunities for the future, it is worthwhile to review how the disease has been understood in the past.

The Dopamine Revolution

One can find many references to the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease throughout history. The Greeks, and in particular the noted physician Galen, wrote about them, and they are described in ancient Chinese medical writings.

The first detailed account of Parkinson’s disease came in 1817, when the English physician James Parkinson published a monograph titled “An Essay on the Shaking Palsy.” Parkinson provided a clear description of the major clinical features of this disorder, and his portrayal has withstood nearly 200 years of observation. Interestingly, Parkinson’s monograph was based on his analysis of just six patients. In recognition of this seminal contribution, in the late 19th century the great French neurologist Jean Martin Charcot coined the term “Parkinson’s disease.”

Parkinson described various clinical findings: tremor or trembling movements, particularly while at rest; stiffness or rigidity of muscles; slowness of movement, which is also known as bradykinesia; and difficulty with walking and maintaining balance. Patients with Parkinson’s disease also frequently demonstrate a masklike facial appearance, reduced blinking, small handwriting, loss of speech volume and melody, and a flexed posture with tilting of the body. These motor symptoms progress gradually over the years and were the main cause of disability in the era before effective drug treatment became available.

Whereas James Parkinson defined in the early 19th century the classic motor features of the disease that bears his name, it was not until the beginning of the 20th century that scientists began to get an idea of what was going on inside the nervous systems of people with this condition. At that time, autopsy studies showed that the disease is associated with a loss of pigmented dopaminergic nerve cells in the substantia nigra pars compacta. (Substantia nigra means, literally, “black substance”; researchers now understand that these cells gain their dark coloration from the oxidation of dopamine to form the black pigment neuromelanin.) In addition, some of the remaining nigral nerve cells contain abnormal protein inclusions known as Lewy bodies, named in honor of Freidrich H. Lewy, who first described them in 1912.

The significance of Lewy bodies is still not known, and there is debate as to whether they are toxic and contribute to nerve-cell death or reflect a protective mechanism that arises in response to the accumulation of abnormal proteins. Lewy bodies turn up in postmortem studies of some individuals who did not evidence any neurological impairment during life. So it seems possible that these individuals had a preclinical form of Parkinson’s disease.

The importance of dopamine in Parkinson’s disease first became apparent in the 1950s when the Swedish scientist Arvid Carlsson found that reserpine, a drug that blocks dopamine uptake into storage vesicles within cells, caused rabbits to develop pronounced slowness and a syndrome resembling Parkinson’s disease. Carlsson further showed that this effect could be reversed by the restoration of dopamine. For this seminal work, he was awarded the 2000 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

In 1960, the biochemist Oleh Hornykiewicz at the University of Vienna discovered that the disease is accompanied by dramatically reduced levels (80 to 90 percent) of dopamine in the striatum, a part of the brain that is connected to nerve cells in the substantia nigra pars compacta by what is known as the nigrostriatal tract. The striatum and substantia nigra are part of a group of deep nuclei within the brain called the basal ganglia, which control and facilitate normal movement. Experimentally, damage to the substantia nigra pars compacta, which can be induced with certain neurotoxins, reproduces in animals the classic features of the illness.

Once clinicians figured out the importance of dopamine in the development and progression of Parkinson’s disease, they sought ways to replace this crucial chemical. Dopamine itself is not effective as a drug because it does not cross the blood-brain barrier, an obstacle that prevents most chemicals from entering the brain. However, levodopa, a naturally occurring amino acid found in many foods (for example, fava beans), can be transported by large carrier molecules into the brain where it can then be converted to dopamine by the decarboxylase enzyme.

In 1961, Hornykiewicz and his colleague Walter Birkmayer reported dramatic benefits to a few patients with Parkinson’s disease following small doses of levodopa, but it was not until 1967 that George C. Cotzias and colleagues at Brookhaven National Laboratory demonstrated that levodopa could consistently ameliorate the debilitating motor symptoms, thus revolutionizing the treatment of Parkinson’s disease. Levodopa is typically administered in combination with a drug that prevents it from being metabolized to dopamine outside the brain-either carbidopa or benserazide hydrochloride. In the 40 years since its development, levodopa has helped millions of patients throughout the world. Indeed, it remains the most effective treatment for Parkinson’s disease and is the “gold standard” against which new drugs must be compared.

Outside the Realm of Dopamine

Unfortunately, levodopa therapy doesn’t satisfactorily control many clinical aspects of Parkinson’s disease, presumably because they result from degeneration of nondopaminergic parts of the nervous system.

Researchers are discovering that the pathology of the disease is far more extensive than their predecessors initially appreciated and is not restricted to dopaminergic nerve cells in the substantia nigra pars compacta. Indeed, they have identified signs of neurodegeneration with the development of Lewy bodies in nondopaminergic regions of the brain, the spinal cord and the peripheral nervous system, which use a variety of different neurotransmitters (such as serotonin, norepinephrine and acetylcholine). Strangely, some regions of the brain can suffer profound nerve-cell loss with Lewy-body formation, while neighboring areas are completely spared, indicating that some asyet-unknown factors make only certain nerve cells vulnerable to degeneration in Parkinson’s disease.

Although nondopaminergic symptoms are common, doctors may not think to ask about them and thus may not realize that they are causing problems for their patients. And both patients and doctors often do not appreciate that nondopaminergic parts of the disease frequently constitute a significant source of disability. This phenomenon is illustrated by the Sydney multicenter study, which followed more than 100 Parkinson’s disease patients for 15 years. One third of them survived; of those, four-fifths displayed gait impairment with falls (leading to leg fracture in one-fifth of the subjects evaluated), and about the same fraction demonstrated cognitive impairment (with half of those meeting standard criteria for dementia). Other nondopaminergic symptoms that the researchers described in this population were choking, difficulty with swallowing, urinary problems and severe constipation. In virtually all instances, severe nondopaminergic difficulties (such as dementia), not the classic motor features of the disease, were ultimately responsible for placement of the patient in a nursing home. Asking Patients

The frequency and importance of nondopaminergic problems in Parkinson’s disease are also readily apparent in the results of a study that one of us (Olanow) recently conducted in collaboration with several colleagues. We developed a questionnaire and raring scale focusing on these nondopaminergic symptoms and found that they occur in patients with Parkinson’s disease far more often than they do in otherwise healthy people of similar age. This research also showed that the frequency and severity of these nondopaminergic manifestations increase along with the progression of the classic motor impairments of Parkinson’s disease.

Sadly, people with this condition have to cope with even more than what is on the list of common symptoms. With advancing disease, many also begin to have a stooped posture, shuffle as they walk, have difficulty making a turn and lose control of their balance so that they find themselves involuntarily running forward or backward to stay upright. In addition, patients may experience “freezing episodes” during which they have difficulty starting to walk, or they may suddenly stop for several seconds or even minutes in the middle of walking, particularly as they pass through a doorway or encounter a curb. As a result, patients are at increased risk of falling and breaking bones, and frequently they must rely on a walking aid or wheelchair to maintain mobility. The precise site in the brain that is responsible for this gait impairment is not known, although a region in the upper brain stem known as the pedunculopontine nucleus has recently been implicated.

Dementia, a progressive decline in cognitive function sufficient to interfere with one’s usual daily activities, is another important feature of Parkinson’s disease that does not respond to, and may in fact be worsened by, dopamine-replacement therapy. Studies suggest that dementia eventually develops in 40 to 80 percent of patients with Parkinson’s disease-more than six times the rate expected in the general population. The dementia of Parkinson’s disease primarily affects what are known as executive functions, such as the ability to focus one’s attention, make coherent decisions, plan and organize, and visualize the spatial arrangement of objects. This mental handicap differs from the dementia of Alzheimer’s disease, which primarily affects higher cortical functions, such as memory, calculations and language. People with Parkinson’s dementia also commonly experience visual hallucinations, which can be the first indication of dementia. Autopsy studies of patients with dementia from Parkinson’s disease often reveal Lewy-body inclusions throughout the cerebral cortex, a region of the brain where thought processes take place. And these tissues also show Alzheimer pathology at an unusually high frequency.

Patients with Parkinson’s disease experience many other ailments that do not stem directly from depleted dopamine-depression, for example, is present in approximately half of these people. Researchers have debated whether depression is an inherent part of the disease, possibly related to alterations in the brain’s serotonin levels. Others contend that it develops as a consequence of patients having to live with the knowledge that they have a progressive neurodegenerative disorder.

Disturbed sleep is another aspect of Parkinson’s disease that does not respond to, and may even be aggravated by, dopamine therapies. As many as 70 percent of patients with this disease have some sort of sleep disorder. The lack of restorative nighttime sleep causes them to experience excessive daytime drowsiness-some have even fallen asleep while driving. Another problem that is also frequently seen is Rapid Eye Movement (REM) behavior disorder, where the “sleep paralysis” that normally prevents us from acting out our dreams during REM sleep fails to occur. The resultant thrashing can cause serious injury to the patient or to his or her bed companion. People with Parkinson’s disease may also experience restless-leg syndrome, a condition in which there is an inexplicable urge to move one’s legs, particularly when lying down at night.

Other nondopaminergic difficulties can include a drop in blood pressure on standing, slowed gastrointestinal transit with resulting constipation, increased urinary frequency and incontinence, and erectile dysfunction. It also appears that the nerves serving the heart may be compromised in some patients with Parkinson’s disease, perhaps contributing to complaints of light-headedness and fatigue.

Although many of the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease can be readily classified as dopaminergic or nondopaminergic, others don’t seem to fit this simple categorization. Recently, physicians have noticed that treatment with levodopa and other dopaminergic drugs renders some patients susceptible to impulse-control disorders, including pathologic gambling, hypersexuality, compulsive shopping and eating, and a tendency to perform useless tasks compulsively and repetitively, a behavior neurologists call punding. Because dopamine is a key part of the brain’s reward system, these disorders are thought to be related to a dopamine imbalance, which probably results from there being too much dopamine in some parts of the brain (from the medications) and too little in other parts (from the underlying disease). Investigators are focusing intense scrutiny on this issue, which may one day provide insight, not only into Parkinson’s disease, but also into the nature of addiction.

A Sign of Things to Come

Considerable evidence now suggests that the earliest symptoms of Parkinson’s disease may be nondopaminergic ones. Support for this possibility comes from the work of Heiko Braak at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt. In 2003 he and his colleagues carried out postmortem examinations of the brains of elderly people to determine the distribution of Lewy bodies and Lewy neurites (abnormal protein aggregates found in the slender extensions that radiate from the body of a nerve cell). Based on his results he believed that the pathological changes in brains of patients with Parkinson’s disease begin in the olfactory regions and the lower brain stem (two nondopaminergic areas) and then spread to involve the more classic dopaminergic areas in the midbrain (for example, the substantia nigra pars compacta). In the final stage, pathologic changes are found diffusely throughout the cerebral cortex, likely accounting for the dementia that so frequently accompanies motor impairments. That is, he argued that nondopaminergic regions are affected before dopaminergic ones.

Unfortunately, Braak’s study did not include clinical assessments, so one can’t really be sure whether his staging scheme is completely correct. Nonetheless, his results raise the interesting possibility that the lower brain stem and olfactory regions may be the first sites of neural damage. If so, it makes sense that certain nondopaminergic symptoms might precede the development of the classic motor difficulties, an observation that may allow physicians to better predict the course of the disease.

Clinical findings seem to support this argument. One is the observation that a loss in the sense of smell is a common feature in Parkinson’s disease. This impairment may exist for many years before motor difficulties appear. Studies of asymptomatic relatives of patients with Parkinson’s disease show that those with a compromised sense of smell are more likely than ones with a normal sense of smell to have reduced dopaminergic activity (as evidenced by brain- imaging studies) and to go on to develop the hallmark motor deficits of Parkinson’s disease.

This tendency was demonstrated in a 2004 study. A group of researchers in Amsterdam led by Henk W. Berendse of the Vrije Universiteit Medical Center examined more than 300 asymptomatic relatives of patients with Parkinson’s disease and identified 40 with a diminished sense of smell. Over the course of the next two years, the classic motor symptoms developed in four of them, who were thus diagnosed as having Parkinson’s disease. Within those two years, Parkinson’s disease developed in half of those who had displayed both an abnormal sense of smell and reduced dopaminergic activity. Yet during this same period, none of the relatives with a normal sense of smell were diagnosed with the disease.

A weakened sense of smell is not the only possible manifestation of early Parkinson’s disease. People with REM behavior disorder frequently have reduced dopaminergic activity in the striatum, and their brain tissues often show mild Parkinson’s pathology in postmortem studies. What’s more, about half of the people with REM behavior disorder and no other neurological symptoms will eventually go on to experience the classic motor impairments of Parkinson’s disease.

Constipation may also be an early warning sign. Autopsy studies have revealed Lewy bodies in the networks of cells that innervate the colon in patients with Parkinson’s disease as well as in individuals who hadn’t displayed any neurological deficits before they died. This finding raises the possibility that the latter group may, in fact, have had early Parkinson’s disease and, had they not died of other causes, may have gone on to develop the classic motor impairments. Epidemiologic studies provide further support for this notion. During the course of the Honolulu Heart Study, which followed 8,000 men of Japanese ancestry for 31 years to assess risk factors for heart disease, 96 subjects developed Parkinson’s disease. A look back at information collected years earlier revealed that Parkinson’s disease was 2.7 to 4.5 times more likely to develop in patients who had less than one bowel movement per day than in those who had one or two movements per day. And those with Parkinson’s disease were more likely to have had chronic constipation at an earlier age, again suggesting that this seemingly minor problem could be an early harbinger of a devastating neurological condition.

Unmet Needs

Clearly, Parkinson’s disease is more than just a dopaminergic illness. Further study of the nondopaminergic features may help physicians to identify and develop new therapies-and new strategies are sorely needed. Although levodopa is able to correct some of the most debilitating symptoms, eventually disability develops that this drug cannot control. What these people really need is a treatment that addresses the underlying cause of the affliction. Such a neuroprotective therapy would slow or, ideally, stop the disease in its tracks.

Of course, researchers would have much better results designing therapies to delay progression of the disease if they understood what caused it in the first place. Cell death in Parkinson’s disease has been linked to several different factors, including accumulation of free radicals (molecules with unpaired electrons that are consequently highly reactive and can damage neighboring molecules), malfunctioning mitochondria (the energy powerhouses for cells), excitotoxicity (a pathological process by which excess levels of the neurotransmitter glutamate cause an influx of calcium ions that then kill or damage the cells), inflammation, apoptosis (programmed cell death) and the deficiency of certain cell-growth factors. In addition, recent research has indicated that the death of these neurons may be connected to an impairment in the cell’s capacity to clear abnormal and misfolded proteins. This concept may provide an explanation for the presence of Lewy bodies, which may be the vehicle by which a nerve cell tries to remove, or at least segregate, these unwanted proteins. It is not immediately obvious, however, how all these different processes interact and whether they are necessarily the same from person to person. So although researchers may design neuroprotective strategies to target specific problem areas, a given approach may work for only a subset of patients-if it works at all.

Thus far, investigators have tested a number of candidate agents, including antioxidants that clear free radicals, bioenergetics that enhance mitochondrial function and antiapoptotics that interfere with the proteins that signal the cell to commit suicide. However, to date no drug has demonstrated the ability to slow the degeneration of neurons.

One of the main challenges lies in the design of clinical trials that can accurately assess the effect of a given substance on the underlying disease. None of the end points that have been used thus far have proved to be good yardsticks for measuring the rate of disease progression. Even if considerable improvement is seen during testing, it remains difficult for physicians to determine whether the putative neuroprotective agent actually slowed the death of brain cells or merely ameliorated symptoms in a way that masks their ongoing loss. And one can’t simply wait for the drug to wear off to make that judgment, because that might require weeks or months-far too long for patients to go without treatment. Until researchers are able to address these problems, efforts to develop neuroprotective drugs will likely remain unsuccessful.

The nondopaminergic features of Parkinson’s disease may, however, provide a way out of this conundrum. These symptoms do not respond to current drug therapies and, indeed, progress despite them. So if a drug introduced early in a patient’s treatment results in a delay in the emergence of the nondopaminergic problems, this result would be consistent with the agent being truly neuroprotective. And even if the drug’s effect were only to alleviate symptoms, the discovery would still be momentous, because no drug is currently known to be able to help with the nondopaminergic aspects of the disease. For these reasons, the major trial sponsored by the National Institutes of Health (NIH Exploratory Trials in Parkinson’s Disease, or “NET- PD”) will use nondopaminergic features as primary endpoints.

Because some nondopaminergic features manifest themselves years before the classic motor symptoms of the disease first appear, physicians may be able to identify people who are in the earliest stages of the illness. These individuals could be ideal candidates for testing an experimental neuroprotective therapy. Indeed, it may be essential to introduce such agents at this stage, when the disease is not so far advanced, if the intervention is to slow the natural progression of the illness in a significant way. The hope is that such early treatment might entirely prevent the emergence of the motor impairments.

Ironically, the current interest in the nondopaminergic symptoms comes as a direct result of the widespread success of levodopa therapy, without which physicians would have continued to focus on the more dramatic motor features of Parkinson’s disease. Our current challenge is to develop new treatments that can ameliorate, or better yet prevent, the development of all aspects of this debilitating illness.

For relevant Web links, consult this issue of American Scientist Online:

http://www.americanscientist.org/ Issue TOC/issue/1081

Bibliography

Birkmayer, W., and O. Hornykiewicz. 1961. Der L-3-4- dioxyphenylalanin (=DOPA) effekt bei Parkinson akinese. [The L-3,4- dioxyphenylalanine (DOPA) effect in Parkinson akinesia.] Wiener klinische Wochenschrift 73:787-788.

Braak, H., K. Del Tredici, U. Rub, R. A. de Vos, E. N. Jansen Steur and E. Braak. 2003. Staging of brain pathology related to sporadic Parkinson’s disease. Neurobiology of Aging 24:197-211.

Chadhuri, K. R., P. Martinez-Martin, A. H. Schapira, F. Stocchi, K. Sethi, P. Odin, R. Brown, W. Roller, P. Barone, G. MacPhee, L. Kelly, M. Rabey, D. MacMahon, S. Thomas, W. Ondo, D. Rye, A. Forbes, S. Tluk, V. Dhawan, A. Bowron, A. J. Williams and C. W. Olanow. 2006. International multicenter pilot study of the first comprehensive selfcompleted nonmotor symptoms questionnaire for Parkinson’s disease: The NMS-Quest study. Movment Disorders 21:916- 923.

Carlsson, A., M. Lindqvist and T. Magnusson. 1957. 3,4- Dihydroxyphenylalanine and 5-hydroxytryptophan as reserpine antagonists. Nature 180:1200.

Cotzias, G. C., M. H. Van Woert and L. M. Schiffer. 1967. Aromatic amino acids and modification of parkinsonism. New England Journal of Medicine 276:374-379.

Hely, M. A., J. G. Morris, W. G. Reid and R. Trafficante. 2005. Sydney Multicenter Study of Parkinson’s disease: non-L-dopa- responsive problems dominate at 15 years. Movement Disorders 20:190- 199.

Olanow., C. W. 2007. The pathogenesis of cell death in Parkinson’s disease – 2007. Movement Disorders 22 (supplement 17): S335-S342.

Parkinson, J. 1817. An Essay on the Shaking Palsy. London: Sherwood, Neely and Jones.

Ponsen, M. M., D. Staffers, J. Booij, B. L. van Eck-Smit, E. Ch. Wolters and H. W. Berendse. 2004. Idiopathic hyposmia as a preclinical sign of Parkinson’s disease. Annals of Neurology 56:173- 181.

Ted L. Rothstein received his medical degree from the Medical College of Virginia in 1964. He obtained advanced training in neurology at the University of Washington in Seattle. He is currently a professor in the Department of Neurology at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., where he directs medical student training in adult neurology, along with the department’s movement disorders, multiple sclerosis and dementia programs. C. Warren Olanow received his medical degree from the University of Toronto, performed his neurology training at the New York Neurological Institute at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center and did post-graduate studies in neuroanatomy at Columbia University. He served on the faculties of McGill University, Duke University and the University of South Florida prior to assuming his present position as the Henry P. and Georgette Goldschmidt Professor and chairman of the Department of Neurology and professor in the Department of Neuroscience at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. He is also the Chief of the Neurology Service at the Mount Sinai Hospital. Address for Rothstein: Department of Neurology, George Washington University, 2150 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Suite 7-402, Washington, DC 20037. Internet: [email protected]

Copyright Sigma XI-The Scientific Research Society May/Jun 2008

(c) 2008 American Scientist. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.

By SHAUN JEPSON

The family of a man who spent weeks in a coma after a city- centre attack have started a 300-mile charity bike ride in aid of the hospital that helped save his life.

Dalvinder Rana was left with a fractured skull following the attack and specialists at Nottingham’s Queen’s Medical Centre had to perform intricate surgery to save his life.

Eight weeks after the incident, doctors were amazed at the 35- year-old’s recovery and deemed him well enough to return home.

Two of his nephews, Steven and Simon Dhinsa, have now embarked on a bike ride from Exeter to the QMC to recognise the work of doctors and nurses who treated their uncle.

The pair will complete the four-day journey with friends Ray Merrin and James O’Connor.

Steven, 21, who lives in Exeter, said: “It is going to be a tough old job but we are all looking forward to the challenge.

“We all face challenges in life but there isn’t a challenge as big as the one that Dally has faced in getting himself back on his feet. What we are doing is small compared to that.

“I think the hardest thing about this is going to be getting back on the bike after we’ve had a bit of a rest.”

During a night out with friends in Derby, in January, Mr Rana was attacked and his injuries were severe enough to land him in intensive care.

Surgeons had to perform an operation to remove the front part of his skull, to allow the injured part of his brain to recover and his wife, Sunita, was warned that he might never recover.

Mrs Rana remained at his bedside 24 hours a day, despite being pregnant with the couple’s second child, Prem, who was born earlier this month. She even imposed a ban preventing family and friends from getting upset around her husband.

Simon Dhinsa, 18, said: “This is a way of saying thank-you to all those who helped Dally pull through. Hopefully, we can raise as much money as possible for the unit.”

Owen Bennett, matron for neurology at Nottingham University Hospitals, said: “It is great news that Mr Rana has made such a good recovery and is now back home with his family and new baby son.

“We are grateful that the family has chosen to raise money for the area where Mr Rana received some of his care during his time with us. We wish the family the best of luck and look forward to seeing them when they arrive in Nottingham next week.”

The quartet of cyclists are expected to arrive at the QMC on Tuesday.

A 29-year-old man has appeared in court charged with causing grievous bodily harm to Mr Rana.

Isaac Carter, of Leicester, denied the charge, and also denied causing actual bodily harm to Bhupinder Dhadli.

Carter was remanded in custody for a date to be fixed.

(c) 2008 Derby Evening Telegraph. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.

By Sharon Baker

These yummy mummies are stretching themselves – and their babies – with the introduction of a new yoga class for tiny tots.

Cleethorpes yoga teacher Claire Roach conducts the classes every Thursday, from 10am to 11am, at Humberston Country Club and swears by yoga’s ability to calm and relax your little ones.

She has been teaching yoga for the last 10 years and first discovered baby yoga when she had her first child.

Claire (29) said: “I teach children’s yoga in schools and do a class called Yoga Bugs for children aged from two-and-a-half years.”

Using her experience with children as her starting point, Claire set up The Yummy Mummy Baby Yoga Club in Humberston in the hope that she can pass on her expertise to other mums – with the help of her assistant and demonstrator, 18-week-old daughter Halle.

She said: “This is only the fourth week we’ve been running the class here, but baby yoga is a brand new concept and I think we’ve all found it really rewarding.

“The babies are so relaxed afterwards and with all the problems that babies can have, yoga seems to help with things like irregular sleep patterns and colic.”

Baby yoga promises to help children with their sleep, digestion and immune system while also promoting peaceful bonding between mother and baby.

Mum Emma Parkes (22), of Grimsby’s Columbia Road, has been attending the classes with her son Owen (23 weeks).

She said: “I started doing it just through knowing Claire and my five-year-old son Jordan really enjoyed doing Yoga Bugs.

“It’s very helpful for calming him during the times when I just don’t know what he wants, and Jordan loves helping me do it too.”

Find out more

For more information about baby yoga and the other classes that Claire runs, contact 07931561760 or email [email protected].

(c) 2008 Grimsby Telegraph. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.

By Rebecca Christian

I can’t resist weighing in on the latest from California, where Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has terminated restaurants’ use of evil trans fats. The thought of the ban working its way east kind of kills the Saturday morning joy of reaching for a glazed cruller, doesn’t it?Although California is the first state to enact such a ban, New York City’s similar ordinance went into effect July 1. The pun-loving New York Post hasn’t had so much fun since Gov. Eliot Spitzer got caught with his drawers down. Predicting that New Yorkers would thunder their thighs across the state line to transport pies for immoral purposes, the tabloid said bakers from “The Larden State” are eager to make more dough. For those who never got the news that cheesecake is fattening, New York also requires some restaurants to post calorie counts on their menus.I, for one, was glad to see Time refer to trans fats as “notorious artery- cloggers,” not because I am passionately anti-trans fats (I’m no more expert on the subject than the blogger who wondered if trans fats are transvestite fat cells who parade around in ladies’ panties). But I was happy to see somebody use “notorious” precisely. Some use it to mean merely famous, as in “Mother Teresa was notorious for her good works,” rather than widely and unfavorably known, as in “Al Capone was a notorious gangster.”I suppose the Governator has a point. Maybe my right to eat grease ends when your responsibility to pay for unclogging my arteries begins (via higher health care costs for all). The fundamental flaw is that the same thing will happen as when fat-free, sugar-free items hit grocery stores a decade ago, and the fluffy got fluffier thinking they could eat all the Snackwells devils food cookies they wanted. Trans fats- free doesn’t mean it’s good for you: Dunkin’ Donuts and KFC have both gone trans fat-free. Ban trans fats, and the stuff in them that makes foods – baked goods especially – taste wicked good has got to come from something else. You can bet your bippy it ain’t Brussels sprouts.Besides, where will it stop? At the insistence of Chicago’s Mayor Richard Daley, a ban on restaurants serving foie gras (duck and goose liver) that he claims made the city a laughingstock has been rescinded. The ban started with animal rights advocates protesting the cruel way foie gras is made, by force feeding the fowl and not permitting them to exercise until their livers weigh up to three pounds. “Foie gras” translates as “Fatty Liver,” which sounds like what a mean widdle kid might call you on the playground, and is pronounced as “Fwah Grah.” (If you can say it, you ought to be able to eat it.) Anyway, what’s good for the goose is good for the glutton: eat enough foie gras and you, too, could die of a fatty liver. A memorable foie gras faux pas was perpetrated by Doug Sohn, of Hot Doug’s The Sausage Superstore and Encased Meat Emporium, who received a $250 ticket and all the publicity a hot dogger could want for serving foie gras on his franks.Televisions promote imbecility, credit cards promote debt and flip flops promote fallen arches. Why doesn’t the government ban them? Perhaps it’s because the task of saving people from themselves is inherently absurd. Consider the Iowa Legislature’s brilliant ban on smoking in enclosed public spaces. All except the gaming floors of casinos, which happen to give the state buckets of filthy lucre. There, you can still exercise your God-given right to blow smoke rings out of your tracheotomy any time you want.Christian is a former Dubuque resident who is a Des Moines-based writer and editor. She may be reached at [email protected]. On Wednesday, Aug. 13, Christian and her fellow TH columnist Katherine Fischer will appear as guests of the Dubuque Writers Guild at Isabella’s at 1375 Locust St. in Dubuque at 8 p.m. to read selections from a forthcoming book of their columns, which will be published by the TH. An open reading follows, and the public is welcome to attend.

(c) 2008 Telegraph – Herald (Dubuque). Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.

By Quay County Sun, Tucumcari, N.M.

Aug. 2–Rattlers gathered from all classes on Friday for the festivities of Rattler Reunion.

Of course, “it’s fun to get see all your old friends,” said G.L. Hight, who recently retired from farming in Texas.

About 450 had signed up for the reunion as of 6 p.m. Friday, said Norma Jean Crellin, president of the alumni association.

A new addition to this this year’s reunion is the artists gallery showing works of Rattler artists.

And another highlight this year will be a a presentation by historian David Stratton who will be giving a presentation on Tucumcari history at 2 p.m. today at the Tucumcari Convention Center.

Here is the schedule of Rattler Reunion events:

2008 Rattler Reunion Events Schedule

Today

— 6 a.m. — 9 am — Rattler Reunion Kiwanis Pancake Breakfast- Tucumcari Elementary School Cafeteria on 11th Street. Breakfast prices (advanced purchase) adult $3.50, children under eight years $2. Price at the door for all ages is $4. Advance purchase tickets are available from Bob’s Upholstery, 226 East Main and The First National Bank of New Mexico, 101 East Route 66 Blvd.

— 9 a.m. — Parade of classes — Gather at 8:30 a.m. and be ready to go at 9 a.m. The parade route goes east along Route 66 to First Street, south on First Street to Washington Street, west on Washington Street to Eleventh Street, north on Eleventh Street to Route 66 Blvd., and back to the Convention Center.

— 10:30 a.m. — 12 noon — Registration continues — must purchase badge by noon to attend evening events.

— 10:30 a.m. — 12 noon — Class picture

— Noon — Class luncheons — locations TBA

— Noon — Golden Rattler Luncheon — purchase tickets by Friday noon from host class of 1953, $11 — Sit down luncheon catered by Del’s Restaurant.

— 6:30 p.m. — Reunion Social — cash bar.

— 7 p.m. — 2008 Reunion Banquet — Host Class 1978 — prime rib by Del’s Restaurant, admission by registration badge, cash bar.

— 9 p.m. — 12 a.m. — Dance to Limited Edition Band or visit, admission by registration badge, cash bar.

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To see more of The Quay County Sun or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.qcsunonline.com/.

Copyright (c) 2008, Quay County Sun, Tucumcari, N.M.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

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Scientists from the National Center on Sleep Disorders Research reported Friday that people with severe sleep apnea, also known as sleep-disordered breathing, are many times more likely to die from any cause than those without the condition.

The 18-year study confirmed previous, smaller studies suggesting an increased risk of death for people with the disorder.
 
“This is not a condition that kills you acutely. It is a condition that erodes your health over time,” Dr. Michael J. Twery, director of the National Center on Sleep Disorders Research, told the Associated Press.  The center is part of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, which is under the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

People with these conditions “have been sleep deprived for perhaps very long periods of time, they are struggling to sleep. If this is happening night after night, week after week, on top of all our other schedules, this is a dangerous recipe,” Twery said.

According to estimates from the institute, 12 million to 18 million people in the U.S. have moderate to severe apnea.  Since victims are asleep when the problem occurs, the condition is not easily detected.   In the current study, researchers initially tested participants for sleep-disordered breathing in the laboratory and then followed them over the next several years.

For those with apnea, their upper airway becomes periodically narrowed or blocked during sleep, preventing air from reaching the lungs.   In some cases, breathing may cease altogether for up to a minute. These pauses in breathing disrupt sleep and prevent sufficient oxygen from reaching the bloodstream.

“When you stop breathing in your sleep you don’t know it, it doesn’t typically wake you up,” said Twery.

Instead, it often causes a person to move from a state of deep sleep to light sleep, when breathing resumes.   This can happen hundreds of times per night, disrupting overall sleeping patterns.

Twery said that a person will usually have four or five nightly cycles of light sleep, deep sleep and REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, the cycle in which most dreams occur.   Typically, more deep sleep happens early in the night, whereas more REM sleep occurs closer to waking. This pattern serves to control metabolism, hormones and stress levels.  The institute has linked apnea to an increased risk of high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, diabetes and excessive daytime sleepiness.

In the current study, led by Terry Young of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin Sleep Cohort followed 1,522 adults ages 30 to 60, and found the annual death rate in those without sleep apnea was 2.85 per 1,000 people per year.   However, for those with mild and moderate apnea the death rates were 5.54 and 5.42 per 1,000, respectively, while those with severe apnea had a rate of 14.6, researchers reported.

Furthermore, while cardiovascular mortality accounted for 26 percent of deaths among those without apnea, it accounted for 42 percent of the deaths among those with severe apnea, according to researchers.

A separate Australian study involving 380 adults aged 40 to 65 reached a similar conclusion.  The study found that after 14 years, nearly one in three participants with moderate to severe sleep apnea had died, compared with only 6.5 percent of those with mild apnea and 7.7 percent of those without the disorder.

“Our findings, along with those from the Wisconsin Cohort, remove any reasonable doubt that sleep apnea is a fatal disease,” Dr. Nathaniel Marshall of the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research, the study’s lead author, told the Associated Press.

Sleep apnea is often treated with a special mask-like device placed over the nose and/or mouth that delivers continuous positive airway pressure.  The National Center on Sleep Disorders study found reduced death rates in patients using the device.  The report referenced debate over the use of airway pressure to treat patients who are not lethargic during the day.

According to the U.S. researchers,  95 percent of the participants in their study were white, with adequate health care access and income.

“It is likely that our findings may underestimate the mortality risk of SDB in other ethnic groups or the lowest socio-economic strata where there is poor awareness and access to health care,” they wrote in their report.

The U.S. National Institutes of Health supported the U.S. research, while the Australian study was funded by the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council.

Both studies were published in Friday’s edition of the journal Sleep.  Abstracts of the studies can be viewed at http://www.journalsleep.org/ViewAbstract.aspx?citationid=3621 and  http://www.journalsleep.org/ViewAbstract.aspx?citationid=3622.

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On the Net:

• National Center on Sleep Disorders Research

By Mark Cowan

AIR ambulance medics made a mercy dash to London and back to get an antidote for a patient bitten by a snake.

The woman, from Stafford, was taken to hospital after being bitten by an adder while out walking near the Millford Common area of Cannock Chase on Monday.

Despite a national shortage of antidote for the snake’s venom, the medical team tracked down the medicine at the toxicology unit at Guy’s Hospital, in London.

The County Air Ambulance set off from their Strensham base, in Worcestershire, to head for the capital.

The anti-venom was waiting after being couriered across London to a pick-up point. The air ambulance then delivered it directly back to Stafford Hospital, with the whole round trip taking just one hour 45 minutes.

The woman was given the antidote and an intravenous course of antibiotics.

Jo Harvey, matron for emergency care services, said: “It’s the first snake bite I have looked after in 20 years of nursing.”

Adders are Britain’s only native venomous snake and a bite can cause nausea and drowsiness.

(c) 2008 Evening Mail; Birmingham (UK). Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.

At least 18 people have fallen ill with E. coli infections after visiting a Scout camp in Virginia, health officials said.

The Virginia Department of Health was notified of several cases involving ill children Sunday after boys from dozens of Scout troops left the Goshen Scout Reservation outside of Lexington, Va., The Washington Post reported Saturday.

Officials said an additional 60 people who returned from the camp have experienced symptoms that may be from E. coli infections.

Christopher Novak, a Health Department epidemiologist, told the newspaper about 30 workers were trying to find out where the outbreak originated. He said it may have come from packaged meals of vegetables and beef eaten frequently at the camp.

Authorities said infected people included Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts, along with two Maryland residents.

Novak said 10 infected people were hospitalized and six have been released.

By Donna M. Perry

WILTON – A young girl’s courageous three-year struggle with cancer ended peacefully early Friday morning in the comfort of her parents arms.

Savannah Hurley, 7, nicknamed “Princess Savannah” for her love of princesses, demonstrated her courage in many ways after she was diagnosed in 2005 with Wilms tumor, a kidney cancer that spread to her lungs.

Savannah, who would have been 8 on Aug. 15, attended Cushing School in Wilton when she could. Her parents, Brian and Melissa Hurley, involved Savannah in decisions about her care, such as undergoing a stem-cell transplant and an aggressive treatment that included new drugs she had not tried before.

The cancer was in remission for a period in 2007 after the transplant and high-dose chemotherapy, but it returned later that year.

Melissa Hurley kept people registered on carepages.com up to date on her daughter’s health.

“At 3:30 this morning our sweet Princess Savannah returned to our Heavenly Father’s kingdom in Heaven,” Melissa wrote just before 5 a.m. Friday. “She went very peacefully in Brian and my arms, surrounded by family and close friends. As we allowed people in the room to say goodbye after she was gone, a smile appeared on her face. This was her way of letting us know that she was very happy to be with Jesus and all of the angels that have been around her for the last few days. We are so grateful that she is no longer in any pain.”

The family went through many of ups and downs but their strong faith kept them going, they said.

“Our family is forever, and if we lose her, we will see her again,” Melissa said earlier this year.

It was difficult to tell a 7-year-old she might die, the mother said. She quoted the Bible passage, “In my Father’s house, there are many mansions” and told Savannah she would get there first and could pick out the mansion.

Cushing School Principal Darlene Paine described Savannah as “a lovely young girl” who thoroughly enjoyed school.

“She just loved everything about being a student,” Paine said. “Whenever I visited the classroom she was always paying close attention to her teacher or working on a paper or helping out fellow classmates. We all feel sorry she had such a short life, but we were all blessed by knowing her.”

In December 2006, the school held Pink Day in honor of Savannah who had just been diagnosed with cancer for the second time.

Savannah had dyed her hair pink in preparation for losing it during chemotherapy treatment and donned a pink stole and dress for the occasion. She danced to the song “Shaking Down the Sugar” with classmates and staff members, drumming her hands to the rhythm and shaking her hips. “Savannah was a fighter. All she ever wanted to do was participate and be in school and live life the fullest,” her former kindergarten teacher, Heidi Osgood, said Friday.

Some teachers gathered at the school Friday morning to talk about Savannah.

“She was such a beautiful little girl and she touched a lot of lives,” family friend and teacher Christine Harrington said. “She was strong and brave and kind of a fighter. She had that fighting instinct in her. She’ll be missed by a lot of people, but she is in a better place that she is not suffering any more. She was not afraid to die. She died peacefully.”

Savannah’s parents also involved her in funeral preparations, Harrington said. She will be buried in a pink casket and the memorial service will be a celebration of her life. The service will be announced.

Originally published by Staff Writer.

(c) 2008 Sun-Journal Lewiston, Me.. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.

By Andrea Robinson, The Miami Herald

Aug. 2–As baby showers go, the one at Central Broward Regional Park had the standard fare — music, food, games, prizes. But it also had a purpose — to keep South Florida newborns and infants alive and healthy.

A key reason: A black mother in South Florida is almost three times as likely as a white mother to have her baby die before he or she turns a year old.

The reasons for the deaths vary, so healthcare and social services experts want to give out as much information as possible.

Expectant and new parents came out in big numbers, many wanting to learn more.

Larica Jackson and Natalie Lalta, best friends from Fort Lauderdale and mothers of newborns, surveyed the stations where health and nutrition workers presented tidbits on traditional topics such as nutrition and breast-feeding and newer lessons on infant CPR, and fitness in-between pregnancies.

“I just want to get information on different things so I can educate myself,” said Jackson, who brought along 4-month-old daughter Kamaria Cook.

The baby arrived three months early and much of her young life has been spent attached to heart monitors and oxygen machines.

The countywide “Shower to Empower” is part of a community education program to help lower black infant mortality. Broward and Miami-Dade are among eight counties participating in the Black Infant Health Practice Initiative, to study the high incidents of black infant deaths in Florida.

The Broward Healthy Start Coalition hosted the daylong event as a way to “celebrate new life and make sure every baby gets off to a good start,” said Donna Sogegian, executive director.

Healthcare and social service workers in Miami-Dade and Broward want to improve the survivability numbers.

“This is a baby shower that means a lot to us,” said Francois Guillaume, Health Start finance director.

Data from the Florida Department of Health shows the number of black babies dying before turning a year old increased from 10.7 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2001 to 11.5 deaths in 2006. In Broward, the number of deaths rose slightly, from 11.01 in 2001 to 11.12 in 2006.

Between 2003 to March 2007, Broward County health officials examined fetal and infant deaths across the county in an attempt to lower deaths overall.

A November report found more than 40 percent of fetal and infant deaths in the county were preventable.

“Reduction of preventable deaths due to infection, SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome), maternal medical causes, accidents and homicide would have the largest impact on overall perinatal mortality,” the report states.

Advocates point to likely culprits such as diet, obesity and lack of prenatal care.

Hildegard Oostuizen of Pembroke Pines said she follows strict orders from her doctor because of high blood pressure and kidney problems — under the watchful eye of her husband, Ludwig. Their baby is due late October and she is on bed rest through the duration. To show support, he took medical leave, too.

“Anything is possible,” said Ludwig, whose parents are from Suriname.

Organizers hoped for a good turnout. They got it, and then some.

The shower was supposed to start at 11 a.m. By 10:15 a.m. a line of expectant mothers and fathers, women with newborns and toddlers and assorted grandparents, siblings, aunties and uncles snaked around the complex in Lauderhill.

Veronica Nieves and boyfriend Michael Kirk of Opa-locka arrived in time for the first workshops. Nieves, whose child is due in late October, listened to the lesson about the benefits of breast-feeding instead of formula. Kirk sat in on a session on being a father in the 21st century.

“I want to learn anything I can. Maybe I can learn something my mother didn’t know,” Nieves said.

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Copyright (c) 2008, The Miami Herald

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

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By Detroit Free Press

Aug. 2–Michigan athletic director Bill Martin, hockey coach Red Berenson and retired football coach Lloyd Carr share another bond beyond the Maize and Blue that runs in their veins. All three have been diagnosed with melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer.

All three have been diagnosed with melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer, the Free Press reporting partners at WDIV-TV Local 4 reported Friday night.

When Martin, whose hobby is sailing, was diagnosed, it occurred to him that if he was at risk because of his outdoors activities, others in the athletic department might be, too.

Martin, who had a spot on his face, asked Dr. Tim Johnson from the University of Michigan’s skin cancer program to have screenings for the entire department.

Berenson was stunned by the results.

“I never thought I had a problem,” said Berenson, whose sports season is indoors, but who spends a lot of time in the sun the rest of the year. Plus he has red hair, which is one of the risk indicators.

“But the minute I walked in for a screening by a professional, they knew right away,” he said. “And once they took a biopsy of the melanoma, they knew this was more serious. This wasn’t just a surface thing.”

Carr’s melanoma, on his back, was spotted a few months ago by his wife, Laurie.

“What’s scary is when I look back, to think that if she hadn’t seen that, this thing would have spread and it would have impacted my life in a much more different way than it did,” Carr said

Johnson said he wasn’t surprised.

“The number of new cases of melanoma is rising faster than any cancer in man,” he told Channel 4.

Having fair skin, blue or green eyes, blond or red hair or a lot of moles raises the risk. People should be aware of moles that change in size shape or color. If any of these factors are present, the best bet is to be checked by a doctor.

All three Michigan men still enjoy the outdoors, but they’re wearing hats, more longsleeves and long pants and sunscreen.

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To see more of the Detroit Free Press, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.freep.com

Copyright (c) 2008, Detroit Free Press

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

By Debra Duncan, The Valley News-Dispatch, Tarentum, Pa.

Aug. 2–The West Penn Allegheny Health System’s financial problems will have no effect on the emergency room expansion at Allegheny Valley Hospital, according to officials.

This week, after an internal audit, West Penn announced it had overstated assets by $73 million. Officials said the accounting change, involving revenue it expects from insurance companies and patients, would result in “substantial operating losses.”

“It will have no negative impact on the emergency room project at Allegheny Valley Hospital,” said Tom Chakurda, spokesman for the network of six hospitals, about the revised revenue figures for this fiscal year. But it did cause two investment rating agencies to lower the health system’s bond rating.

Chakurda said it was too early to know how the lower revenue calculation for the entire system, including Allegheny Valley Hospital, would affect the bottom line for the system and its individual hospitals. Hospitals normally would report their bottom line on the fiscal year, which ended June 30, in about a month.

The $12 million emergency room project at Allegheny Valley Hospital is expected to be completed in fall 2009.

Before the emergency room expansion, however, the endoscopy unit must be moved from the ground floor of the hospital to the first floor. It’s moving into a larger and remodeled area that previously housed the labor and delivery unit. That move has just begun.

Linda Jaskolka, spokeswoman for AVH, said moving the endoscopic department, which will cost $3.5 million, will take about nine months. West Penn gave the hospital a $3 million capital advance for the move.

Of the total $12 million cost of the emergency room project, $9.5 million has been raised or pledged: including West Penn’s $3 million, $2.5 million in state grants, $365,000 from a federal grant, $1 million from doctors and staff and $250,000 from the auxiliary.

The public fundraising campaign by the hospital’s trust, AKMC Trust, will raise the final $2.5 million and is continuing.

The ER sees about 34,000 patients a year, many more than the existing 12-bed unit can comfortably handle. It was designed for 20,000 visitors.

AVH’s emergency room will be expanded from 9,000 to 22,000 square feet. It will double the number of treatment rooms to 24 and enlarge the waiting room.

The driveway in front of the hospital has been moved closer to Carlisle Street. That will allow the front entrance of the building to be extended for a larger lobby and atrium.

Its expansion has been in the planning stages since Allegheny Valley Hospital and Citizens General Hospital in New Kensington merged in the 1990s, forming the Alle-Kiski Medical Center.

The Citizens Ambulatory Care Center now housed in the former CGH sees an additional 13,000 patients a year for minor, outpatient emergencies and certain tests.

Debra Duncan can be reached at [email protected] or 724-226-4668.

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To see more of The Valley News-Dispatch or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/valleynewsdispatch/.

Copyright (c) 2008, The Valley News-Dispatch, Tarentum, Pa.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

By David Wood, The Baltimore Sun

Aug. 2–WASHINGTON — Fort Detrick, where scientist Bruce E. Ivins worked for more than three decades, is the largest U.S. government research center focused primarily on biodefense.

Set on a former airfield north of Frederick where the Maryland National Guard once based a fleet of biplanes, it houses dozens of labs.

Chief among them is the military’s main research facility on biological weapons, the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID), where Ivins and other microbiologists worked on anthrax and other deadly agents.

Since World War II, Detrick has been known primarily for its work on biological warfare agents, developing vaccines and other defenses and decontamination techniques. It gained notoriety in the 1940s and 1950s for medical experiments on human subjects, work that was cited by defense attorneys for Nazi doctors on trial at Nuremberg at the close of World War II, according to a history on the institute’s Web site.

U.S. work on biological weapons was suspended by President Richard M. Nixon in 1969. Since then, research has focused entirely on defenses against bioweapons, according to U.S. officials.

Ivins was a microbiologist at the Army research facility for 35 years, the institute said yesterday, until his death, apparently by suicide, on Tuesday. He reportedly was about to be indicted in the mailing of anthrax-laced letters that killed five people in the weeks after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Ivins and his colleagues had been studying the biomechanics of anthrax and other materials in order to understand how they react with the immune system, research that was aimed at developing vaccines.

In 1998 the U.S. military began requiring troops to be inoculated with an anthrax vaccine developed at Fort Detrick. The controversial program, which some soldiers said was unnecessary and dangerous, was temporarily halted in 2004 by a federal court order, but it resumed after further tests showed the vaccine was safe.

At Fort Detrick, Ivins had been working on a more specific vaccine that would work on multiple strains of anthrax.

Detrick and the Army research institute also are known for a wide variety of military medical advances including lifesaving blood-clotting agents and microchips that carry individual soldiers’ medical records.

“It really is a crown jewel for Maryland,” said Norman Covert, a senior official at Fort Detrick for 22 years until he retired as its historian and public affairs director in 1999.

Covert said Ivins and others on the microbiology team “have developed a number of vaccines and prophylaxes against disease that have really helped to protect our soldiers in places which are environmentally dirty battlefields.”

“Now,” Covert said, “his reputation is in the toilet.”

In a statement, USAMRIID said the center “mourns the loss of Dr. Bruce Ivins, who served the Institute for more than 35 years as a civilian microbiologist. In addition to his long and faithful government service, Bruce contributed to our community as a Red Cross volunteer with the Frederick County chapter. We will miss him very much.”

Apart from the biomedical research centers, Fort Detrick houses dozens of offices for military and civilian agencies, including the Agriculture Department’s Foreign Disease and Weed Science Research Institute, the National Cancer Institute, the Naval Medical Logistics Command and the Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center.

About 7,900 people work at Fort Detrick. The complex calls itself the largest employer in Frederick County, pumping more than $500 million into the local economy annually and anchoring the Interstate 270 high-tech corridor.

Currently under construction at the 1,200-acre base is a biotechnology campus that will house civilian and military research centers including units of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, as well as USAMRIID.

[email protected]

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To see more of The Baltimore Sun, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.baltimoresun.com.

Copyright (c) 2008, The Baltimore Sun

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For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

By Louis Llovio, Richmond Times-Dispatch, Va.

Aug. 2–An annual health fair that brought more than 1,500 volunteer doctors, nurses, dentists, optometrists and others to far Southwest Virginia last weekend performed $1.7 million worth of medical work for free, Remote Area Medical reported yesterday.

The three-day health fair in Wise County treated 2,670 patients. Nearly 1,000 people were turned away.

“We just couldn’t take care of them all; we didn’t have enough people,” said Jean Brady Jolly, volunteer coordinator with RAM.

Jolly said health-care professionals worked about 14 hours a day to see as many patients as possible. They performed the following services:

–Medical — 1,991 medical procedures and 156 mammograms. –Vision — 1,088 exams, 1,003 of which resulted in pairs of glasses being made. –Dental — 3,896 extractions, 1,833 fillings, 21 full sets of dentures, 249 cleanings, 45 root canals, 59 sealants, 15 stainless steel crowns, 1,113 X-rays and two oral biopsies, for 1,342 patients.

The health fair is the only time many see a doctor all year, organizers said.

RAM, which is based in Knoxville, Tenn., has provided medical care for the poor and uninsured in the United States and around the world since 1985. Contact Louis Llovio at (804) 649-6348 or [email protected].

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Copyright (c) 2008, Richmond Times-Dispatch, Va.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

By Chris Togneri, The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

Aug. 2–As Julie Trahan recovers from a multiple-organ transplant, she dreams of the day she can thank her donor’s family.

“I want to let them know how grateful I am,” Trahan said. “It isn’t just about me now.”

Trahan, 28, of Rodman, N.Y., was featured last month in a Tribune-Review story on Family House, a nonprofit that provides shelter and moral support to critically ill patients who travel to Pittsburgh for medical treatment and their caregivers.

As a child, Trahan contracted post-viral gastroparesis, a condition that prevents people from digesting food. She came to Pittsburgh on April 30 to await stomach, small bowel and pancreas transplants.

Trahan underwent surgery June 26. She left UPMC Montefiore July 23 and is recovering at Family House Shadyside.

“The transplant was a larger success than what the doctors had hoped for,” Trahan said. “They were really amazed.”

Before the surgery, Trahan had not eaten solid food since 2006, and her weight plummeted to 61 pounds.

Now she weighs 80 pounds and is working with a nutritionist to develop a healthy diet.

Trahan does not know how much longer she will have to stay at Family House. Doctors want her close so they can monitor her recovery, she said.

Transplant patients nearly always experience some level of organ rejection. So far, however, her body has responded well and she has passed “the most critical stage for rejection,” she said.

“I am doing so well,” she said. “I am constantly thinking of the future — that I have one, that I won’t have to go through the pain that I did. It’s a relief.”

Her mother, Mary Trahan, said Julie still faces obstacles, but that hopefully the worst is over.

“I feel pretty fortunate to have my daughter back,” she said.

Trahan does not know the name of her donor. She said doctors told her only that the organs came from “a small boy who lived in tornado country.”

Donor recipients are advised to wait a year before deciding whether to attempt contact with the donor’s family, said Holly Bulvony, director of corporate communications and public education for the Center for Organ Recovery and Education.

Trahan said she would write to her donor’s family.

“I want to let them know that I’ll do anything I can to keep their child’s memory alive.”

She dreamed of her donor, even before the surgery, and believes his name is Michael.

“He’s a blond-haired boy,” she said. “He told me in one dream, ‘They tell me I have to die, but that’s OK because I know you’re hurting.’ “

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To see more of The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/.

Copyright (c) 2008, The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

By Brook Stockberger, Las Cruces Sun-News, N.M.

Aug. 2–LAS CRUCES — Suzanne Quillen has seen the health care industry in Las Cruces grow.

As the CEO of the Advanced Care Hospital of Southern New Mexico, Quillen was on hand as the medical care facility broke ground, put up its walls and opened its doors. In fact, July marked the one-year anniversary of the first patient to be admitted to the hospital at 4451 E. Lohman Ave. It is located near the Rehabilitation Hospital of Southern New Mexico, which is owned by the same parent company, Ernest Health Inc.

The facility is also near MountainView Regional Medical Center and not far from Memorial Medical Center.

“It’s a 20-bed, long-term acute care hospital,” she said. “MountainView and Memorial would be considered short-term acute care. We take patients that haven’t progressed through the normal recovery period in the short-term acute care hospitals.

“In this facility, we have to count on the support of hospitals in central New Mexico, southeastern New Mexico and west El Paso,” she said.

Quillen’s work to open the doors on the place, though, was not the first time she helped bring a hospital into existence. She worked closely with John Hummer in the area of marketing and business development as MountainView Medical Center

was constructed in Las Cruces earlier this decade.

When she first arrived in southern New Mexico’s largest city in 1994, the area that now has three hospitals — East Lohman Avenue — was just a desert landscape.

“There was nothing behind the Hilton,” she said of the hotel that is now Hotel Encanto, located at 705 S. Telshor Blvd. “Even when we worked on the development for MountainView, there wasn’t much. Sonoma Ranch was just starting.”

She said that work was invaluable.

“It was a great experience being involved from the ground up,” she said. “It certainly prepared me for this opportunity.”

A native of Oklahoma City, Okla., Quillen came to Las Cruces after earning undergraduate and graduate degrees in nursing at the University of Oklahoma, the University of Albuquerque — which is now closed — and the University of Colorado.

She worked as chief operating officer at Lovelace Medical Center in Albuquerque before she moved to Las Cruces in 1994. In Las Cruces she worked as a nurse practitioner and taught and eventually earned a degree in public administration at New Mexico State University.

She said she heard in 2006 that Ernest Health planned to build another facility in Las Cruces, so she paid a visit to Tony Hernandez, CEO of the rehab hospital.

“I called Tony and we met for coffee and we talked about what the plans were,” she said.

From there she met with Darby Brockette, president and CEO of Ernest Health.

“I was so impressed with the company,” she said.

The Advanced Care Hospital has a staff of more than 70.

Brook Stockberger can be reached at [email protected]

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To see more of the Las Cruces Sun-News, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.lcsun-news.com.

Copyright (c) 2008, Las Cruces Sun-News, N.M.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

By Jim Jones, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas

Aug. 2–Dr. Rebekah Naylor arrived in India as a young missionary surgeon in the 1970s. And though she now calls Fort Worth home, her heart remains in Bangalore, where she helped establish the city’s Baptist hospital.

After an exemplary record in medical schools — including being the first woman to complete the surgical residency program at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in Dallas — Naylor could have had her pick of lucrative posts. But she chose to spend her life caring for the sick and downtrodden in the Indian city of 8 million.

What drove her to do it?

“I had a clear calling from God when I was 15” to be a missionary, she said. Her interest in mission work was stimulated by attending Girls Auxiliary (now Girls in Action) programs at Baptist churches led by her father, the late Robert Naylor, a former president of Fort Worth’s Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

And she was touched by the world’s poor as an 11-year-old traveling to Europe and the Middle East with her father and mother, Goldia Naylor.

“That was my first exposure to poverty,” she recalled. “I remember in Cairo seeing a girl maybe my age begging. It was something I had trouble understanding.”

When she arrived as a surgeon at the newly opened Bangalore Baptist Hospital in 1974, she became known as the “cutting doctor,” since there was no word for surgeon in the local language. But she quickly discovered that she “had to do everything.”

Faith heroine

It was the beginning of 35 years as a surgeon, hospital administrator and spreader of the Christian Gospel.

She delivered hundreds of babies, even though that wasn’t a surgeon’s job.

“I never lost the wonder of delivering new life,” she said. “It’s such a miracle. And it is always exciting.”

She treated many patients bitten by deadly cobras and pit vipers.

“Cobras paralyze you,” she said. “When bitten by a pit viper, your blood doesn’t clot.”

Naylor recalled one cobra bite victim who had brought the snake with him.

“He didn’t kill it for religious reasons. It was in a burlap bag,” she said. “I had gotten the man stable in the intensive care unit and heard all this commotion in the waiting room. People were out of their heads because here was this live cobra in a bag.”

On trips in India and the United States, Naylor helped raise money to expand the hospital. When she arrived there were 80 beds; now there are 199. She expanded the chaplaincy program. She spearheaded getting accreditation as a teaching hospital. One of her first interns in 1979, Dr. Alexander Thomas, is now director of the hospital.

Along the way she founded the Rebekah Ann Naylor School of Nursing, which sends student nurses into villages to care for the poor. Under her leadership, the hospital began a feeding program for children suffering from malnutrition.

She helped establish training programs for X-ray technicians and other specialties.

“She’s one of our modern-day heroes of the faith,”‘ said Kenneth Hemphill, a longtime family friend and former president of the seminary who is now national strategist for the Southern Baptist Convention’s Empowering Kingdom Growth initiative.

Naylor has a remarkable legacy, said the Rev. Michael Dean, pastor of Fort Worth’s Travis Avenue Baptist Church, of which Naylor is a member.

“Apart from her work in the hospital, she has done all sorts of humanitarian things and helped start many churches,” Dean said. “When people come to the hospital, they often hear about Jesus Christ. When they return to their villages, chaplains follow up and it has resulted in many new churches.”

But Naylor’s tenure was not without conflict.

She was burned in effigy during a 1990s labor dispute. She faced criminal charges early in the 1990s, later dropped, after the hospital, which produced nutritional supplements, was accused of violating India’s factory laws. The hospital’s existence was threatened when India began nationalizing its hospital system and the Baptist mission board announced that it would phase out regular funding.

Inspired leader

Naylor helped save the hospital when many thought it would be closed by partnering with Christian Medical College in Vellore, India, Thomas said. The hospital still bears the Baptist name and Southern Baptists help support it with the annual Lottie Moon Offering and other sources.

“Her legendary hard work and her values have inspired many of us,” Thomas said.

Jerry Rankin, president of the Southern Baptist International Mission Board in Richmond, Va., wrote of Naylor’s staying power in the preface of a new biography, Rebekah Ann Naylor, M.D.: Missionary Surgeon in Changing Times, (Hannibal Books, $19.95) written by Camille Lee Hornbeck of Fort Worth.

“Missionary colleagues came and went,” Rankin wrote, “but Rebekah stayed. She persevered through visa denials and removal of her medical credentials. Friends of influence intervened …but inevitably the inexplicable and miraculous hand of God would restore her work permit.”

Naylor, 64, returned to Fort Worth in 2002 to care for her 99-year-old mother. Since that time, Naylor has been clinical assistant professor in surgery at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School, where she has won teaching awards, including the 2007 Distinguished Clinical Science Educator Award.

She remains a Baptist missionary and frequently travels to India to partner with Indian Christians in starting churches. She’s also a consultant for Baptist Hospital in Bangalore.

“In India, it’s phenomenal what’s taking place,” she said. “It’s much like China where people now are more open to Christianity.”

Although Naylor officially retires as a Baptist missionary in January, it will not end her work. Her heart remains in India.

“It’s my life,” she said. “I go to India every six months. I’ll continue to live partly in Fort Worth, partly in India. The only difference when I retire will be who pays my airline ticket.”

Rebekah Naylor Valedictorian, Paschal High School in Fort Worth, 1960

Graduated magna cum laude from Baylor University in Waco; named Outstanding Premedical Student

Graduated from Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville; winner of Weinstein Prize in Medicine, 1968

First female resident to complete surgery program at University of Texas Southwestern Medical School, 1973

Christian Medical and Dental Association Missionary of the Year, 2003

Distinguished Alumni Award, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, 1994

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To see more of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.dfw.com.

Copyright (c) 2008, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

By Colette M. Jenkins, The Akron Beacon Journal, Ohio

Aug. 2–Three Akron Dominican Sisters will celebrate their golden and silver jubilees at 2:30 p.m. Sunday at St. Sebastian Church, 476 Mull Ave.

Sisters Yvonne Horning and Andre Kravec entered the Sisters of St. Dominic of Akron on Aug. 15, 1958. Kravec joined the order from Annunciation parish in Akron and Horning from St. Joseph parish in Randolph.

Horning began her teaching career in 1962 at Immaculate Conception School in Ravenna and later taught in Youngstown, Wooster, Mentor and Barberton. She also taught religion at St. Hilary in Akron; St. Agnes in Orrville; and Our Lady of the Elms High School. She currently is the director of religious education at St. James in Warren.

Kravec taught in Cleveland, Ravenna and Alliance and served as principal at Our Lady of the Elms Elementary School in Akron. She also served as director of religious education and pastoral minister at Immaculate Conception in Ravenna; Sacred Heart in Youngstown; Our Lady of Peace in Canton; St. Benedict in Cambridge; and St. Louis in Louisville. She has been pastoral associate at Sacred Heart parish in Mount Pleasant, Mich., since 2003.

Sister Joanne Caniglia, who will celebrate her silver jubilee, entered the Sisters of St. Dominic of Akron on July 25, 1980, from St. James parish in Warren. She began her teaching career at St. Vincent-St. Mary High School in Akron and has been a member of Our Lady of the Elms School board of trustees since 1991. This summer, she accepted a position in the math department of the School of Education at Kent State University.

The main celebrant for the special Mass honoring the sisters will be the Rev. Thomas Dyer. The Rev. Charles Crumbley will be the concelebrant and the Rev. John Vidmar will deliver the homily.

In other religion news:

Events

Christ the King Evangelical Lutheran Church — Twinsburg Recreation, Activities & Senior Center, 10075 Ravenna Road, Twinsburg. A pancake breakfast in conjunction with the annual Twins Day festival will be from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m Sunday. $6, $4 for seniors and children 12 and under. 330-425-7377.

Crossroads Bible Fellowship — 737 George Washington Blvd., Akron. High-energy music and worship will be featured at 7 p.m. Thursdays as a new ministry called “Unveil” begins. It’s designed to help people connect to God by releasing them from life distractions through worship and Bible study. 330-784-8883.

Living Water Ministries — 624 Canton Road, Akron. Community Fest featuring show cars, custom bikes, drag cars and music by Digital Jam from 2-6 p.m. today.

Middlebury Chapel — 82 S. Arlington St., Akron. Yard Sale to benefit children’s ministries from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. today A carnival will be from 1-4 p.m. 330-253-1921.

Mount Lebanon Baptist Church — 180 Edwards Ave., Akron. Pre-Women’s Day Luncheon at 11 a.m. today. Speaker is Minister Lisa Belcher-Nelson. $5.

Mount Olive Baptist Church — 1180 Slosson St., Akron. All Aboard the Gospel Train 13th Anniversary at 5 p.m. Sunday. Featuring: The Unity Singers, Ida Ashford, Tru Vokalz of Heaven, Jimmy Rogers, The Christianaires, Koe Lewis, Mamie Brown and more.

New Hope Baptist Church — 1706 S. Hawkins Ave., Akron. New Hope Soup Kitchen from 11:30-1 p.m. Thursday.

St. Paul Church — 1580 Brown St., Akron. Ladies Guild Annual Summer Card Party, “Fabulous Fifties” theme, at 6 p.m. Wednesday. 330-773-1155.

Performances

Bethel Temple Assembly of God — 711 25th St., Canton. SOLO Singles are sponsoring a concert for singles ages 25-42 at 8 p.m. Friday. PRAISE-Apella will perform. $20. 330-454-3058.

Christ is The Answer Ministries — 379 E. South St., Akron. The Brothaz N Christ will perform 5 p.m. Sunday. 330-376-1869.

H. Templeton Church of God in Christ — 994 Swartz Road, Akron. A musical appreciation for Raymond W. Hinton featuring church choirs, gospel singing groups and psalmists will be at 6:30 p.m. today

Lake Anna Park — Sixth Street and Park Ave., Barberton. The 22nd Annual “Gospel at the Gazebo” concert featuring Christ Unlimited and guests The Fishermen Quartet will be 7 p.m. today. Free. 330-825-3928 or 330-285-5581.

New Horizons Christian Church — 290 Darrow Road, Akron. The Gospel River Boys will be in concert at 8:30 and 10:30 a.m. Sunday.

Special services

The Gathering at the Gazebo — Waterloo Road and State Route 44 in Randolph Township. An informal, community worship experience, presented by Randolph United Methodist Church, will take place at 7 p.m. Sundays through Aug. 17. In the event of inclement weather, the program will be at the church, which is at 4078 Waterloo Road, Randolph. 330-325-7671.

Worship in the Park — Grace Park, Akron. Sponsored by Lutheran Urban Ministries of Akron, Bethany Lutheran, Holy Trinity Lutheran and St. John-St. Paul Lutheran churches will worship together at 10:30 a.m. Sunday. 330-376-5154.

Workshops, seminars

St. Martha Parish — 300 E. Tallmadge Ave., Akron. “How Can I Remain Catholic When I Disagree with Church Teaching?” will be the question discussed at the Come and See Program at 7 p.m. Tuesday. Speaker is Father Michael A. Matusz, pastor of St. Martha. Free. 330-773-7621.

Vacation Bible Schools

Columbia United Church of Christ — 978 Wooster Road W., Barberton. 1-3 p.m. Sunday, and 6:30-8:15 p.m. Monday-Wednesday. SonWord Adventure Park is this year’s theme. 330-825-9946.

First Church of God — 464 Northeast Ave., Tallmadge. 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 9. Back to Avalanche Ranch for ages 4 through sixth grade. 330-633-0107.

Forest Hill Community Church — 724 Damon St., Akron. 6-8 p.m. Monday-Friday. Heavenly Stories with Earthly Meanings. Ages kindergarten through sixth grade. 330-945-4935.

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To see more of the Akron Beacon Journal, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.ohio.com.

Copyright (c) 2008, The Akron Beacon Journal, Ohio

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

Obese mother-of-three Amanda Griffiths’s case is almost a mirror image of Alan Kaminski – without his marathon hospital stay.

She was first put forward for stomach surgery four years ago and is still awaiting the treatment.

The delay for Amanda – who puts her weight at “about 20 stones but I no longer dare get on the scales” – is partly down to clinical reasons as other conditions developed.

But just like Alan, some hold-ups built up because she didn’t want her operation at the Walsall hospital where the PCT had referred her to.

Instead she wants her own gastric surgeon Chandra Cheruvu to carry out the surgery at the University Hospital.

And now the Hartshill complex is set to launch a service, the wait could soon be over.

Single-parent Amanda, aged 32, from Abbey Hulton, saw her weight balloon after a difficult pregnancy with oldest daughter Justine, now 16. She sank into depression and turned to comfort eating, sometimes scoffing six bags of crisps a day. Her dress size soared from 12 to 32 but she had a wake-up call when she developed gall bladder problems and irritable bowel syndrome linked to her weight.

Unfortunately her first attempt at exercise resulted in her suffering a hernia.

Although she now lives on salads and potatoes and swims 150 lengths of Fenton pool a week – resulting in her dropping two dress sizes – the stones are not coming off quickly enough. She says: “I need to lose weight quicker so I can have the hernia repaired before it gets too big it threatens my life. The only answer is a stomach operation.

“Mr Cheruvu has offered to do that, plus the hernia and gall bladder all at the same time but he is being stopped by NHS bureaucracy.

“Hopefully things will now change and I was delighted to hear my local hospital is starting a service to offer this surgery.

“All I want is my life back.”

(c) 2008 Sentinel, The (Stoke-on-Trent UK). Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.

By ed hill

A Transcript reveals how a doctor was warned by a police inspector about the risk of releasing a patient who threatened to torch his house – 24 hours before he set himself on fire and died.

It shows Inspector Alison Dando telling psychiatrist Dr Raj Sinha that, if anything happened to Andrew Whetton, “it would look bad on the health authority”.

The 48-year-old begged to be kept in hospital and threatened to set fire to his house but was released from the mental health unit.

The next day, he covered his clothes in petrol and set them alight while in a car with his partner of 25 years, Julie Croft, in Marston Lane, Hatton.

Coroner Dr Robert Hunter recorded a verdict of suicide at the end of a two-day inquest yesterday.

However, he said the fact Mr Whetton was not given a mental health examination by a senior psychiatrist after the suicide threat was a “contributing factor in his death”.

Dr Sinha rang police to let them know Mr Whetton was being released.

After a recording of the call Dr Sinha made to police was played in court, he said: “Too much pressure was coming to me at that time. It was not an ideal situation.

“We do not have a machine to say what this patient will do.”

Mr Whetton, of Sydney Street, Burton, was first admitted to the Margaret Stanhope Centre, the mental health unit at the town’s Queen’s Hospital, on February 15 last year.

He was an inpatient for three weeks before being allowed periods of home leave, which meant he was still under the hospital’s care.

Mr Whetton was deemed to be severely depressed with “possible psychotic features” when first examined.

He was convinced he had stomach cancer after a bout of gastroenteritis, although tests disproved that. He also felt guilty after having an affair. He expressed suicidal ideas, saying he could not cope at home, Dr Sinha told the inquest.

But the doctor felt Mr Whetton showed significant signs of improvement in the weeks after his admission.

Dr Sinha and consultant psychiatrist Dr Nitin Gupta – who had the final word on when Mr Whetton was discharged – changed their diagnosis to acute stress reaction with anxiety.

“He had depression but we treated him and his symptoms were improving,” said Dr Sinha.

But he said the self-employed window cleaner became agitated during periods of home leave.

He was on home leave at the time of his final review meeting on April 2, the day he was due to be discharged, but asked to stay in hospital.

“He said ‘do not send me on leave, I do not feel safe’,” said Dr Sinha. “He was more anxious – he had never been like that before.”

It was then that Mr Whetton got down on his knees and begged for help, the inquest heard, and said that he would burn his house down if he was released.

Dr Sinha said: “He wanted to stay on the ward. We thought that might not be appropriate. We thought we could give him some more leave and he could see me on a daily basis.”

As a result of the threat, Dr Sinha and mental health nurse Robert Guest had a 20-minute meeting with Dr Gupta, the senior psychiatrist, where they told him about the fire threat.

Dr Gupta was asked by the coroner whether, if he had given Mr Whetton a full mental health assessment, his decision to send him on home leave would have been altered.

“No sir,” Dr Gupta replied.

Dr Gupta said Mr Whetton had never previously made a serious attempt to kill himself.

Dr Robert Rowlands, an independent psychiatrist asked to look at Mr Whetton’s medical notes, also questioned the decision not to carry out an assessment.

He said: “People being agitated to the point of pleading on their knees – that’s an unusual level of agitation. If you have ended up on a psychiatric ward, you are a high risk.

“Dr Gupta did not actually review the patient himself. That would have been the prudent thing to do.”

The inquest heard how Mr Whetton could not be sectioned under the Mental Health Act as he wanted to stay in hospital.

Summing up, the coroner said: “Mr Whetton was agitated, he fell to his knees pleading with staff not to discharge him. The team were collectively concerned to inform the psychiatrist, but no formal examination was made. The consultant psychiatrist did not see him. As a result of that decision, it was agreed he should be sent on home leave. I find that this was a contributing factor in Mr Whetton’s death.”

(c) 2008 Derby Evening Telegraph. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.

By JACOB BENNETT, Courier & Press staff writer, 464-7434 or [email protected]

The world went black, as if someone pulled the TV plug, and Kanna Domangue crumpled to the mat.

A trainer, medic and cameraman rushed to the 26-year-old woman.

Just moments before, they’d watched Domangue, a part-time model, pound a punching bag at Big Bully Mixed Martial Arts Center, pausing every so often to catch her breath. She’d pressed on even as she wondered which of her health problems would get her this time.

Domangue’s been fighting since the fourth grade after a classmate pulled out her hearing aid – she’s fought against childhood tormentors, allergies and stress-related hives and, later, endometriosis, a condition that can cause crippling menstrual pain.

Now Domangue has another fight. Her body was going through a change similar to menopause after having a hysterectomy. She had signed up for a mixed martial arts

reality show to push the limits of a body that had both tormented her and given her a second chance. She couldn’t let her health beat her again.

From the floor, Domangue read the medic’s lips: “Do you want to get up?”

She nodded. She didn’t know what was wrong, but she knew what she had to do: keep punching.

HHH

A few weeks before, Domangue faced a full-length mirror, after putting on a skimpy outfit for her gig as a mixed martial arts ring girl. She didn’t see the olive complexion, dark hair and dark eyes that make photographers call when they need an “exotic” model.

She saw cellulite on the back of her thighs.

She yelled at her boyfriend, John Gauer, when he said he didn’t see it.

Her reaction isn’t shallow. Before she became a gorgeous grown- up, she was the kid picked on by classmates. She was “radio ear” and mocked for a lisp that turned “specific” into “pacific” and “pizza” into “pisa.”

She also feared post-hysterectomy hormones were making her gain weight. She stopped taking them, which meant risking hot flashes, headaches and increasingly brittle bones.

As she worked the fights that night in late May, she already was planning to step into the ring again for a different reason: Gauer’s cousin, Jeff Osborne, had invited her to try out for the second season of his locally produced mixed martial arts reality show “FIGHT SKOOL.”

On the show, Osborne and several fighters teach average people the punches, kicks and grappling techniques that define their sport. The culmination is a big November fight night at the Evansville Coliseum.

Osborne invited Domangue because, he said, he knew her looks, health problems and back story would make great TV: She is the oldest child of divorced teen parents, and she came to Evansville with little more than a green Ford Mustang and the dog she’d adopted after Hurricane Katrina.

“I’m fighting for myself,” said Domangue. “Fighting, I was mentally used to it; now, I’m going to put it in physical form. If I can get beyond my limits, I’ve done what I wanted to accomplish.”

Osborne knew the odd number – Domangue and the six other women – posed a problem. Before pairing them off for an Aug. 9 show, he would have to cut one of them.

HHH

When “FIGHT SKOOL” is in session, the Big Bully Mixed Martial Arts Center isn’t a pleasant place to be. Body heat makes the air feel like it’s trapped inside a parked car on a summer day.

Forty people showed up for the tryout June 7, roughly the same number as last year. But this group was in better shape and more confident. Nearly two months after the first tryout, more than 30 contestants remained – twice as many as the same time last year, when Osborne didn’t have to make a cut.

Eight quit during the first day’s tryout in 2007 – driven away by the same workout Domangue was about to endure.

It was a 45-minute marathon of sprints, rope-jumping and grappling against experienced fighters.

The pros call it a decent warmup. For those without training, it’s so brutal that the training staff tapes hand-written signs on the garbage cans: “Puke Here.”

“You’ll pass out before you die,” trainer John Turner told the contestants.

Domangue handed her hearing aid to Gauer, then started a drill that required her to jump a rope and then roll under it. She struggled to catch her breath.

During the six-minute punching bag workout, she had to stop. But she would not let her health beat her. She opened her eyes, and read the trainer’s lips. Of course she wanted to continue.

As soon as she got to her feet, she resumed swinging.

A few minutes later, she ran to the bathroom and vomited.

HHH

Long before the punching bags and the hysterectomy, Kanna Domangue was little 5-year-old Kanna Antill.

Her grandmother, Mary Antill, thought she was stubborn because she would keep walking after being told repeatedly to come back.

She simply hadn’t heard.

Kanna was living in Lodi, Calif., where her mother followed her aunt to the first of many different homes around the country. A prekindergarten screening discovered the hearing loss.

Taunting later caused her to skip school dances and wear her hair down to cover her hearing aids. In sixth grade, she saw a TV show about a deaf boy and decided she shouldn’t be ashamed anymore.

In 2005, she married Ron Domangue, a Marine she had first dated when they were in junior high in Louisiana. They split a year later, about a month before she came to visit family in Indiana.

While in town, she visited the Deerhead Sidewalk Cafe on East Columbia Street, where she met Gauer, a musician. He autographed a copy of his CD with his phone number.

She didn’t call for three days. They talked so much the next couple of days that his ear hurt. Gauer, 36, told her he had three children and a bunch of debt.

She told him she sometimes thought about moving to Evansville to be with her mom, but she didn’t tell him what she was about to do.

She was on the day shift as a phlebotomist at St. Elizabeth Hospital in Gonzales, La., where her father lives with his second wife. On her break, she called her mother in Indiana and asked if she could live with her.

Domangue apologized for giving short notice, and went home for some clothes and her dog.

She went to her mom’s first, but that night, she stayed with Gauer. They haven’t been apart since.

“I’d never done anything like that,” Domangue said. “I just took a chance. I’m glad I did. Everything I wanted to do just took off, I guess because I got out of the box.”

HHH

Two weeks after the tryout, Domangue did her first runway shoot at Icon, a nightclub on Green River Road. In a sea of big hair, short shorts, glittery makeup and dangling jewelry, she modeled four outfits.

Domangue’s modeling career had picked up in Evansville. She was included on the 2008 Showme’s calendar and modeled for an online retailer in Bloomington, Ind.

She had only a couple of drinks at the club, but they proved to be too much.

At the next day’s “FIGHT SKOOL” tryout, as the group moved in a circle, practicing footwork and jabs, Domangue had to stop and stand in a corner, slightly doubled over, her hand clutching her heart.

The next exercise was worse: Four trainers used padded boards like baseball bats to hit an assembly line of contestants in the stomach.

Bare-chested guys gritted their teeth, doubled over or swore as they walked away, their six-pack abs red.

Domangue says she probably shouldn’t have gone through the line. She spent the next two days in bed, missing a runway show.

HHH

Of the seven girls in the competition, Osborne estimated Domangue’s skills put her in the middle of the pack.

She didn’t have the jujitsu grappling game of Marie Cartwright, or the boxing skills of Amber Asher-Jones or April Penrod, or the kicking ability of Renee Pennington. As they grappled on the floor, Cartwright put Domangue in a hold that caused her to “tap out” or give up.

Four weeks in, Domangue climbed into the ring to spar with Kim Lindsey, a 42-year-old grandmother who won her final match of the first season.

Domangue’s ponytail bounced as she tried to land a jab or kick. She wasn’t keeping her eyes up when she punched, and Lindsey landed a left hook on Domangue’s nose.

“I’m sorry,” Lindsey said.

“No, you’re not,” trainer David Overfield said from the side of the ring. “You’re here to spar, not to play Barbie.”

HHH

About three weeks ago, Gauer persuaded Domangue to resume taking her hormones. But she couldn’t shake her insecurity about the side effects.

To firm up her legs, she decided to in-line skate from her house near the Pigeon Creek boat ramp near the Greenway Passage.

She lost her balance on the ramp and flipped at least three times. She broke her wrist.

HHH

The conversation with Osborne didn’t go well, Gauer said.

Doctors said she would be in a cast for about four weeks.

She couldn’t wrestle in the first “FIGHT SKOOL” show but could be ready before the November finale.

Osborne didn’t say if Domangue would be eliminated but told Gauer to bring her by 15 minutes late for the next workout.

He needed that time to talk to the other contestants.

When Domangue showed up, cameraman Cody Cannon was waiting at the door.

Sometimes people eliminate themselves, Osborne said.

“She’s got a broken arm from rollerblading. Kanna’s out.”

All Domangue said was, “Can I come back next season?”

Photography by SERGE GIACHETTI, Courier & Press staff photographer

(c) 2008 Evansville Courier & Press. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.

By HEREABOUTS VIRGINIA BURROUGHS

When Butler Twp. resident Jerry Lake saw Young at Heart perform on Ellen DeGeneres’ show, she thought, “That’s our group any day now.”

But Young at Heart is a chorus of elderly Northampton, Mass., residents who perform all over the world and featured in a documentary film this summer, and Lake’s is an aerobics dance class of women from the Dayton-Harrison Twp. area who only perform in class.

“But, I’ve always threatened to have the group perform at nursing homes,” said Lake.

Members have nicknamed the group “Jerry’s Geriatrics,” and it usually consists of 20 women, ranging in age from 60-83. Young at Heart members have an average age of 81.

“Some of my group have been with me for 20 years,” said Lake, who’s taught the class since 1987. “I quit teaching aerobics at Sinclair that year, because I was in my 40s and old enough to be most of the students’ mother. I decided it was time to look for a little older group to teach, and wanted to do my own thing.”

She came up with lowimpact aerobics that incorporated a lot of movement, set up her routines and handed out fliers. “I started out at the old roller skating rink in Forest Park, then moved to the Girl Scout Center (now Charity Adams Earley Girls Academy) and finally moved the class to Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church on North Main Street, where I’ve been ever since.”

Although the class focuses on low-impact aerobics, “We call it dance-aerobics,” said Lake. “We always have a circle dance in a group and use props like canes, hats, and ropes for Western songs. My music ranges from the 1920s to contemporary music that my grandchildren suggest. I listen to the music and come up with a routine. We’re into can-can and kick-line now.”

Lake no longer has to pass out fliers, because participants stay and bring in new members by word-of-mouth. “It’s become a social club, with luncheons and picnics.

“One of the women told me she was going to quit when she turned 80, but when her 80th birthday rolled around, she said ‘Why should I quit — I can still move.’

“Another member told me ‘You’re my reason for getting up in the morning three days a week.’ But the fact is, they’re my inspiration – – I want to be able to move like they do when I’m some of their ages.”

The group takes a break during the summer months because the church doesn’t have air conditioning, but it’ll be back, ready for new routines, in mid-September.

Women interested in joining the group can call Lake at (937) 898- 4594, but she warns that, “We move; we get down on the floor; it’s low impact, not slow impact. It’s certainly not senior aerobics — most of the current members have always exercised.”

Contact this reporter at (937) 276-4441 or vburr [email protected].

(c) 2008 Dayton Daily News. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.

Step by Step: A Community Reentry Coalition, a group that helps parolees re-enter the community of Redlands, is starting a program to help children of parolees by providing school supplies to be used at home or at school. The program depends on donations and needs the following supplies:

For elementary school students:

Pencils, erasers, rulers, crayons, markers, colored pencils, pencil sharpeners, glue sticks, scissors, pads of lined paper, pads of unlined paper, tissues, backpacks.

For secondary students:

Lined or graph paper, pencils and extra lead, erasers, pens, notebooks, binders, folders, tab dividers, crayons, colored pencils, calculators, protractors, compasses, rulers, pocket English dictionaries, English-to-other-language dictionaries, tissues, backpacks.

For information or to arrange to have donations picked up, call Peggy Power at (909) 792-9676 and leave a message.

Step by Step also welcomes volunteers.

Materials needed

Joseph’s Storehouse needs donations of:

Boxed meals

Toothbrushes and toothpaste

Stew

Soups

Chili

Baby diapers

Clothes

Contact: (909) 793-5677

Drop off: 457 New York St., across from Jennie Davis Park and the New York Street post office Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday afternoons or Saturday or Sunday mornings. To arrange other times, call (909) 793-5677.

Family Service Association needs donations of:

Tuna

Canned meat

Cream soups

Strollers

Cribs

Contact: Lorie Thomas, 793-2673

Volunteers needed

Redlands Community Hospital needs volunteers for the new three- story surgery and maternity services building as well as in other buildings. The hospital needs patient representatives to visit patients in their hospital rooms to support staff in providing care; information desk assistants to assist patients and visitors with directions to their destinations within the hospital; patient transportersto transport patients via wheelchair throughout the hospital; and emergency department assistants to run errands for the emergency department.

Information: (909) 335-5526

Hospice volunteers: (909) 335-5643

Visit patients on hospice care in their home. Non-clinical support.

Pastoral care volunteers: (909) 335-5552

Spiritually comfort patients in the hospital, evenings in ER, Intensive Care Unit

Parish nurse and health ministry volunteers: (909) 335-5560

Provide health screenings and immunizations at churches and shelters, make sick visits, reach out to the community

Inland Harvest needs volunteers to help pack excess Inland Orange Conservancy oranges and deliver the oranges once they are packed. Contact: (909) 335-7327 or [email protected].

Do not throw away excess food from catered events. Call Inland Harvest (909) 335-7327 to deliver the food to a shelter or feeding program.

The Redlands Police Department is seeking volunteers to assist with youth sports, after-school programs, special events and the Community Center. Volunteers can earn Rec Bucks that are good toward Redlands recreation classes, sports leagues, game room fees and rental fees for recreation facilities.

Those who are interested in volunteering should go to the Redlands Community Center to fill out an application. A placement interview will then be conducted to match volunteers’ skills with the program most suited to them. A Redlands Police Department background check can be obtained Mondays and Wednesdays between 1 and 5 p.m.

Information: (909) 798-7572.

To volunteer for Family Service Association, contact Donna Jones at (909) 793-2673, 612 Lawton St., Redlands.

Volunteers are needed at the Distribution Center from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. the first Saturday of each month. Clothing room support is also needed.

Joseph’s Storehouse needs volunteers with a clean driving record to pick up food donations on Fridays. The vehicle for deliveries is provided. They also need assistance in packaging and distributing food and groceries on Wednesdays. Contact: (909) 793-5677

Help feed the homeless. University United Methodist Church, Holy Name of Jesus Catholic Church, the Redlands Seventh-day Adventist Church and students from the University of Redlands serve free meals from 3 to 5 p.m. every Saturday at University United Methodist Church, 940 E. Colton Ave., Redlands.

Contact David Center, (909) 793-1651

Organizations interested in participating in this listing may join the Redlands Charitable Resource Commission, a network of groups committed to assisting local families in need through service, advocacy and education.

For more information, call (909) 798-7533

(c) 2008 Redlands Daily Facts. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.

By JENNIFER H. CUNNINGHAM, STAFF WRITER

CLIFTON Dr. Peter Castiglia, a general practitioner who cared for generations of North Jersey families, died last weekend.

The grandfather of 12 collapsed outside the bedroom of his Holster Avenue home Sunday morning, his son, V. James Castiglia, said. He was 87. The cause of death was unknown Wednesday, but his son said it may have been heart problems.

His children described him as a hard-working, family-oriented father who used to regale them with stories of his hardscrabble childhood during the Great Depression.

“He wasn’t just our dad,” said Dr. Castiglia’s daughter, Margaret Laurilliard, 53, of Randolph. “He belonged to a lot of people. We kind of shared him with the community.”

Sicilian heritage

The Passaic High School graduate was a throwback to a time when doctors made house calls, a consultation only cost $5 and a general practitioner was a jack of all trades. He never owned a cellphone and didn’t know how to use a computer.

“A general practitioner they kind of did everything,” Laurilliard said. “People didn’t go to specialists back then.”

Dr. Castiglia was born on December 18, 1920, to Sicilian immigrant parents. His mother, who spun cotton in Passaic’s mills, and his father, who owned a bakery, instilled in him the value of education.

They paid his way through Ohio University and through Case Western Reserve Medical School. Dr. Castiglia graduated from med school in 1945 and then served in the U.S. Army Air Forces, attaining the rank of captain.

Passaic General staff

After his military service, Dr. Castiglia returned to Clifton in 1949, and opened a private practice at 128 Valley Road.

There, he treated entire families, performed minor surgery, delivered babies and even counseled patients. His family lived just upstairs.

While working at his practice, Dr. Castiglia also was a staff physician for Passaic General Hospital, the predecessor of St. Mary’s Hospital.

He served as chief of the emergency room staff there and also was staff president in the 1980s.

Retired in 1990

Dr. Castiglia’s generosity was legendary. He sent medical supplies, equipment and medicine to his old med school buddy, Father Lou, a missionary in Pakistan.

He retired from medicine in 1990 at age 70, but not before he gave one last gift to a promising young doctor. Dr. Castiglia gave his Valley Road practice to Dr. M. Joseph Russo, who has operated it since 1991.

“He’s a generous, kind individual,” Russo said, “and honestly, I wouldn’t be where I am today if it hadn’t been for Dr. Castiglia. I owe him a great deal.”

Dr. Castiglia spent his retirement traveling the world until ill health forced him to stop about 10 years ago.

Looking back on his life, Dr. Castiglia’s children said he taught them responsibility, generosity, a strong work ethic and a love of education.

A last visit with son

Dr. Castiglia’s son Peter, 48, a banker from Needham, Mass., came to New Jersey to visit him the weekend he died, but had no idea that their time together would be their last.

They had dinner on Friday night, and he’d planned to get bagels for breakfast Sunday morning when he heard the news.

“I’m glad we came and saw him,” Peter said. “In a way, it was like fate.”

Dr. Castiglia’s funeral was Thursday. Memorial donations can be sent to Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, 10900 Euclid Ave., Cleveland, Ohio 44106.

(c) 2008 Record, The; Bergen County, N.J.. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.

LITTLE FALLS, N.J., Aug. 1 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — CANTEL MEDICAL CORP. announced management changes at its Crosstex International, Inc. subsidiary, effective today. As planned, Richard Allen Orofino, President and a former owner of Crosstex, retired effective today after over 50 years with Crosstex, including 3 years following Cantel’s acquisition of the company. Gary Steinberg and Mitchell Steinberg, also former owners of Crosstex who have served as Executive Vice-Presidents of Crosstex, have been promoted and will now lead the company. Gary Steinberg has been appointed Chief Executive Officer of Crosstex with full day-to-day responsibilities. Mitchell Steinberg has been appointed President and will focus primarily on the sales and marketing efforts. Mr. Orofino has agreed to serve in a consulting capacity following his retirement.

Andrew A. Krakauer, President of Cantel, said, “Richard has been a great leader for many years at Crosstex, and I would like to particularly thank him for his efforts over the last 3 years as Crosstex was integrated into the Cantel family of companies. His counsel and experience were key factors in the great success we have had with this acquisition. I have great confidence in Gary’s and Mitchell’s ability to continue to lead Crosstex. They have been partners with Richard for many years and greatly responsible for making Crosstex the leading healthcare disposables company that it is today.”

Cantel Medical Corp. is a leading provider of infection prevention and control products in the healthcare market. Our products include specialized medical device reprocessing systems for renal dialysis and endoscopy, dialysate concentrates and other dialysis supplies, disposable infection control products primarily for the dental industry, water purification equipment, sterilants, disinfectants and cleaners, hollow fiber membrane filtration and separation products for medical and non-medical applications, and specialty packaging for infectious and biological specimens. We also provide technical maintenance for our products and offer compliance training services for the transport of infectious and biological specimens.

   Contact:  Andrew A. Krakauer              Richard E. Moyer             President                       Cameron Associates, Inc.             Cantel Medical Corp.            [email protected]             Phone: (973) 890-7220           Phone: (212) 554-5466  

Cantel Medical Corp.

CONTACT: Andrew A. Krakauer, President, Cantel Medical Corp.,+1-973-890-7220, Richard E. Moyer, Cameron Associates, Inc.,[email protected], +1-212-554-5466