Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - May 2, 1990, Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg free press May 199o Brian City editor military vehicle resumption of work on dam Hsc blew if by mailing fetal remains in Box by Catherine Mitchell the health sciences Centre blew it when it mailed a Winnipeg couple the remains of their miscarried fetus in a Jam a spokesman said Jim Rodger said an investigation into How the fetal remains were handled shows the Hospital the health sciences Centre will ensure such an incident never Hap pens Rodger the packed in double plastic and contained in a Kraft Raspberry Jam shipping arrived at the Little grand rapids Indian Phi free press Hospital spokesman admits blames confusion Reserve in the mail we should have treated it differently but because the vital statistics act legislation Doest re quire us we blew Rodger the vital statistics act says a fetus older than 20 weeks must be registered As stillborn and recorded for a burial it is silent on fetuses younger than 20 the Kathleen Meek is and Robert both did not want to talk about the affair yes having just buried the re Mains at their Home an isolated Community about 250 kilo metres Northeast of but Leveque reiterated his disgust with the fact the fetal remains were particularly that they were mailed in a Kraft Raspberry Jam shipping chief Oliver speaking for the said he will be discussing the possibility of Legal action with we Are upset and were deeply sorry that we caused the family sorrow in addition to what they had suffered As a result of the Miscar Rodger he said the Hospital had not at tempted to apologize directly to the noting we dont want to do something that would simply rub Salt in the earlier this Meek is explained she and Leveque wanted the Hospital to turn the remains Over to Bardal funeral where they would be prepared for burial and in a via air freight to their Home Meek is had a miscarriage at the hospitals emergency Ward on april she said she and her with her at the time of the told a nurse they wanted the remains sent to Bardal Funer Al Rodger apologized for the confusion saying he had scurried to collect details on what occurred last in Normal practice is that women in the process or in Dan Ger of mis carrying Are taken to the women Hospital attached to the staff there handle both the family and the he the procedure is that on the instructions of the family the remains Are sent to a funeral Home or re leased to the Rodger but things happened so fast with Meek is that mistakes he Rodger said a staff member in the pathology department packed the remains in the Box and shipped it he said this is the routine Fol Lowed when a pre20week fetus is mailed to the Hospital from a Remote Community for examination and then returned by mail to the City accused of withholding acid spill facts drinking water not threatened War at the pumps Boniface motorists were Given a rare treat yester out the Day to take advantage of the Low prices but they a Gas Price War at the East end of Marion were were a truce was called Early in the motorists lined up at the competing Gas bars through evening and prices went Back up to cents a stabbing deaths Spur new system by Janet Mcfarland the City is purchasing a new 911 Telephone computer system to enable dispatchers to Trace Calls almost Bob Douglas Grants chairman of the cites Protection said yesterday the 1989 stabbing deaths of two elderly women in Winnipeg helped Spur the emergency help for 86yearold Kaiyo Shimizu and 59yearold Chieko Shimizu was hampered by delays in tracing their Telephone Call after they dialled 911 and dropped the Douglas said the full enhance 911 system will be phased in Over several when dispatchers will be Able to Trace Calls quickly through a simultaneous computer Hookup with Manitoba Telephone system were making Douglas Regina and Ottawa have already moved to the simultaneous tracing spokesmen for the police mayor Bill Norries office and Manitoba Telephone sys tem yesterday refused to discuss the Purchase before a news conference next it would not be proper to release anything ahead of Deputy policy chief Stan Scarr a civic source said the total computer system is expected to be a great within half a second the address of that person comes up on the which is wonderful for emergency services the official if the callers pass then they can still find out where they there is also tremendous abuse of the 911 phone system by people who Telephone for frivolous information about topics such As the weather or the time of or by people who make repeated Crank if they know As soon As they Call their name and address will appear on the it should eliminate a lot of the the source said the enhance computer system will Cost about the cites five year capital budget suggests spending million for an enhance 911 system in but the expenditure has not been approved yet by the 1990 budget does not earmark any Money specifically for an enhance 911 but Douglas said parts of the cites communications system will be updated gradually to enable the full system to be put in place he said he could not confirm the total Roxanne Public information officer for said yesterday Norrie and its presi Dent Reg Bird will sign All the official con tracts to Purchase the system next the existing 911 computer system operates out of a Small room in the Public safety the system still uses a switchboard with operators who plug in Patch cords to Transfer the emergency service was scrutinized during the trial of the Young offender convicted of stabbing Chieko and Kaiyo Shimizu in june during the witnesses said it took 20 minutes to Trace the Call and Send by Donald Campbell the Winnipeg water Protection group has accused the City of Winnipeg of withholding information about the seriousness of an acid spill at Shoal Lake last we Are deeply said Helen head of the group its caused me to lose a lot of sleep worrying about the resulting from an overflow of a Fluor Sidic acid from a holding was Down played at the time by civic who denied any of the litres of spilled fluoride reached the documents obtained but the water Protection group said yesterday it has obtained Docu ments from the Ontario government that show civic administrators later knew the spill had reached Shoal lakes Falcon near the source of the cites drinking but never released the information pub according to a memorandum written March by Ontario environment ministry regional supervisor John the City was aware the chemical was in the Lake some time in Early the Manitoba government told the Ontario government the acid was in the Lake on Barr the memo reads the City of Winnipeg had detected a fluoride level of 3 parts per million in Falcon West of Indian Bay apparently a manhole had been discovered in the original spill area and Likely carried acid through a sewer to Falcon the water group said ppm is the accepted maximum level of Fluor Sidic acid in the group acknowledged that the released in controlled amounts to fluoridated the did not threaten the cites drinking smoker filming As rent ruling rendered by Zena Olijnyk a court of Queens Bench judge fumed yesterday while telling a Winnipeg Man to kick his cigarette habit and put More of his Money into paying the rent he in not buying your explant Justice Sidney Schwartz told Ken Summerfield after ordering him to pay a debt to landlord Joanne Ernewein at the rate of a month rather than the monthly payments he had been you should not be Able to put these luxury items ahead of paying Back the Schwartz said after learning Summerfield spent a month on on Cable to and on you May regard these As Essen tial but the applicant youre expecting her Ernewein to pick up the he but she should stand ahead of these perhaps without smoking youll live Schwartz said before making his i think its ridiculously unfair that i should be waiting for my Money Back when this Guy is allowed to indulge in luxury items such As tobacco and Cable Ernewein said outside she said her troubles started last september when she rented a base ment suite to summer Fields Daugh Ter and her Summerfield signed the rental agreement and was responsible for any rent in three weeks after moving the two teens gave notice they were moving although the contract required 30 Days As a Ernewein insisted that under the provincial Summerfield owed her for a months plus costs for damage and lost after Ernewein went to Small claims Summerfield was or dered in March to pay the rent and an additional for smoke dam cleaning and changing but Ernewein appealed when she Learned the judge allowed summer Fields wages to be garnished at such a Low during the Appeal sum Merfield said he have to give up his smoking habit to pay the i cant afford to pay that he said before storming out of the courtroom afer Schwartz Deci but the group said the spill polluted a sensitive spawning area for picker the group has sent a letter to fisheries minister Bernard Valcourt informing him of the Accident and asking if the City reported it to As required by Federal one question we Are asking is was the fisheries act violated said Claude group Vic Epresi and if the spill was report Why was it not a violation fisheries officials based in Toron to could not answer that question but an Ontario natural resources ministry biologist who monitors Pickerel Stock in the Lake said there was no noticeable Impact on spawn ing last Spring resulting from the preparing report City officials were not responding to the water Protection group charge a works and operations depart ment official said the City was pre paring a report on the it is to be released today through mayor Bill Norries Manitoba environment minister Glen Cummings said his department carefully monitored the spill and ensuing Cummings said there is a need to keep the Public informed on clean but that every single project usually does not deserve a press 1 dont feel we should put a position Forward that would create artificial he stressing the Shoal Lake spill was not deemed a threat to the cites drinking water but Dauphin la John the nip environment said incomplete reporting of the facts of the incident makes it important the provincial government include All City of Winnipeg operations under its environment the real concern was that there was no we Are calling for an inquiry into the incident to get the facts and find out what procedures were followed and Why there was no Lohman at a news conference the water Protection group quoted newspaper reports on the spill to document the cites official response to the in a free press the waterworks director Bill car Roll said the spill would not affect the cites water Supply and observations revealed no chemical had reached the speech disabled children wait this next some that the kind of runaround being experienced by parents of preschool children suffering severe speech its just another example of a legacy that been left them by past provincial and Federal governments who recklessly squandered billions of our tax dollars like there were no As we All know by the sorry financial state of this provinces healthcare tomorrow is among the Many other affected areas of health this legacy can be found at the health sciences Centre where theres More than 400 children born with neurological hearing deft lips or palates or head and facial anomalies who Are on an outpatient list waiting to learn How to kids like three Earold Kyla doll because of a neurological can utter Only a few her parents have been told she will have to wait at least two years before receiving two years by that Kyla will have turned five and no longer be eligible for the Mike Ward Shell Start school with this awful disadvantage just like 150 other kids last year and become the responsibility of an education department speech therapy Shell be heading off to school and she wont even be Barbara doll we have had to turn to a private speech it costs an hour and Kyla needs at least three hours a but we cant afford that kind of Money so Kyla is just getting one hour a then there Are kids like Foury Earold Dennis outwardly a Normal child except like int Able to speak More than half dozen or so his mom and dad enrolled him in the health sciences Centre paediatric speech pathology program june in told Hes now third on the list of 424 kiddies waiting for last fail 1 was told it would be Shirley Langan at Christmas i was told it would be late in March i was told it would be now in told it will be in its been an unbelievable runaround from Day in june when Denniss name was put on the waiting i was told four to six then it became a now its 23 whenever i talk to health minister Don Orchards his executive Alan says the health sciences Centre program is the next to be they can address All they what we parents want is some of you May recall Shirley Lang ans she Watt Public last june after failing to get satisfactory answers from Orchards the waiting list was then and that Only because those 150 kids i mentioned earlier had outgrown the Langan found support in Liberal health clinic Gulzar Cheema who raised the Issue in the legislature a number of Orchard said he was aware of the Long delays and was waiting for a report into All types of therapeutic services across the province before deciding How to tackle the the health minister received the report from William Macdiarmid last along with its recommendations that More speech pathologists were needed let alone the Hsc paediatric the disruptive and frustrating consequences for the affected the family and teachers Are very considerable if no action is taken before the child enters was the doctors warning to ten months and still nothing has been done to provide the health sciences Centre with funding for More staff to look after these Judy who Heads the Hsc told me an additional 15 paediatric speech language pathologists would be needed to Clear up the at her clinic is funded for our present staffing level Doest allow us to see All the children that need to be Sutter so what we have asked the government for is a modest four this certainly int going to fix the but if we could begin to narrow the Gap and see More children in a More kindly Well at least that would be a Good step it takes a Long time to bring a child along because we Are taking the really severe the children that Are desperately in need of developing communication sometimes we see a child twice a three times a so remediation is not a Quick it was Kylas dad Gil doll who prompted me to take a look at what the government is doing to reduce this enormous he sent me a copy of a letter he had written Premier Gary complaining about the two year waiting period like Shirley expressing his frustration at not getting satisfactory answers from Orchards nor did 1 Hiebert As Good As told me what Langan said shed been getting from him whenever she called Orchards office its being addressed speech therapy like i next on the he told is that this next some never victim of an injustice that bureaucracy wont remedy write Mike hell look into ;