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Committed to cultural diversity.
Join In Celebrating Our
May 17, 1995
Searching For
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Adoption services are
looking for a family to care
for Taylor, a beautiful little
girl with special needs.
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See Religion, puge B4.
See Arts and Entertainment, page B3.
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Trauma Doctor Battles Violence
by
P romise K ing
lence are uninsured or ineligible for govern­
ment medicare cost assistance.” she said.
r. Linda Louise Erwin is not
To this end, Erwin has developed the
your ordinary surgeon whose Save Our Youth program - a violence inter­
vocation is confined to the vention program in conjunction with M ult­
operating room.
nomah County Juvenile Justice.
And i f stars are given to distinguished
The program caters to students in Port­
surgeons who have made a difference, Dr.
land public schools, teaching kids how to
Erwin would probably be a decorated five resolve violence without resorting to fire­
star surgeon-general.
arms.
She is the associate director o f trauma
“ This has taken me to Lake Oswego
services at Legacy Emanuel Hospital. In her Junior High, Jefferson High School, Tubman
hands lie the fate o f many c ritic a lly injured M iddle School and also Parkrose High and
patients.
others,” she recalled.
But Dr. E rw in’s passion to save lives
The surgeon who is also the chairman i f
goes beyond patching together the rippled the Trauma M ulti-disciplinary Committee is
flesh o f bullet-wounds or stitching mangled a staunch supporter o f Ceasefire Oregon - an
bodies o f accident victims.
organization devoted to taking guns out from
She is actively involved in a violence the wrong hands.
prevention campaign in the state and around
Bom in Jackson, Miss., Dr. Erwin came
the nation.
to Oregon as an intern at Oregon Health
On her normal schedule, she doubles her Sciences University.
prim ary medical duties by speaking to school
The intensity, team work and the chal­
kids about violence resolution and the out­ lenges that come by every day, keep this
come o f violence.
surgeon in love w ith her job.
“ Most people don’t realize that prevent­
“ I t ’ s very exciting and very challenging.
ing gun violence w ill not only save lives, but I t ’s hard to find a jo b where you are with
also save money. The average cost o f medi­ different personalities everyday,” she said
cal treatment for one hospitalized gunshot wryly.
wound patient is more than $30,000, the
The downside o f her jo b , she said is
surgeon explained.
watching kids she cannot save, die. And so
“ The reality is that approximately 80
▼
percent o f patients who suffer from gun vio­
Continued to page A5
D
Get Ready For Summer
Swims
Sign-ups are now being taken for sum­
mer swim lessons for all ages and skill
levels at Portland pools, including the eight
outdoor pools which open on Saturday,
June 17. Registration is encouraged by
mail to beat the last-minute rush. Registra­
tion forms and summer schedules are avail­
able by calling 823-5130. You can also
call 823-SW IM for more information.
Toran Earns Alumni
Award
Kay Toran, Children’s Services D iv i­
sion administrator, has been given an out­
standing alumni award at Portland State.
Toran began her career as an assistant
professor o f soc ial work at PSU. She served
as director o f affirm ative action under Gov.
Vic Atiyeh before moving to CSD. Toran
has served as president o f the Portland
chapter o f Links, Inc., as a board member
o f the Walker Institute, the Oregon Art
Institute, Metro Women Inc., and the Port­
land chapter o f the NAACP.
Bush Resigns From NRA
Former President Bush angrily re­
signed from the National Rifle Association
last week after a N R A official called Bu­
reau o f Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms
agents “jackbooted thugs... wearing Nazi
bucket helmets.” Bush, a gun enthusiast
and decades-long member o f the NRA,
called the attack “ vicious slander” that
“ deeply offends my own sense o f decency
and honor and it offends my concept o f
service to country.”
DNA Appears To Link
Simpson
Jurors in the O.J. Simpson trial last
week finally saw how his genetic finger­
print was linked to murder. Dark blots on
his D N A X-ray are similar to those from a
blood drop found near the slashed bodies
o f his ex-wife and her friend. Jurors were
told that D N A on a sock found at the foot
ofO .J. Simpson’ s bed was consistent with
his ex-w ife’s.
Dr. Louis Erwin is an emergency room surgeon at Legacy Emanuel Hospital.
World Watches As Ebola Takes Toll
T
he Ebola virus and fear of the
disease is taking a horrifying
toll on the frightened people
of Kikwit, Zaire.
how it intially gets into humans
They don’t know much about its physi­
cal compositon or why it is so virulent.
They don’t know how to treat it.
What they do know is that it ravages the
human body, destroying the immune system,
invading soft tissues, including the heart and
the brain and that it causes massive bleeding
and usually ends in death.
Medical officials continue to assure peo­
ple that the virus isn’t spread like colds or
influenza, by sneezing or coughing. It’ s only
spread through contact with flood or bodily
fluids. O fficials in Zaire have tried to contain
the virus w ith a quarantine around the K ikw it.
Jean-Jacques Muyembe, Zaire’s leading
virologist, says no one knows how the laatest
outbreak started, but that it somehow made it
The latest outbreak o f the mysterious
virus has the attention o f much the world
because it is so deadly.
An Italian nun died o f the disease on
Sunday, bringing the death to ll in the central
African city to 64, according to officials in
Zaire.
The virus, virtually unheard o f until it
broke out in 55 villages in Zaire in 1976, is
marked by high fever, vom iting and massive
bleeding, fatal to 90 percent o f its victims.
There are few bugs that researches know
less about than Ebola.
They don’t know where it comes from or
way to the hospital.
The first person known to have the dis­
ease was a 36-year-old lab technician at the
hospital whose job involved collecting blood
from patients. He died A p ril 14, but infected
12 people, mostly medical personnel. They
in turn cared for other medical people who
became ill.
The strain o f Ebola is the same one that
caused the previous epidemics in the 1970s,
the W orld Health Organization said.
That may be a positive sign: “ It doesn’t
appear to have mutated into someth ing new,”
said W HO spokesman Christopher Powell.
But he said little is known about the
virus.
“ Nobody's managed to find where the
reservoir is,” he said.
O fficial hope to isolate the virus’ carrier,
possibly monkeys, bats or insects, he said.
“ I t ’s hard to find because it is such a rare
virus.”
The virus has a short incubation and
victims are generally too ill to travel.
In 1976, the first outbreak o f the disease
occurred in Yambuki, Zaire, near the Ebola
River, for which the virus was named.
O f 300 infected people, 274 died. Most
o f the deaths were traced to a Catholic mis­
sion hospital that used the same three sy­
ringes on about 500 patients a day. Outbreaks
also occured in Nzara, Sudan in 1976 and
1979.
In 1989, doctors detected a virus similar
to Ebola in monkeys imported to the United
States.
Memorial
Honors Duty
HMO’s Court Elderly
University ofOregon professor Judith
Hibbard, who studies health care issues,
says health maintenance organizations
(H M O s) are signing up Medicare benefi­
ciaries as a way to expand their markets.
The government, says Hibbard, is encour­
aging the trend because o f perceived cost
savings. Experts say without a major over­
haul, the Medicare Trust Fund w ill run out
o f money w ithin eight years. HMOs are
attractive to Medicare managers because
o f their record o f holding down costs, but
may mean less services to patients.
Police and other city officials honor the
men and women of the Portland Police
Bureau who were injured or killed in the
line of duty. Police Chief Charles Moose
(right) presents special awards to Officer
David Howe and Sgt. Andrew Kirkland
during the Monday event. Richard Walker
(left), a 1990 police bureau retiree, was
master of ceremonies.
Executives Named To
Growth Panel
Packwood Gives Hope To Foster Nomination
Metro Executive O fficer M ike Bur­
ton has appointed a group o f business
executives for advice on ways to imple­
ment a 50-year growth plan for the tri­
county Portland metropolitan area. The
group called “ 2040 Means Business” w ill
lend their expertise about how the region
can encourage the type o f residential and
commercial development which is out­
lined in the plan.
.S. Sen. Bob Packwood, R-
Ore., has broken ranks with
conservative members of his
own political party by supporting the
nomination of Dr. Henry Foster as
U.S. Surgeon General.
U
Packw ood, appearing Sunday on the
N B C program Face the N a tio n predicted
R epublican e ffo rts to b lo c k c o n firm a ­
tio n w ill fa ll short.
F o ste r is “ q u a lifie d ,” P ackw ood
said. “ H is back­
ground is e x c e l­
le n t.”
The Oregon
se na tor’ s c o m ­
m ents seem to
im p r o v e F o s ­
te r ’ s c o n firm a ­
tio n chances.
Sen. Bob P ackw ood
I n it ia l o p -
p o s itio n , focusing on the Tennessee doc-
to r ’ s record o f legal a b o rtio n s and his
f i r s t in a c c u ra te s ta te m e n ts a b o u t
them , has weakened since Foster te s ti­
fie d at c o n fir m a tio n h e a rin g s th is
m onth.
But Sen. Phil Gram m , R -Texas, ap­
pearing on the same show, vow ed to lead
a filib u s te r to b lo ck a vote on Foster.
“ I ’ m g o in g to do e v e ry th in g in my
pow er to stop th is n o m in a tio n ,” said
Gram m , a p re sid e ntia l candidate.
Said Packw ood: “ M y hunch is on
th is one the filib u s te r w o n ’ t last lo n g .”
M a jo r ity leader and p re s id e n tia l
h opeful Bob D ole , w ho threatened to
keep F oster’ s n o m in a tio n from a fu ll
Senate vote, has softened and asked to
meet w ith the nom inee.
Foster faces a M ay 24 com m itte e
vote, where he’ s expected to p ic k up the
one more vote needed to send the nom ­
in a tio n to the fu ll senate.
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EDITORIAL
HEALTH
A2
A4
VANCOUVER
A6
I
BUSINESS
SPORTS
ENTERTAINMENT
CLASSIFIEDS
A8
B2
B3
B6