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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 17, 2017)
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2017 The leaves on the trees overlooking the Umatilla River have begun transitioning into fall colors Monday near Rieth. Staff photo by E.J. Harris 142nd Year, No. 1 One dollar WINNER OF THE 2017 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD Goodbye, Susie Arroyo PENDLETON Woman with rare disease died after long battle for access to drug By KATHY ANEY East Oregonian Staff photo by Kathy Aney Two competitors in one of the periodic kids’ bier stein lifting contests battle it out at Saturday during Okto- berfest. The last person holding their water-fi lled glass aloft won. T Staff photo by Kathy Aney A member of “Will Play for Beer” sports orange beer socks while playing at the Oktoberfest on Saturday at the Pendleton Round-Up Grounds. Staff photo by Kathy Aney Joe Ford, of Pendleton, sips his beer and listens to music at the Oktober- fest on Saturday at the Round-Up Grounds. Oktoberfest explores fl avors outside German borders By JAYATI RAMAKRISHNAN East Oregonian Winter may be closing in, but it was hard to tell with the crisp blue sky, sun and cheery atmosphere at Pendleton’s third annual Okto- berfest on Saturday. Held at the Pendleton Round-Up Grounds, the event drew beer vendors from around the state, and some out-of- town visitors as well. Prodigal Son, one of the brew- eries represented at the event, had created a beer for the event, called “A Beer Named Uter.” “It’s a Kolsch, a German-style beer,” said Jean-Luke Alexander, the brewer at Prodigal Son. He used Gold Rush Pilsner and toasted malt, with barley grown in Enterprise. “It’s a real easy drinking, light ale,” he said . “I used meridian hops, so it’s more citrus-y. When you put them in the whirlpool, you get more of a hop aroma than bitterness. It’s a Northwest take on a kolsch.” Tim Guenther, owner of Prod- igal Son and a board member of Oktoberfest Pendleton, said this event was unique in its variety of beers. See OKTOBERFEST/10A Local fi refi ghters deployed to California By JADE MCDOWELL East Oregonian A grueling fi re season that has stretched resources thin across the country isn’t over yet for Umatilla County fi refi ghters deployed to southern California. A strike team including four firefighters and a brush truck from More inside Pendleton Fire Houses spared Department, by fi res bring three fi re- joy and sense fi ghters and of loss a brush truck PAGE 9A from Umatilla County Fire District plus personnel and equip- ment from Union County headed See FIRE/10A AP photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez Sonoma fi refi ghters set a backburn along a hillside Friday in Glen Ellen, Calif. Firefi ghters from Pendleton and Hermiston have joined the effort, traveling to Southern California to assist. he last time I saw Susie Arroyo sticks in my mind. Susie sat in her wheelchair at St. Anthony Hospital on that late-August day after receiving an IV infusion of a new drug, which she had petitioned the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to approve. She believed the drug would eventually help her live a more normal Kathy life. Susie could Aney barely lift her Comment arms, but fl ashed a dazzling smile when I leaned down to give her a hug. “Next time,” she said, “I hope to be able to hug you back.” That hug would never come. On Friday, Susie died at age 28. The news hit me and other Susie fans hard. Despite the Pendleton woman’s severe health problems, we just fi gured she would continue to beat the odds. We had watched her cheat the Grim Reaper for so long. We had started thinking she had superpowers. Susie got a diagnosis of a muscle-weakening disorder called Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy after her kindergarten teacher noticed the little girl was easily winded. The disease strikes one out of every 3,500 boys, but few girls. Susie estimated she was one of 20-or-so females in the country with Duchenne. The disease seemed to stabilize in her teens, but in 2009, she got up from her living room couch after sitting for an extended time and fell to the fl oor, breaking her back. “I fell back and felt a coldness go from my spinal cord to my legs,” Arroyo recalled afterwards. She said she wore a full- body cast for months, and by the time her spine healed, an echocardiogram showed her heart was failing. Too weak to walk, she was forced to use a wheelchair. The BMCC student needed a heart transplant but didn’t even have enough money to pay for preliminary testing. The normally upbeat Susie fell into gloom. The community rallied with fundraisers and friends wore tie-dyed T-shirts that said “Team Susie.” BMCC English professor Shaindel Beers, who organized one of the fundraisers, said the See SUSIE/10A
