REGION
Thursday, September 16, 2021
East Oregonian
A3
Man trapped in Hermiston crash
requires emergency medical flight
By BRYCE DOLE
East Oregonian
Alex Wittwer/EO Media Group/La Grande Observer
Oregon National Guard Spc. Renay Monohan sanitizes and cleans a procedure room on
Tuesday, Sept. 14, 2021, in the surgicenter at Grande Ronde Hospital, L Grande. Monohan
is a local to La Grande, and works as a health care medic as her regular job with the U.S.
Forest Service. National Guard members have been activated at a number of hospitals in
Eastern Oregon following a surge of COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations.
National Guard activated
at Eastern Oregon Hospitals
By ALEX WITTWER
EO Media Group
L A G R A N DE —
National Guard members
have finally arrived at many
Eastern Oregon hospitals
as the COVID-19 pandemic
reaches its apex in recent
cases caused by the virulent
delta variant.
Saint Alphonsus Medi-
cal Center, Baker City,
Wallowa Memorial Hospi-
tal, Enterprise, and Grande
Ronde Hospital, La Grande,
each had citizen-soldiers
deployed to help, in addi-
tion to the guard members
already deployed at Blue
Mountain Hospital, John
Day.
At least 20 g uard
members were deployed to
assist in operations at hospi-
tals in nonclinical roles.
The hospitals moved to fill
in gaps with the National
Guard soldiers, placing
them in positions through-
out the hospitals as ancillary
support staff. Staff at the
overburdened health care
centers more than welcomed
the added support for roles
such as front door screeners,
which clinical staff often
had filled.
“That helps us be able to
deploy our clinical people
back to clinical work,” said
Priscilla Lynn, president
and chief nursing officer at
Saint Alphonsus Medical
Center in Baker City.
Freeing up resources
for the health care staff
improves efficiency during
a time when worker short-
ages abound across nearly
every industry, and when
nurses and other clinical
staff have been working
tirelessly during an unre-
lenting 18 months of fight-
ing a pandemic.
“All of the entry level
positions across our county
— it’s difficult to fill those
positions, and we’re expe-
riencing that same thing,”
Lynn said. “We’ve had staff
out, difficult to fill-in posi-
tions that are open for a
really long time. So having
the guard here (means)
the staff is getting a little
reprieve. The staff is really
grateful. We’ve had an
exhausted crew.”
Blue Mountain Hospi-
tal District in Grant County
was one of the first places
where the National Guard
was activated after Gov.
Kate Brown’s emergency
HER MISTON — A
Hermiston man required
an emergency flight Sept.
5 after being pinned under
a car in an early-morning
crash.
According to public
safety records, the crash
occurred near Southeast
Sixth Street and East High-
land Avenue when a 2014
Toyota pickup hit a parked
vehicle and rolled onto its
side, trapping a 36-year-old
man.
Tasha Rasco, a Hermis-
ton resident, said she and
her boyfriend were return-
ing home from a trip to
7-Eleven when they saw a
few men running over to
the crashed pickup to try
and push it over. She said
she heard somebody yelling
that a person was trapped
and wasn’t responding.
Rasco and her boyfriend
rushed to help the men try
to push the vehicle over and
free the man. Another man
was standing beside the
pickup covered in blood
and crying, saying that it
was his boyfriend trapped
and unconscious inside the
truck.
“It was ter rifying,”
Rasco said. “I had a bunch
of emotions. I didn’t know
if he was going to be OK.
I felt horrible for every-
body involved and was
just hoping the ambulance
would get there before he
didn’t make it.”
The man outside the
veh icle, R a sc o s a id ,
crawled back through the
window and tried to give
his boyfriend CPR. He then
tried to move his boyfriend
through the top window,
but he was too heavy, so
they couldn’t get him out.
Rasco said she then saw the
trapped man attempt to pull
his pants up.
She thought to herself,
“Oh my God, he’s alive.”
Umatilla County Fire
District 1 responded to the
scene shortly before 4 a.m.
and arrived to find a large
crowd around the wreck-
age, documents show.
The man told firefight-
ers his boyfriend was
trapped and they needed to
help him. According to the
fire district’s documents,
he said they were coming
back from a party in sepa-
rate vehicles when the crash
occurred.
Hermiston police later
identif ied this man as
Parker Steck, a 26-year-
old resident of Snohom-
ish, Washington. Police
determined that Steck was
driving the vehicle and
conducted a blood and alco-
hol test, which showed a
bllod-alcohol level of .14%,
documents show, almost
twice the legal limit of
.08% Police arrested Steck
on counts of driving under
the influence of intoxicants,
reckless driving and endan-
gering another person.
Officials used equipment
to cut the vehicle open and
free the man inside. Emer-
gency medical services
strapped him to a gurney
and treated him before
moving him to a helicopter
that had landed in the park-
ing lot of a nearby Safeway
then f lew him to Kadlec
Regional Medical Center
in Richland, Washington,
documents show.
Rasco said she stayed
up all night searching the
internet and social media
for the man’s family.
She found several phone
numbers online, but they
were all disconnected. She
found their profiles on Face-
book, but she was unable to
get in touch with his family.
Police repor ted the
36 -yea r- old ma n was
released from the hospital
that day.
LOCAL BRIEFING
Alex Wittwer/EO Media Group
National Guard Spc. Pamela Fredrick cuts up portions
of braised beef Tuesday, Sept. 14, 2021, in the kitchen at
Grande Ronde Hospital, La Grande. Fredrick is a recent
graduate of Eastern Oregon University, having earned
her bachelor’s degree in communications. National Guard
members have been activated at a number of hospitals in
Eastern Oregon following a surge of COVID-19 infections
and hospitalizations.
order set in motion a surge
of nearly 1,500 citizen-sol-
diers in support of health
care workers and hospitals.
The first 500 were deployed
near the middle of August,
while the remaining 1,000
were set to be deployed and
activated in the following
weeks.
Grande Ronde Hospi-
tal welcomed 10 National
Guard members on Monday,
Sept. 13, to help support
operations, according to
the hospital. Many of the
recently activated soldiers
were La Grande locals,
including National Guard
Spc. Pamela Fredrick, an
immigrant from Microne-
sia, who recently earned her
degree in communications
at Eastern Oregon Univer-
sity.
“I’m always ready when-
ever we get called in,”
she said. “We were told
beforehand that this might
happen.”
Fredrick, whose job
title in the National Guard
is culinar y specialist,
found herself at home in
the kitchen at the hospital,
working alongside hospital
staff and fellow guardsman
Spc. Jacob Jensen. Upstairs
in the surgical center, Spc.
Renay Monohan, of La
Grande, assisted with the
environmental crew by sani-
tizing and cleaning a proce-
dure room.
I n addition to the
s up p or t t h roug h t he
National Guard, some
hospitals have received
a boost in clinical staff
through various programs,
such as SERV-OR, which
allocate nurses and clini-
cians across the country.
SERV-OR features a
roster of medical workers
such as physicians, nurses
and emergency medical
technicians who signed up
as volunteers to assist health
care centers during the
heightened infection rate of
COVID-19 across the state.
“We have a hero in our
midst,” Lynn said. “We
did get a nurse through the
SERV-OR program who has
been working some shifts
and has a few shifts left
in a volunteer staff. Super
grateful for that amazing
nurse. We also requested
through the OHA processes
for travel nurses. Nursing
staff are expected. We have
a couple starting (Sept. 14)
and expect a few more to
trickle in through the week.”
Additionally, Grande
Ronde Hospital is expected
to bolster their health care
force through a traveling
nurse program, accord-
ing to Mardi Ford, direc-
tor of communications and
marketing at the hospital.
Wallowa Memor ial
Hospital also received two
National Guard members
on Sept. 13 who will serve
as front door screeners,
according to Brooke Pace,
director of communications
and public relations at the
hospital. Additionally, the
hospital is also receiving
support through two addi-
tional nurses staffed through
a program called Favorite
Healthcare Staffing, a trav-
eling nurse program.
9/17-9/23
Cineplex Show Times
Theater seating will adhere to social distancing protocols
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1:30p 4:50p 8:10p
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1:50p 5:10p 8:30p
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1:00p 4:10p 7:30p
Alex Wittwer/EO Media Group
National Guard Spc. Jacob Jensen dices up tomatoes Tues-
day, Sept. 14, 2021, in the kitchen at Grande Ronde Hospital,
La Grande. Jensen, a La Grande local, works as an electrical
engineer. National Guard members have been activated at a
number of hospitals in Eastern Oregon following a surge of
COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations.
Shang-Chi and the
Legend of the Ten Rings
(PG13)
1:10p 4:30p 7:50p
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Pendleton, OR I-84 - Exit 216
COVID-19 death
toll rises in region
PEN DLETON
—
Umat il la Cou nt y ha s
reported five COVID-19
deaths over the past week,
raising its pandemic death
toll to 123. And neighboring
Morrow County on Tuesday,
Sept. 14, reported its 21st
COVID-19 death.
Umatilla County has so
far reported 21 COVID-
19 deaths that occurred in
August, tying the county’s
pandemic record for deaths
reported in a single month,
which was set in July 2020.
The latest disclosure
comes as the county reports
58 new COVID-19 cases.
The county has reported
more than 400 cases for
seven consecutive weeks, a
total that dwarfs all previ-
ous pandemic surges and has
been driven by the highly
infectious delta variant,
health officials say.
Umatilla County’s 119th
victim is a 73-year-old man
who tested positive Aug. 20
and died Aug. 30 at Good
Shepherd Medical Center,
Hermiston. He had unspeci-
fied underlying health condi-
tions, the county reported.
The cou nt y’s 120th
victim is a 86-year-old man
who tested positive Aug. 16
and died Sept. 3 at Provi-
dence St. Mary’s Medical
Center in Walla Walla. He
had unspecified underly-
ing health conditions, the
county reported.
The county’s 121st victim
is a 72-year-old man who
tested positive Aug. 18 and
died Aug. 30 at PeaceHealth
Sacred Heart in Springfield.
County health officials have
yet to determine if he had
underlying health condi-
tions.
The count y’s 122nd
victim is a 56-year-old
woman who tested posi-
tive Aug. 13 and died Sept.
2 at St. Luke’s, Boise. He
had unspecified underlying
health conditions.
The cou nt y’s 123rd
victim is an 83-year-old man
who tested positive Aug. 31
and died Sept. 12 at Good
Shepherd Medical Center,
Hermiston. County health
officials have yet to deter-
mine if he had underlying
health conditions.
Morrow County’s latest
victim is an 80-year-old man
who tested positive Aug. 24
and died Sept. 3 at Good
Shepherd Medical Center,
Hermiston. He had unspeci-
fied underlying health condi-
tions.
The disclosure comes as
the county reported 14 new
COVID-19 cases.
Economic summit
postponed until
June 2022
HERMISTON — The
Eastern Oregon Economic
Summit has been postponed
until June 2022 due to the
continued surge of the delta
variant of COVID-19 and to
facilitate full participation
by attendees, panelists and
speakers.
The new dates are June
16-17, 2022, at Hermiston
High School, with industry
tours scheduled for Thurs-
day, June 16, and Summit
events on Friday, June 17.
“The Economic Summit
is an important opportunity
for our region to showcase
the growth and opportu-
nities we’re experiencing,
and to invite leaders from
around the state to learn
more about what we have
going on and where our
challenges lie,” said Bobby
Levy, president of the East-
ern Oregon Women’s Coali-
tion and Representative of
Oregon House District 58.
“The board and our partners
decided it would be better to
put our full effort into an
event everyone can attend
in 2022.”
The agenda and area
tours will remain the same,
with a focus on water, hous-
ing, forestry and economic
development. Tickets will
automatically be transferred
to the new dates, and more
information will be coming
about hotel reservations
made at the Holiday Inn with
the event code.
The two-day Eastern
Oregon Economic Summit
is an opportunity for private
and public sector leaders
from throughout Oregon
to learn about the growth
and potential of Eastern
Oregon’s economy. Speakers
include industry experts and
state and federal lawmakers.
The Summit features
field and industry tours,
general session speakers,
and breakout panels focused
on federal and state legis-
lative updates, programs,
economic trends, and more.
— EO Media Group
ATTENTION
LET'ER BUS TRANSIT RIDERS AND
PENDLETON ROUND-UP FANS.
The City of Pendleton’s public transportation bus rides will be on a “Round-Up”
schedule for the week of Round-Up, starting Saturday, September 11th and
running through Saturday, September 18th. During Round-Up week, buses will
operate in the afternoons and evenings for the Saturday night concert, Happy
Canyon and other evening events. There will be no morning bus routes.
The routes will focus on runs between hotels, downtown and the Roundup
Grounds. The Round-Up bus route and schedule information will be posted
online at pendleton.or.us/finance/page/transportation
Please remember to “mask up” when riding public transportation.