EASTER ACTIVITIES FOR KIDS AROUND GRANT COUNTY
PAGE A7
The
Blue Mountain
EAGLE
Grant County’s newspaper since 1868
W EDNESDAY , A PRIL 12, 2017
• N O . 15
• 20 P AGES
• $1.00
www.MyEagleNews.com
Prairie City resident remains in critical
condition after fi re destroys home
Waits hospitalized for complications from smoke inhalation
By Rylan Boggs
Blue Mountain Eagle
A mobile home in Prairie City was
destroyed by a fi re early Sunday morning.
The Prairie City Fire Department was
on scene with two fire engines within
minutes of receiving the call just after
8 a.m., but the structure was deemed a
total loss by Fire Chief Marvin Rynear-
son.
Eula Waits, the homeowner, was trans-
ported to St. Charles Medical Center in Bend
for respiratory complications stemming
from smoke inhalation, Rynearson said. She
remains in critical condition as of Tuesday
afternoon, according to the hospital.
After making initial contact, the Prairie
City department requested assistance from
John Day, and another fi re engine was dis-
patched.
The scene is currently ribboned off and
under guard to keep people off the proper-
ty due to fears it may be unsafe, Rynearson
said.
Disaster
responders
with
the
American Red Cross Cascades Re-
gion responded to the home Sunday
evening.
The fi re affected two adults and three
children, and the Red Cross provided re-
sources to help address the immediate basic
needs of those affected, such as temporary
housing, food, clothing, comfort kits, infor-
mation about recovery services and health
and mental health services, according to a
press release.
Contributed photo/Trever Hamsher
Rynearson said the cause of the fi re is
A mobile home burns in Prairie City Sunday, April 9.
still under investigation.
AN INSIDE LOOK
STEM students learn about
health care, careers
By Rylan Boggs
Blue Mountain Eagle
T
hird- and fourth-grad-
ers from Humbolt
Elementary got the
chance to see the in-
ner workings of Blue
Mountain Hospital and learn
about health care last week.
Forty kids learned about the
different departments and posi-
tions in the hospital and how each
department works in conjunction
with the others as part of the OSU
Extension offi ce STEM — sci-
ence, technology, engineering
and math — program Friday.
Some of the students’ favorites
were the ambulance, emergency
room and information technology
departments.
Ambulance staff answered
questions, told students what qual-
ifi cations were needed to work as
ambulance staff and gave them a
tour of the inside of an ambulance.
The staff work two-day shifts
and have four days off. During
those two days they are constant-
ly on call and live at the hospital.
See LOOK, Page A10
John Nehl raises his hand to ask
ambulance staff a question.
Eagle photos
Rylan Boggs
Hannah
Vaughan
covers her
mouth as
Josh Zigler,
left, tells
students
about blood
work at Blue
Mountain
Hospital
Friday, April 7.
Also pictured
are Logan
Randleas
and Hailey
Mecham.
Grant County midwife’s license revoked
Dress accused of falsifying birth certificates, practicing without a license in Washington
By Sean Hart
Blue Mountain Eagle
Grant County midwife
Sherry Dress’ license has been
revoked for misconduct, but
she claims she has done noth-
ing that cannot be explained.
Dress, 69, was accused of
falsifying birth certifi cates
and submitting a fraudulent
Medicaid claim. Her Oregon
direct-entry midwifery li-
cense, which expired in Sep-
tember 2015, was revoked.
She recently reached a
settlement to repay $20,000
to the Department of Human
Services for Medicaid over-
payments.
Dress is
also awaiting
trial in Wash-
ington
on
new charges
of practicing
midwifery
Sherry
without a li-
Dress
cense — after
pleading guilty to the same in
May 2016, after being issued
a cease-and-desist order by
the state in 2013.
Dress said she simply
could not afford to contin-
ue fi ghting the Oregon cases
but plans to plead her case
in court in Washington. She
said she did not break the
Washington law because she
offered her services for free,
accepting only “gratuitous”
reimbursements for expenses,
as a Christian ministry.
“I’m a very passionate,
loving person, and this is what
I do,” she said. “I love deliv-
ering babies, and I love taking
care of people. As a loving
Christian woman, I believe
that God called me to do this.”
Oregon license revocation
Oregon’s Board of Direct
Entry Midwifery accused
Dress of falsifying fi ve birth
certifi cates between May
2014 and May 2015. For
each, Dress certifi ed the chil-
dren were born at her Canyon
City residence, when they
were born in Pasco or Walla
Walla, Washington. Dress told
the Eagle she did list Oregon
as the birthplace for Washing-
ton births under “special cir-
cumstances.”
In one of the fi ve cases,
she said, the mother planned
to drive to Grant County so
Dress could bill an Oregon
insurance provider for the ser-
vices, which she could only
do for births in Oregon. How-
ever, the baby came before the
mother made it to Oregon, so
Dress said she listed Oregon
so she could still submit the
bill.
Dress said, in her profes-
sional experience, the exact
place of birth is not always
listed on a birth certifi cate.
When she worked as a reg-
istered nurse in California in
1971, she said, the hospital
was often listed as the birth-
place, even for babies born in
ambulances, vehicles, aban-
doned buildings or other plac-
es without addresses at the
Mexican border, because an
address was required.
She also said, for two
of the fi ve cases for babies
born in June 2014, the clients
contacted her in December
2014, requesting that she help
See REVOKED, Page A10