Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 12, 1992)
BESSIE WETZELL U OF ORE NEWSPAPER LIB EUGENE OR 97403 What goes around comes around Editor's note: A story about Pioneer Memorial Hospital and a very special patient there was recently included in "Uncle Frank's Bedtime Stories", an Adventist Health Systems/West Publication, which is distributed to all the company's hospitals. "Uncle Frank" is Frank Dupper, president of Adventist Health System/West. PMH is under management by the organiza tion. The story was shared with the Gazette by Kevin Erich, PMH administrator. By Sandra Wachter-Van and Sherry Wachter, Adventist Health Systems/West Heppner, Oregon has a population of around 1400, a courthouse, a high school, eight churches, a Morrow County Grain Growers Association, a VOL. 111 NO. 31 26 Pages Wednesday. August 12, 1992 Morrow County Heppner, Oregon Princess Stacie typical ‘girl next door’ tive family is her brother, Casey who is a junior at HHS. Princess St; ( e O'Brien grj ims her horse Happy Isle. a Princess Stacie O’Brien. Hepp ner. of this year’s Morrow Coun ty Fair and Oregon Trail Pro Xodeo is the typical “girl next >ioor” teenager with lots of in terests and activities. She’s also a natural for a court princess since horseback riding has always been her favorite sport. Dressed in every day jeans and T-shirts, Stacie and the other court members are just part of the crowd. But when they are dress ed up in their official outfits, it’s a different story. Their showy, red suede, divided-skirt riding habits transform these young ladies into fashion models spor ting the latest style in western wear. Princess Stacie, the daughter of Burke and Ginger O’Brien will be a senior at Heppner High School this year. She likes basketball, and has been a member of the dance team. With her interest in animals, she has been active in 4-H since the fourth grade, show ing sheep and horses in competi tion. She is also a member of the Heppner FFA chapter. Becoming a court member follows a pattern that started when her mother Ginger Majeske O’Brien was a princess. Her older sister Kristi, who graduated last year, was a court princess in 1988. And rounding out this ac “I like people and I love rodeos,” Stacie says. “So this busy summer attending places like Sisters, The Dalles and Joseph have been very exciting,” she added. Best of all, she says will be the Morrow County rodeo and the PRC A performances that will feature outstanding contestants. For her many court ap pearances. Stacie is riding “Hap py,” a 20 year-old sorrel quarterhorse. True to his name, she says he’s somewhat of a ham when it comes to parade performances. For those quiet moments Stacie enjoys reading and crafts and she also likes to walk for physical fitness. But she is in demand as a babysitter for younger children which she says she enjoys doing. It’s also a way to earn money for school expenses. Princess Stacie has participated in the Wrangler Riding Club ac tivities for as long as she can remember. She’s always ready to grab her boots and saddle up whether it’s for a trail ride or to participate in the playdays at the club grounds. After a fast-paced busy sum mer, Stacie says that the court is looking forward to an action- packed fair and rodeo week that will cap an enriching and rewar ding experience as ambassadors for Morrow County. County eligible for livestock drought relief Morrow County has been ap proved for Emergency Livestock Feed assistance and Emergency haying and Grazing of Conserva tion Reserve Program (CRP) acres. Because of the continued effects of drought on feed sup plies in the county, the Morrow County ASC Committee decided to request emergency assistance for livestock growers at their Ju ly 28 meeting. Hay production, rangeland and mountain pastures in the south end of Morrow County were determined to be 42 percent down this year compared to a normal year, because of drought and lack of snowpack in the mountains. A 40 percent loss is necessary for the county to be approved for the feed program. In addition, each producer applying for benefits must show a 40 percent loss as an individual in order to qualify for the program. Benefits for the pro gram come in the form of a 50 percent cost share for feed purchases. CRP haying and grazing are also approved for producers who need it. The deadline for the cur rent program is Sept. 30, 1992. “Between now and the end of September the feed value of CRP is very minimal due to the ad vanced maturity of the grass.” said Bill Broderick, OSU livestock agent. The ASC com mittee determined that CRP acres should be made available to those livestock producers who need it. The annual rental rate will be reduced according to the amount of CRP acres grazed. Pre-school registration begins Heppner Day Care Pre-school is now registering three and four year-olds for the 1992-93 school year. There is a $5 registration fee and $25 per month for the three year-old class and $10 registration fee and $50 per month for the four year olds. To register your child please call 676-5429 or stop by the Day Care. Registration fees must be paid before school starts. Classes, held at the fairgrounds are Tuesday and Thursday from 8:30 to 11:30 a.m. for the four year-olds and Wednesdays, 9 to 11:30 a m. for the three year-olds. Scholarships are available for lower income families. Kelly Rafferiy gives her dog Skipper a bath. care facility. When the word spread of her condition, hospital employees didn’t waste time wringing their hands or trying to figure out what to do. Instead, they opted for action-and practicality. Within a few days, employees had donated 40 days-eight weeks’ worth-of vacation time to Beth. Virtually all of the staff par ticipated so that she could spend time in Portland with Kelly. In addition, they donated $300 cash to the family. They also decided that Kelly needed a “friend” to keep her company in the city hospital, so they all chipped in to purchase a huge white teddy bear- -one that was as big as the little girl. “There wasn’t an hour of the day that someone at the hospital or nursing home wasn’t praying for Kelly,” says Sheridan Tar- nasky, RN, director of nurses and a lifetime resident of Heppner. Not to be outdone, when residents of the nursing home got wind of the teddy bear project, they began hounding nurses with dollar bills to contribute to the fund. The hospital also arranged for Beth to call the hospital, collect, with regular updates on Kelly’s condition. And Kelly’s parents had strict instructions for hospital switchboard operators. “When community members call asking about Kelly, tell them. We’re waiving all rights to confidentiali ty. If people care enough to call and ask, we want them to know.” In addition, hospital physicians Jeanne and Ed Berretta drove to Portland, using personal and vacation time, to check on Kellv and to provide support to her parents. After three weeks in the Portland hospital, Kelly returned home, where she spent another three weeks recuperating before going back to school. But when she got home, she realized that she needed the hospital employees' help one more time. Her teddy bear still needed a name, so the employees held a contest to select one. The winn ing entry. Snowflake, was sub mitted by a worker in the hospital’s dietary department. His prize? Kelly and Beth baked him a pan of brownies. And now? During her school’s spring vacation this March, Kel ly was once again in her Candy Striper role, wheeling patients around and delivering fresh water to the nursing home patients. What goes around comes around. In Heppner what goes around is a generous helping of good old-fashioned caring. County Fairgrounds, two banks, two grocery stores, and a 44-bed hospital and nursing home, Pioneer Memorial Hospital. Golden brick facades of the stores facing Main Street give way to houses-mostly built between 1880 and 1940-set on small green lawns terraced into the hillsides. Heppner is hot and dry in the summers, and smells of dust and sage and juniper and grain. Most people who live there have lived there for a very long time, and have parents who have lived there before them. It’s a quiet place where things change slowly, if at all. The ranchers and townspeo ple know each other if not per sonally at least by reputation. There are few secrets in Heppner. So. when Beth Rafferty. LPN. a nurse at Pioneer Memorial Hospital, brought her 10-year-old daughter, Kelly, to the emergen cy room on the day after Christmas last year, it wasn’t long until the whole town knew that the little girl was sick-very sick. She was admitted to the hospital with a temperature of 105 degrees, and by the follow- ,Ag morning was beginning to develop huge water blisters all over her body. Doctors at the hospital suspected Stephens Johnson’s Syndrome, a rare but often fatal reaction to medication. In Kelly’s case, the reaction was to dilantin, which she had been taking for about three weeks. The hospital contracted the University of Oregon Health Sciences Center in Portland, and a special pediatric team flew the 200 miles to Heppner. There, they confirmed the Heppner physician’s diagnosis, and flew Kelly back to Portland with them. Within four hours, the desperate ly sick little girl, whose condition had worsened to Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis, was immediately ad mitted to the Emmanuel Medical Center Burn Center with second degree burns. Kelly was literally burning from the inside out. In fact, physicians and nurses there had to remove the skin from 85 percent of her body-an extreme ly painful process. They then L-R: Sherid; r Tarnasky, IVarj Kenny, Kevin Erich completely covered her with pig skin. Doctors at the bum center reported seeing three to tour cases Maij Kenny, R.N., who has general nursing duties at the of Stephens Johnson’s Syndrome been a nurse for 39 years, was hospital. She is advanced cardiac annually, but had never seen a honored for her skill and dedica life support certified and is cer tion at an Oregon Long Term tified as a trauma nurse. “She is case as severe as Kelly’s. Quite Care Nurses Association con a jack of all trades,” commented frankly, they didn’t hold much ference held in June at Eugene. Tamasky. “She’s always there to hope for her survival. Kenny, who received a plaque help out. She really deserved it .” While Heppner may be short for her “excellence in nursing” The nursing excellence award on luxurious amenities, when it attended school at St. Anthony was a surprise to Maij. She at comes to the really important and became a nurse in 1953. She tended the conference with things, such as compassion, prac worked at Pioneer Memorial Sheridan, but when she saw her ticality and a willingness to “get involved.” this little town’s Hospital from 1954 to 1956 and husband and two of her children residents possess a bottomless from 1971 to the present. At one also at the conference she feared supply. At the time of Kelly’s il time she had retired, but came that it was an emergency concer lness. Beth had worked at the back part-time. The part-time job ning a grandson who had been ill. hospital for less than a year and eventually worked into a fulltime She had no idea they were there had accrued very little paid leave. position. She is resident care to see her presentation. Maij was bom in North Dakota Also, Kelly was no stranger to manager for the PMH Nursing in 1932 but grew up in Baker Ci Home, but. says director of hospital employees; she spent last ty. She and her husband Bill have nurses. Sheridan Tamasky, Maij summer volunteering as a Candy seven children and nine also fills in as a rotating call nurse Striper in the hospital’s long-term for emergencies and fills for grandchildren. Marj Kenny receives honor for nursing excellence Bank of EastemOregon HOME LOAN PROGRAM Rates as low as 7.125% I M</</ u ndclll HtthH (hxllt il thilll
