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