Regular readers of our editorial page may have noticed how often, during the last few weeks, we have been ‘lucky’ in anticipating the news. Sometime by 24 hours, sometimes by weeks. Awhile back I did an editorial on the hazards of a Winnipeg hospital where accidents were oc- - curring, wrong medication being given during the few days I was visiting my son, who had just had a kidney transplant a month earlier. Of the seven who underwent kidney tran- splants at that time, three are dead, two others have rejected and had the transplnt removed, another has been lost track of, and my son remains 3 months after the transplant, fighting rejection on a day to day basis, w ile driving to the hospital every two or three days for checkup. His incision has suffered infection; his surgeon says his donor kidney is 30 per cent damaged, but_. Pa with luck, could last up to four years. — = When, after a phone call from Bill describing the death, that day, of a young girl who had had a transplant the same time he had, in which hospital staffclaimed her death was brought about from a “dirty needle” that led to a form of hepatitis she lacked resistance to overcome, I called the surgeon to ask what the prognosis was, for Bill. , ‘The doctor was quite cheerful. ‘‘We have done 93 kidney transplants over the past three years, with only 5 fatalities. Wehave comea lon way,” he said, “and have one of the best records in the country.” When I suggested that three of that five had occurred in the last two months, that only one out of the seven operations had been at all successful, his cheerfulness, although now more studied, didn’t seem to leave him. “Oh yes, of course,” he explained, “but of those three - two were high-risk diabetics.” Nowhere (of course) was there any suggestion . that the hospital was to blame. No mention, either, that they had ignored a Medical Alert bracelet warning that the girl was allergic to penicillin, causing her to break out in “hives’’ from head to toe before she died. The reluctance of hospital officials or medical staff to ever admit to the public that mistakes are made - not infrequently resulting in the death of a patient, is why I am so pleasantly astounded Sterling Sale In Limbo From the Vancouver Province Rumors that Vancouver - based Sterling Newspapers Ltd. is for sale were denied Thur- sday by Sterling president David Radler. When asked if the company had retained the _in- vestment firm of Greenshields Inc. to solicit offers, Radler said ‘there is no truth to that directly.” - eeeey 7 we a “There is no deal or imminent deal. We are no closer to anything than we were a few months ago.” oe said there have been “lots of people” in- terested in acquiring Sterling, admitting that “things have gotten heavier lately.” Sterling own 17 B.C. weekly newspapers and one in Prince Edward Island and has 11 printing plants. It was founded by Radler and Conrad Black, who recently won control of Argus Corp., the giant Toronto holding: company. Reprinted trom the Prince Rupert Daily News HOUSTON, B.C. - On the long run from Prince Rupert to Houston, around 374 kilometres, the traveller can see everything B.C. has to offer. The ocean, fish boats, seaplanes, freighters and a tidewater terminal for a trans-continental railway at the Pacific-Prince Rupert is the starting point. Out of the city quickly to pick up the swirling waters of the Skeena and to follow that great waterway until it turns north to search for its birthplace northward, while you push east, your target Houston and a bed for the night. But, before you get there, Highway 16, the Yellowhead Route, leads a merry dance across mountain ranges as spectacular as any seen at Banff or Jasper; across valleys so vast that the great cities of the world could be swallowed by them and lost; across ranchland and farmland and seemingly en- dless reaches of timber, For 80 or 96 kilometres out of Rupert, the road leaves a lot to be desired. Alongside the existing high- way, closer to the Skeena, a new road is being built. Until it’s ready, the motorist must take the bumps and holes on that always hazardous narrow ribbon linking the north with the sea. But once past Terrace, Highway 16 improves its TERRACE/KITIMAT daily herald Genera| Office - 615-6357 Circulation - 635-6357 Published by Sterling Publishers PUBLISHER - Laurie Mallett EDITOR - Ernie Sentor REPORTER - Donna Vailieres REPORTER - Jim Morrls CIRCULATION Pat CIRCULATION Joyce KITIMAT OFFICE - 632-2747 Zalinskl Fish 632-2747 635-6357 Published every weekday at 3212 Kalum Street, Terrace, B.C. A member of Varifled Circulation. Authorized as second class mail. Registratlon number 1201. Postage paid In cash, return postage guaranteed. NOTE OF COPYRIGHT The Herald retains full, complete and sole copyright in any advertisement produced and.or any editorial or photographic content published in the Herald. Reproduciion is not permitted without the written permission of the Publisher. that an initial investigation at Vancouver General Hospital has turned up the ‘‘possibility”’ «« tha. inadequate supervision was involved in the violent deaths of at least three patients in troubled Vancouver General Hospital this summer” - according to Friday’s Province. “Hospital sources,” the paper went on to say, disclosed the three cases and the coroner's office confirmed its investigations of them. The cases are described as (1) a multiple sclerosis patient who disembowelled himself with a razor, a cancer patient who suffered fatal burns, - and an epileptic who drowned in a _ bath.” Even the chairman of the hospital’s quality of care committee, Dr. R.E. Robins is quoted as -saying, “the medical staff has remained aloof too long and it’s time we actively pursued this’ situation.”’ . . “We have become increasingly concerned over suggestions IN THE PRESS that there has been a decrease in care at the hospital ...” Coroner Glen McDonald is quoted’ as criticizing Health Minister Bob McClelland and doctors for unsatisfactory conditions at VGH, saying, “I can't understand why McClelland has not gone in there with a big stick and done the job that has to be done to look after the sick. “We will take care of the dead, but let’s look after the sick first.” The news coming over the radio Saturday morning was that B.C.’s Health Minister has, finally, done just that. For, if I heard correctly, Bob McClelland has stepped in and taken over the hospital (Van- couver General) from the administration of the Hospitals Can Be Hazardous To hospital board and placed it directly under the provincial Department of Health. Major shakeups are now assured. Enquiries appear underway into every aspect of hospital care. One report indicated 181 additional nurses will be -hired at once, at an additional annual cost of. ‘close to 2 million dollars to alleviate staff shortage. oo Like Vancouver Coroner Glen McDonald, this editor finds it disgraceful that, in situations such as this too often ‘doctors are always the last to speak out.” . “There has been a lot of printers ink stung at the VGH. This is pretty upsetting to the kind of persons about to undergo surgery. They feel, perhaps the hospital or doctors are letting them down... The last medium these people have for the full story is the coroner’s court.” Were the three deaths genuine cases of neglect? Were they just the figment of some yellow journalist’s typewriter? ‘The three patients died during the current dispute at VGH with its continuing resignations of nurses who claim patients are not receiving proper care.” says the Vancouver newspapers. Surely that sentence speaks for itself. A senior hospital official, much closer to Kitimat and Terrace than Vancouver, told this editor, recently, few persons realize that one out of every 12 major operations is “‘unsuccessful”’. Another - a hospital administrator, told me of an instance where he had felt compelled to transfer his wife from one hospital to another, because. the quality of care was dangerously low, and he feared for her safety, a ran ie : iy rl 5 “That's one less mosquito to bother us tonight!” Kitimat, Terrace, Prince Rupert and Yellowhead 16 Seen Through the Eyes of Victoria Colonist’s Jim Hume image, the springs on the Pinto get an easier ride and the driver's spine settles once more into normal position. Three years ago, Terrace was virtually declared a disaster area in B.C. Unemployment was rife, in- dustry was moving out, the town was on the-skids. NDP and Social Credit cabinet ministers, plus Skeena ’- MP Iona Campagnolo, paid a lot of attention to Terrace in those days. The message was always the same. “Times are lough, but hang in there.” It would be wrong to describe Terrace today as a boom town. But it wouldn't be wrong to describe it as a community which has suddenly become -supremely confident. In the middle of a Friday afternoon a curbside stop for coffee brings friendly help from a storekeeper. People smile easily and when youask them how things are going they list a series of new buildings, which have gone up or are going up, and projects planned. You ask them what happened to that sinking feeling of afew years ago and they shrug, grin: “I don’t know, but it’s starting to took good again.” One or two pessimists think the current revival in Terrace won't last. They are forecasting another valley not far away. Bui the optimists, many of whom slugged it out the last time things looked bad, don’t share those fears even though they can’t articulate adequately when asked why they are so confident. Just down the road, 17.6kilometres tobe precise and on the way to Kitimat, there’s a different and depressing story. At roadside, close to Lakelse, sits the hot springs resort, a place of happy memories for thousands of British Columbians and with Bob Strachan among its many fans. . _ Ttstill lives, but as a mere shadow of its former self. There is an air of dilapidation and decay about the place. It looks, outside and inside, like the set for a South American plantation movie. . It still operates, and Jate on Friday afternoon there are a couple of dozen people savoring the warm waters, As mentioned in an earlier piece, the last time I was here was with Strachan in 1966, It sparkled then, echoed with life and laughter. Today, the gravel driveway is dusty and dirty. There is a difference. [ can savor the Is in the private resort if] wish. The cost? $18for the rent of ‘'a day room"? in which to change and dry off. I move on, ickly, Not because of the cost, but because of the epression. This is the hot spring Cyril Shelford has been trying to persuade the government to buy, spruce_up and operate as a resort. He has the support of Terrace and Kitimat, but not of the Social Credit cabinet, The cabinet says that if the resort can be operated successfully, then it should be operated by a private company. It does not offer the same argument at Radium Hot Springs in Mines Minister James . Chabot’s riding in the Columbia River Valley. It is a government project and a proud one at that, Maybe Lakelse Hot Springs should be. Operated not at a profit but at break-even so that the taxpayer need not subsidize it but could profit from a gift from nature. © ” Just across the parking lot from the commercial effort there are the public baths. Fenced with con- ‘ centration camp wire, they stand empty, rusty and almost as rundown as their commercial neighbor. The sign on the gate reads ‘Closed for the Season’. Hot baths in hot weather are obviously socially unac- ceptable at Lakelse. And the word is that the ‘‘Season” is now close to two years long. Back on the highway a thin smoke haze hangs in every mountain valley, but other than helicopters scurrying back and forth, there is no other sign of an “out of control”, forest fire. It is another reminder of the vastness of this province. Back there somewhere 7,000 acres of forest are burning. At the Kitimat- Highway 16 intersection you have to look to the hills carefully to decide whether you see wispy smoke or summer heat haze. . Smithers, a few years ago, was even more depressed than Terrace. Today it sports a brand new shopping plaza anchored on one end by Safeway, the other by The Bay. Neither company is known for in- vesting dollars unwisely. Two items to note as we pass through, still hurrying east: Why was Smithers (and dozens of other highway communilies for that matter) allowed the develop- ment of an industrial strip alongside the highway? It's a question I fear will never be answered. Here, in a land covered with trees, it remains a mystery why new town (or developing towns) must cut down the trees to show off ugly welding shops, body repair shops and the like. A screen of trees then the development, seems beyond their thinking. ° The second point, and maybe it’s tied in with the first, is that Smithers is reporting a slight downtrend in tourism so far. this year. Everybody else is up (except the outskirts of Prince George); Smithers Is down. Maybe they should transplant some trees and hide their highway scar. Telkwa lies about 28.8 kilometres east of Smithers and after that small village flashes past there is nothing, nothing but the breathtaking Hazelton Mountains and the magnificent sweep of ihe Bulkley Valley, until the “vacancy" sign of the Houston Midway Inn, beckons in the evening air. \ or i Ith, it is But don't take our word for it. Heal , rightly said, is “everybody's business ty! What can the average layman do? enty’ For one dollar a year he can become a ean of the loca! hospital association which en itles him to attend meetings and vote. Members hip allows him a say in many vital matters per- ining to its operation. Geta copy. of the annual hospital report, Read it, It won't tell him much - so he shout as questions about those things it does no ey Demand to know the success rate of operations. Compare those figures to the Canadian average. This will (or should) give some idea of 1e comparative quality of care the hospital 1s dering. ‘ rind out how many die in hospital - and what they died from. Avoid getting carried away by trivia, The number of times the linens are changed is nowhere nearly as important as whether the orderlies, nurses and doctors are able to understand English, or are familiar wit Canadian hospital procedures. Find out (if he can) the incidence of cross-infection - that is, patients catching diseases from other patients. Make it a point to visit the different areas of the hospital, - visit friends in hospital (with their rmission, of course.) Usually they will look forward to visits - ask them if they are ex- riencing any problems of lack of care, bungling, and having difficulty in’ com- municating with staff. Hospital are not intended to be luxury hotels. They are, however, intended to be (at a cost to the taxpayer of $150 to $200 per day per bed) institutions of healing to which the sick and in- jured and, pregnant may 0, with confidence, knowing they will receive the best of treatment that medical science has to offer; that they will suffer no needless pain and that, if they are terminally ill, their last days on earth will made as easy as possible, for them, by properly trained, concerned and sensitive human beings. POLITICS AND PEOPLE By Joe Public EDITOR'S NOTE ..Over the next few weeks, the Herald hopes to in- troduce a number of local columns to these pages, of which “Politics and People” is among the first. The writers will not all be professionals, but they will have a Kitimat-Terrace grasp and background of what interests readers, since they are readers, themselves. .. Sometimes, what they write will not be everybody's “eup of tea”’ - but those who disagree will be given the opportunity to air their disagreement and viewpoint in a. our LETTERS column, ..We are still looking for news and sports stringers and part time reporters and photographers for the Kitimat district. This is a new column exclusive. to the Daily Herald - Its purpose is to air the tricks our policitians at all levels try to lead we poor, misguided Canadians East and West, North or South who seem to have lost the will to expect great things for a great nation if it was led pr- perly. One winters day at Prince Rupert airport.a very haughty cabinet minister took a real slide as she hit the deck outside the terminal building. It looked very neat to watch the “fall of the great” and the slide reflected, 1. The slide of popularity of our government, 2. The slide of our poor dollar. 3. The slide of Canada as a nation into a bi-lingual abyss. , For some weeks now we've been told the US dollar has slipped to its lowest level since World War II. Then we are told the Canadian Dollar has slipped to 87.78 cents U.S. If the U.S. dollar has slipped to 38 cents below what it was 3 months ago, surely the Canadian dollar has slipped by the same 38 cents U.S. Why did Trudeau NOT talk about this and WHY have all economic in- dicators not been heeded even blindly to avert _the crisis. Ten years ago Mr. Trudeau took | power in Canada and it cost 8 billion dollars to ‘run Canada. Mr. Trudeau said he wants to get tough on the economy: he is going to cut 2 billion off an anticipated budget of 60 billion dollars, cut back to zero growth in the civil service. Surely after an increase of 42 billion dollars in 10 years even a fool could see where we are headed besides he is touted as a most astute and in- telligent prime minister our country has been blessed or afflicted with, Surely the boy wonder Joe Who could not do worse for even a boy could see that its too late short of massive doses of common sense the average Canadian housewife could administer pretty quickly if she could only get the opportunity. Have you stood in a grocery lineup recently? It is sad that for the past ten years we have had the country almost torn apart with language; culture; with words like French, Indian, Anglos, ethnics, being more popular than jobs, economy, unemployment? We have a government more interested in change to a republic rather than a dominion which we are. Oh yes we will be a bi-lingual republic so screwed up that it will make the banana Republic of Canada look sillier than Idi Amin’s Uganda (and who said Idi Amin was sick?) Surely its only in a matter of degree as is the sickness. We could sure use all those wasted millions now to create jobs or prop up our ailing dollar. Like the cabinet ministers fall she came down on her end, What I wonder is are we almost there too? Incidently last election Trudeau pledged zero growth for the civil service. Last years figure was a mere 15 percent increase. He pledged to wrestle inflation to the ground, not the Canadian people. Like the schoolboy of. old, Pierre should pick up his marbles and go home in spades. Remember buy the Herald and hear now a group of U.S. major banks are in the red. No wonder the U.S. dollar is slipping, more next week it could affect you dramatically Sincerely Joe Public.