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Keep Your Baby from Drowning!
Sep 14, 2008 | 9:58 PM PST
Category:
News
A few days ago, one of my dear friends, Colby Knight-- a photographer I had the pleasure of working with years ago as a reporter in Huntsville, Alabama, posted a video on his Facebook page of his 8 month old son Tucker being gently pushed into and under the water by what appeared to be a swim instructor... I was instantly scared and riveted to the computer screen. Little Tucker was let go upside down, and after staying under about 2 seconds, face down-- he flipped himself onto his back and floated to the top-- his little pink face looking calm-- easily breathing in and out. I had ti know more.
I started to research and found that this program was called Infant Swim Resource. Its a class that's been in Florida for decades and only recently has slowly begun to spread to other cities. I REALLY wanted to do a story about it. I discovered that in this area there are only 3 instructors, and they had all only been working for less than a year because the program JUST CAME to this area. I was shocked. I thought, how could an area as affluent as this one-- with parents eager and financially able to put their kids in all sorts of activities NOT know about this and have had access to it for years?
I spoke with a regional director if Infant Swim Resource and she said the doctor who developed the technique just hadn't ever done much marketing. And the program is only here now and available to parents in ths area through the determination of a woman who had suffered horrible personal tragedy. Amy Davis lost her 26 month old son Trevor in 2006. The family was at a neighbors pool party, and Amy says with 10 adults poolside-- somehow her little boy, precious toddler slipped into the pool. After months of mourning she decided to find a constructive outlet for her grief and started the Trevor "Birdie" Davis Water Safety Foundation. The mission was to raise water safety awareness and help keep kids safety. Soon after that she stumbled upon information about Infant Swim Resource and decide to link Trevor's foundation to ISR and begin getting swim coaches in our area certified to teach ISR. The Trevor "Birdie" Davis foundation identifies people who are interested and pays their $15000 tuition to go through ISR training. Amy Davis is the reason we have 3 instructors here now, teaching kids age 6months to 6 years-- how to stay alive if they fall in a pool. A new class to teach more Washington area instructors starts on September 22nd. I am told 3 more people from our area are enrolled to complete the course. That's great news considering the waiting lists to get babies in sometimes have parents waiting for months.
Every year the foundation also hosts a fuindraiser golf tournament. This year's event will be this Friday, September 19th at Reston National. Its already sold out, 144 golfers signed up to play.
If you'd like to learn more log on to Infant Swim Resource:
www.infantswim.com
Wow, oh wow—Sarah Palin's 17 year old daughter Bristol is 5 months pregnant. Wow. Looking back at last week’s video of McCain’s announcement of Palin as a running mate, I see new meaning in the ginormous baby blanket strewn across most of Bristol’s mid section. That poor girl. She must be terrified, and now that its been most publicly revealed-- probably mortified. Lets be honest with each other; no parent wants their 17 year old kid to have a baby. When you have a baby and you first gaze down into its eyes, all you see are phenomenal visions of promising future.
We grown folks know, especially these days, how difficult it is to wade through the waters of life—how stressful it is to make ends meet, and how frustrating it can be to figure out what you want to do with your life and make plenty of money doing it. No one wants to see a child—17 years old having a baby, making it exponentially harder to achieve a bright future… And, if you believe, as I do, in the very Republican ideals of self-reliance—you wouldn’t even want to see a 21 year old with a bachelor’s degree from a respected university pregnant. Because we all know, generally it takes at least 8 – 10 after college to command a salary where you can afford to take care of a child properly. And if that 21 year old wants to go to grad school, well a baby would make it ten times harder to get through. I remember when I finished college, my mother’s only wishes were that I not get pregnant, get a job and go live life and have fun. She knew soon enough I’d be married with a family and I would need those memories of fancy free living on my own to reference as a healthy chapter of my life.
Monday the Palin family released a statement that said in part, “Our beautiful daughter Bristol came to us with news that as parents we knew would make her grow up faster than we had ever planned. We’re proud of Bristol’s decision to have her baby and even prouder to become grandparents. As Bristol faces the responsibilities of adulthood, she knows she has our unconditional love and support.” Its wonderful that Bristol has her family’s love and support. As if this isn’t hard enough for the Palin family, now political strategists are making statements left and right. While Senator Obama has come out with a strong statement affirming that candidates families are “off-limits.” Other Democrats were quick to criticize Palin’s staunch support of abstinence lessons in Alaska schools—to the exclusion of safe sex education. In fact, check out this headline in the San Francisco Chronicle, “Like a Boomerang, Palin’s stance on sex ed coming back to smack her. Meanwhile many conservatives are praising the 17 year old unwed mother and the Palin family. Family Research Council President Tony Perkins said “Bristol is following her mother and father's example of choosing life in the midst of a difficult situation.” And Texas Repulican Paul Bettencourt said, "It just makes the Palin family as human as any other family there is in America.
I surely agree, no matter how tragic, Bristol has the right to keep her baby. But here are my other thoughts in reference to the entire situation: I think this underscores the need to teach teens about sex. If Bristol Palin were a girl from Southeast DC, without a well off middle class family, there’d be slim hope she’d go on to have the chance of escaping poverty with a baby to care for. She’d likely end up on social programs and need tax-payer money to subsidize daycare. That girl in Southeast that I’m describing has little guidance at home to either keep her abstinent or teach her about the safe-sex. And, by getting pregnant, she's likely ruined any shot of leaving Southeast behind for brighter horizons-- while at the same time, bringing another life into the world that will be as economically handicapped as she. I am confident-- 200% confident that Bristol Palin will be just fine. But I am less confident that policies created and enforced by a McCain- Palin administration will do much to help girls like just like Bristol—only from less savory backgrounds. .
Day 1 of Republican Convention Canceled, Except 'Necessary' Activities
McCain puts RNC on hold: 'We need to act as Americans'
ST. PAUL -- “All activities except those that are absolutely necessary” will be canceled on the first day of the Republican National Convention, Sen. John McCain said Sunday.
No evening session will be called and no speakers will offer speeches on Monday night. President Bush and Vice President Cheney had already canceled their Monday night appearances at the convention, and several delegates in Hurricane Gustav-threatened areas canceled as well.
"This is a time when we have to do away with our party politics and we have to act as Americans," McCain said. “We hope to resume some normal activities but frankly that is in the hands of God.”
What is ‘absolutely necessary’ According to Rick Davis, McCain’s campaign manager, the only necessary activities of the convention are its constitution through the gaveling in of the opening session, certification of the Republican National Committee delegates and the nomination of McCain for president and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as vice president.
What do you think? Will this affect the election? And if so how? I would love to hear your thoughts!
Allyson
So how did Catherine get so smart? Mom Sue says nothing special-- she just READ, READ and READ some more to Catherine and her brother when they were young. She started when they were babies.
Catherine Jones parents say they knew she was gifted ever since she was five. It was around that time they recall reading her a Harry Potter book and "she started telling us what was going to happen next and it turned out she had read ahead and knew what the story was going to be. All trhough school Cathering said school has been mosty boring, "I learn things but I learn them incredibly fast. And I kind of either felt like the class is moving too slowly or I wasnt being challenged enough." Last year Catherine took an Iowa Basic Skills test. Her parents say she scored in the 99th percentile and they started looking for a program that could challenge her academically. What they found was the Program for the Exceptionally Gifted or PEG program at Mary Baldwin College in Staunton, Virginia. The program takes gifted girls ages 14 - 17 and enrolls them in Mary Baldwin. The girls attend regular college courses, but live in their own special dorm. In fact Catherine told me when she went to visit campus last week, girls told her they are not segregated from the college age girls in any way. In fact the only way they are identified is when they reveal what dorm they live in. In all about 32 girls will enter the program this year. Catherine took the SAT to complete her admissions requirements and says she scored 1800 out of 2400. Her parents say thats higher that the average SAT score at Langley High School in Fairfax County. Catherine leaves on August 22nd. Her mom, Sue, says she's battled her mixed emotions about the decision all summer, but ultimately feels its the best choice. She says her daughter is mature beyond her years and is excited about getting on the path to become an equine surgeon, a goal she's had since she was about 4. Her dad, Steve, says he doesn't want to think about boys that may come calling. Instead he's focused on the dorm secruity and single sex environment the campus offers. Her brother, Scott, who is also headed to school this fall will only be about 45 minutes away at Virginia Military Institute.
ER visits, wait times up
Aug 6, 2008 | 10:24 PM PST
Category:
News
It'll take longer than ever to see a doctor in an ER. Thats according to the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta. The average time that hospital emergency rooms patients wait to see a doctor has grown from about 38 minutes to almost an hour over the past decade, according to new federal statistics released Wednesday. The increase is due to supply and demand, said Dr. Stephen Pitts, the lead author of the report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "There are more people arriving at the ERs. And there are fewer ERs," said Pitts, an associate professor of emergency medicine at Atlanta's Emory University. Overall, about 119 million visits were made to U.S. emergency rooms in 2006, up from 90 million in 1996 — a 32 percent increase. Meanwhile, the number of hospital emergency departments dropped to fewer than 4,600, from nearly 4,900, according to American Hospital Association statistics. Another reason for crowding is patients who are admitted to the hospital end up waiting in the ER because of the limited number of hospital beds, Pitts added. A shortage of surgical specialists also contributes. So, too, does the difficulty many patients have in getting appointment to doctor's offices — which causes some to turn to emergency departments, experts said. "It takes me a month to get an appointment for my own doctor, and I'm a physician, for God's sake," said Dr. Ricardo Martinez, an Atlanta trauma physician. He is executive vice president of Schumacher Group, an organization that manages about 140 hospital emergency departments. The amount of time a patient waited before seeing a physician in an ER has been rising steadily, from 38 minutes in 1997, to 47 minutes in 2004, to 56 minutes in 2006. Pitts added that 56 minutes may be the average, but it's not typical: The average was skewed to nearly an hour because of some very long waits. "Half of people had waiting times of 31 minutes or less," Pitts noted. "This report is very troubling, because it shows that care is being delayed for everyone, including people in pain and with heart attacks," her statement added. The results are based on a national survey of 362 hospital emergency departments.
Ally's tips:
Last summer I found myself at my wits end. My then 11 year old step-daughter was visiting us from Memphis for the summer. She had fallen while skating around on her heely's (wheeled shoes) and had broken her arm. my husband was at work, her mom was on the phone from Memphis. I rushed her to Holy Cross-- the closest hospital to our home. When we got to the ER door, we hit a line of people waiting to sign in, most of them waiting on english translators. My thoughts: Oh NO! I promptly scoured my brain for what could be the best place to take my wailing step-child... since then, here's what I have learned:
If you need emergency pediatric care, bypass Childrens' National Medical Center and head north to Suburban Hospital in Bethesda. Many people don't realize that Suburban has an excellent, SEPARATE pediatric ER. On late nights when I've had to take my asthmatic 16 month old, you can hear crickets there are so few people there. We were seen by a pediatric staff doctor within 10 minutes!!!
For adults, Sibley Hospital, in my experience, is always a good bet for quick care. Nestled in lovely Palisades DC, Sibley rarely sees more than elderly people with minor injuries and the occassional car accident.
ALSO:
Today I called around to a bunch of local ER's and asked what they're wait time were. Here is what I found out
Washington Hospital Center--
Based on Triage
Childrens Hospital-- Never Called Back
Georgetown Hospital-- Never Called Back
GWU Hospital--Never Called Back
Sibley Hospital--
not able to access information
INOVA Fairfax-- Never Called Back
PG Hospital Center-- Never Called Back
Howard University Hospital--
30 minutes to 1 hour
Holy Cross Hospital--
median door to doc time is 29 minutes
Shady Grove Adventist-- No way to calculate
Suburban Hospital-- Said I called too late to get info
The US Senate on Saturday approved an elaborate housing rescue plan designed to help thousands of homeowners avert foreclosure and bolster mortgage finance giants that have struggled amid a volatile housing market.
But it came as the government shut down two more banks, taking the total to 10 that have been closed in the 18 months since the housing crisis first shuddered through the economy.
The Senate adopted the bill, which provides 300 billion dollars in federal guarantees to help refinance troubled mortgages, by a vote of 72-13, after the House of Representatives passed it on Wednesday.
President George W. Bush had dropped his earlier opposition and promised to sign the bill into law as soon as possible.
Before the vote, senators praised the bill as a product of rare bipartisan cooperation and said the legislation was vital to stem the fallout from a slumping housing sector.
If you want to take advantage-- know the ins and outs of the legislation!!! Here are some helpful links:
All about the housing bill: The Good, The Bad and the ugly:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2051
428/posts
http://www.heritage.org/Research/Economy/up
load/wm_1941.pdf
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=
92971934
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/27/washington/27housin
g.html
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