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To take the edge off...
The poetry fest at the Red Room at the Grill promises good spirits
Get out while you still can! $25 fee for dropping classes starts Monday
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DW SPORTS
friday, august , tucson, arizona No game? No problem.
Since Arizona football has the weekend off, see how they’re spending time PAGE 7
Arizona Daily Wildcat dailywildcat.com
Try to stay out of Police Beat this weekend
Diamond Center intends to help children By Michelle Cohen ARIZONA DAILY WILDCAT When Tucsonan Colin Easom’s 3-year-old daughter was in and out of University Medical Center for four months battling cancer, the stay was less than pleasant. Besides the chemotherapy, which made his daughter throw up, the family had no privacy and little sleep because they were forced to share their room
Pioneer surgeon dies in car crash
with another patient. “I remember one night in the hospital when we were woken at 1 a.m. because someone else was being admitted,” Easom, 39, said.“Private rooms would have been amazing.” This overcrowding at UMC is one of the main reasons for the new Diamond Children’s Medical Center, according to the associate head of the department of pediatrics and chief of pediatric critical care Andreas Theodorou.
The new center will offer 116 private rooms, multiple play rooms, a meditation room and healing garden among other features designed to make hospital stays more comfortable for children and their families. In the less than two months since it opened, the Diamond Children’s Pediatric Emergency Department, has seen a steady growth in the number of children being treated. Children comprise roughly 20
percent of all emergency patients at UMC, according to UMC spokeswoman Katie Riley. The director of pediatric emergency, Dale Woolridge, said the transition to the new children’s emergency center has gone “amazingly well.” “I anticipated this would open, then the information that it opened would disseminate slowly,” he said. “But it was like night and day. It has been
Arizona student who conquered cancer to appear on ‘Today Show’ By Marissa Hopkins ARIZONA DAILY WILDCAT
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Casey Sapio/Arizona Daily Wildcat
Zachary York, creative writing senior, was diagnosed with a brain tumor at the age of 12 and has been in remission for nine years. York will appear on the Today Show Monday to talk about his journey.
SURGEON, page 3
Pi Beta Phi investigated By Michelle Monroe ARIZONA DAILY WILDCAT Pi Beta Phi is under investigation by the UA for alcohol infractions. Samantha Kenter, president of the sorority, informed sorority members of the investigation in an e-mail sent to the Pi Beta Phi Listserv. According to the statement, effective immediately, Pi Beta Phi will
DIAMOND, page 3
Survivor shares story
By Rikki Mitchell ARIZONA DAILY WILDCAT A retired UA College of Medicine surgery professor who performed Tucson’s first kidney transplant died Monday morning after being seriously injured in a car crash, a Utah Highway Patrol spokesman confirmed Thursday. Dr. Charles F. Zukoski III, 83, was taken to University of Utah Hospital in Salt Lake City, Utah, Sunday evening after he lost control of his 2002 Isuzu Rodeo and rolled across two lanes of traffic, said Cameron Roden, a spokesman for Utah Highway Patrol. No other vehicles were involved in the accident. His wife, Elizabeth J. Zukoski, 81, was also hospitalized and was listed in serious condition Wednesday night. Roden could not confirm her condition Thursday evening. Zukoski performed southern Arizona’s first kidney transplant in 1970 at the Southern Arizona Veteran’s Administration Hospital while serving on the faculty at the UA. He joined the UA Department of Surgery as a founding professor in 1969. The College of Medicine was only two years old at the time. John Madden, a close friend of Zukoski, ran the UA Department of Surgical Biology and started working with Zukoski in 1969. “He was a great, great, great, great friend,” he said. According to an announcement sent out by Rainer Gruessner, professor and chairman of the UA Department of Surgery, Zukoski was “instrumental in increasing awareness of the need for more organ donors during the 1980s.” In 1986, Zukoski, along with heart transplant surgeon Jack Copeland, co-authored an Arizona law that requires hospitals to ask families to consider donating organs of deceased patients. This law was designed to increase the number of available donors. “He brought modern surgical procedures here to southern Arizona,”
amazing how readily the community has embraced us so far.” The center is part of a $185 million building expansion project at UMC that will open in stages and is expected to be completed in the spring of 2010. The center is named after the Diamond family who have donated $15 million to
not be participating in any registered or non-registered events, including formal and informal events and fraternity parties, until further notice. Members were asked by Kenter to block all Facebook accounts and to remove all inappropriate pictures from that Web site. “I promise to keep everyone posted with information as soon as I
find out myself,” Kenter told her sorority sisters in the e-mail. “Please remember that everything you do effects (sic) our entire house so do not take this message lightly.” Members at the house had no comment and said they were waiting for word from their president, who was meeting with the dean of students. Kenter could not be reached for comment by press time.
ac York has been in remission for nine years after being diagnosed with a brain tumor at the age of 12. After 17 surgeries and several years of treatment, York will appear Monday on the “Today Show” to share his experiences. York, a creative writing senior, is one of 20 college-aged people featured in the book “Perseverance” by Carolyn Rubenstein . The book is a collection of stories about their journeys surviving childhood cancer. Rubenstein met York when he applied for a scholarship through her foundation, Carolyn’s Compassionate Children, which provides scholarships to cancer survivors who face difficulties in their pursuit of a college education. York said there is not much about his struggle left out of the book. Rubenstein has been working with him and 19 other survivors for the past four years to get their stories for her book. York said he believes the story to be told mostly through his point of view, although he hasn’t seen a copy yet. The book hit shelves Aug. 18, and all proceeds from sales will go to charity, Rubenstein said. Fifty percent will go to her foundation and the other 50 percent will go to the Chordoma Foundation, a non-profit foundation dedicated to research on chordoma, a rare form of cancer that currently has no treatment. Rubenstein became inspired to help children with cancer when she was 13 and volunteered at Camp Sunshine, a summer camp for sick children. She decided to write “Perseverance” because she wanted to share with others the lessons she learned through her work with these children. The book doesn’t focus on the treatments of the survivors it features, but rather their journeys and how they changed their perspectives on life, she said. Each story is different. Some, like York’s, are told mostly through the eyes of the patient, but others include more input from family and friends, Rubenstein said. York said he is flying out Sunday for only 22 hours to appear on the “Today Show”Monday morning. The program ‘TODAY’, page 3
Members of sorority Pi Beta Phi stand outside of their house on bid day Aug. 23 to greet their new sisters. The sorority is currently under investigation by the university for alcohol infractions. Rita Lichamer/ Arizona Daily Wildcat