Thursday January 19, 2012 (Vol. 37 No. 6)
V O I C E
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W H I T E
R O C K
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Kiwi coach: A backpacking trip to Australia yielded a few surprises for Mike Sommer – a new career path and a chance to coach New Zealand’s national junior hockey team. see page 27
Lessons to be learned from mother’s death: Kathy Jonah
‘There has to be some accountability’ Tracy Holmes Staff Reporter
A Langley woman whose mother died in November after contracting an E. coli infection at a South Surrey seniors’ facility hopes lessons can be learned from a tragedy she says should never have happened. “There has to be some accountability,” said Kathy Jonah. “Things need to be changed.” Madeline Jonah, 80, died Nov. 30 at Royal Columbian Hospital (RCH), after falling ill at Kiwanis Park Place two weeks before. She was one of three residents who tested positive for the bacteria, and the only one
who later died. after confronting Kiwanis and pubFraser Health officials told Peace lic health officials with information Arch News in December that the test she received from another Kiwanis results showing E. coli were reported resident. to the authority Nov. 21, and linked It was during a hastily called famto Kiwanis Park Place by way of vicily meeting at RCH that afternoon tim addresses three days later. It was – Nov. 29 – that a doctor confirmed her mother had contracted E. coli believed the trio were exposed at one of two group meals served between 0157:H7, she said. “I made him repeat it four times,” Nov. 8 and 14. Madeline Jonah Kathy said she only learned about she said, noting that until that point, the bacteria’s role in her mother’s officials described it as “an undisillness and hospitalization the day before she closed infection.” died – more than two weeks later – and only Last week, Kathy received a copy of the dis-
charge summary confirming the infection. Fraser Health spokesman Roy Thorpe-Dorward said by email Friday that patient confidentiality prevents the health authority from confirming the cause of death. Such information is only released if there is “a related threat to public health that makes it necessary to publicize private patient information. “Since the food service establishment is closed and there were no further cases identified, there is no risk to public health and no reason to release COD,” he writes. He noted the source of the E. coli “is strongly see page 5
Neighbours upset over ‘surprise’ proposal
Alley plan opposed Dan Ferguson Staff Reporter
Dan Ferguson photo
From the second floor of her new home, Juliane Khadra overlooks the location of a proposed back alley that she and her husband oppose.
Eight months after Steven and Juliane Khadra moved into their brand-new home with their two sons in the 17300block of 1A Avenue, they learned the City of Surrey was considering an application to build an alley behind them. A builder wants permission to construct a row of two-storey coach houses along the alley, facing the narrow backyard of the Khadra home. It was an unpleasant surprise for Steven Khadra, who says when he checked the city zoning plans for the neighbourhood before he bought, there was no hint of an alley in the works. It was also a surprise to his neighbours, he says. So the Khadras and 28 other homeowners signed a petition against the proposal. “Everybody is vehemently against it,” Khadra told Peace Arch News. According to a city staff report, the new houses will fit in with the character of the other homes in the area, a brand-new neighbourhood still being built a few metres away from the Canada - U.S. border in South Surrey. But Khadra dismissed the assertion. “They’re building smaller houses on smaller lots that are very different from see page 4
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