TENNIS
U.S. Open B4
LICENSED TO THRILL Fifty years on, 007 still puts on a stylish show C5
CENTRAL ALBERTA’S DAILY NEWSPAPER
BREAKING NEWS ONLINE AT WWW.REDDEERADVOCATE.COM
WEDNESDAY, AUG. 29, 2012
SYLVAN LAKE
Tragic care gap HUSBAND WOULD HAVE SURVIVED HEART ATTACK IF TOWN HAD AN URGENT CARE CENTRE: WIDOW BY SUSAN ZIELINSKI ADVOCATE STAFF
Photo by RANDY FIEDLER/Advocate staff
Annie Boychuk, left, and her mother-in-law Karen believe their husband and son Brent, who died of a heart attack 10 days ago, would be alive today if Sylvan Lake had an urgent care centre.
A Sylvan Lake widow says her late husband may have survived his heart attack 10 days ago if their community had an urgent care centre — or even better, a hospital. At about 4 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 18, Brent Boychuk, ANNIE BOYCHUK’S 49, was at home when he felt LETTER A2 heat in his chest and asked their daughter to take him to a local doctors’ clinic. They arrived to find it closed. Then he asked her to drive him to his doctor’s office, which also turned out to be closed. “They both got out of the truck, found the doors were locked, and that’s where Brent collapsed and that’s where my daughter called 911 and proceeded to do CPR on her dad until paramedics got there,” said his wife Annie Boychuk on Tuesday. When she arrived on the scene, the paramedics were already there. Her husband did not regain consciousness. “I did everything I could. I spoke to him. I begged him to come back.” Boychuk said her husband would have had a great chance of survival if there was an urgent care centre. “If it had been available, he would have walked into that clinic and told them he had chest pains, and they would have done whatever they could. “I know he was alive for about 10 minutes looking for help.” Her husband was on heart medication, but he didn’t think his condition was critical or that it required an ambulance, she said. Better than an urgent care centre would be a hospital in Sylvan Lake, she said. “We’re 10,000 people plus. I don’t want to see an emergency facility. I just want to see a hospital here. We need one. That’s what I’m going to try and fight for.”
Please see CARE on Page A2
Lake water Rancher demands answer Sylvan level at historic high for hole in elk fence BY PAUL COWLEY ADVOCATE STAFF
warrant after allegedly trying to run down some Mounties, was in the area. RCMP officers from at least two Central Alberta detachments attempted to catch a suspect, who was in a stolen car. But the man fled and then abandoned the vehicle when it became stuck. The suspect — it’s unknown whether he was Legge — managed to escape. The elk rancher said she didn’t receive any notice in her mailbox from police to explain the damaged fencing. “I want somebody to take responsibility,” said Reitsma, who lives with her husband off Aspelund Road near Woody Nook Road. “It’s a little bit shocking,” she said, adding that whoever created the holes and broke 3.5-metre-tall fence posts left them over the weekend, knowing that 60 elk could escape.
Sylvan Lake’s water levels are at a historic high but the cause remains elusive, suggests a report. The assessment commissioned by the province notes there has been a trend to higher water levels since the 1960s. “It is not clear if any particular event occurred that is causing the lake levels to steadily increase over the past 50 years,” says the report, which went to Sylvan Lake town council on Monday. Rainfall measurements show a decreasing trend, so that is unlikely the cause. Lake levels peaked on Aug. 11, 2011, at 937.31 metres, the highest level reached since records began in 1918. Levels dropped slightly this year to 937.17 metres. The high water levels in 2011 are believed to have been caused by a cool, wet spring that reduced evaporation (evaporation is responsible for an estimated 90 to 95 per cent of water loss). Groundwater in the spring-fed lake is also a significant factor.
Please see FENCE on Page A2
Please see LAKE on Page A3
HIGH-SPEED CHASE LED TO PROPERTY DAMAGE BY LANA MICHELIN ADVOCATE STAFF A shocked Gladys Reitsma returned from holidays to discover vehicle-sized holes punched into heavywire elk fencing on her property. At least one escaped bull elk needed rounding up on her ranch, which is about halfway between Red Deer and Sylvan Lake. And the rest of the bulls and cows were now mixing together, in rutting season. Reitsma and her husband learned from a neighbour Monday morning that a police chase involving about a dozen RCMP cruisers and the emergency response team late on Friday night led to their property damage. They also learned that another landowner, living about a kilometre west, had a “highway” cut through his wheat field that same night. Police received a tip that “armed and dangerous” suspect Ian Legge, who’s wanted on a Canada-wide
PLEASE RECYCLE
WEATHER
INDEX
60% chance of showers.
Four sections Alberta . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A3 Business. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C3,C4 Canada . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A5 Classified . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . D1-D6 Comics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C6 Entertainment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C5 Sports. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B4-B6
FORECAST ON A2
CANADA
BUSINESS
OTTAWA WANTS NEW HOTEL OPTION TO CUT CELL SERVICE COMING TO RED DEER Lampard is confident there’s a need TO SMUGGLED PHONES Toby for long-term hotel accommodation in Red Criminals who run their operations from behind bars using mobile devices could soon be left searching for cell service. A5
Deer. In fact, his company is betting $12 million on it. C3