TUESDAY
S I N C E
FEBRUARY 5, 2013
1 8 9 5 Local curlers off to provincials
Vol. 118, Issue 20
110
$
Page 11
INCLUDING H.S.T.
PROUDLY SERVING THE COMMUNITIES OF ROSSLAND, WARFIELD, TRAIL, MONTROSE, FRUITVALE & SALMO
HEART MONTH
Spotting the signs the first step in prevention City to tackle sewer lines BY SHERI REGNIER Times Staff
For Delfina Ciardullo, ignoring the signs of heart disease could have ended her story by the age of 42. February is more than just a month to celebrate love that comes from the heart; it is also the month to recognize the health of our hearts. The Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada has dubbed February “heart health” month, to bring awareness to, combined with stroke, the leading cause of death in Canada. “I wasn’t feeling well for a while,” recalled Ciardullo. She was fatigued, experiencing shortness of breath and uncharacteristically irritable. “Everything bothered me, even the little things like the kind of coffee I was drinking,” she said. She did have chest pain, but reasoned that it was her stressful job and weight gain. “I didn’t know why, but I knew that I just wasn’t myself.” So, in the fall of 2009, Ciardullo decided to get into shape and began to exercise
SHERI REGNIER PHOTO
Delfina Ciardullo (right) gave a brush-up lesson on filling out receipts to volunteer Marlene Rusnell on Friday. The Heart and Stroke Foundation will have a table set up at Walmart every weekend in February (excluding the 8th and 9th) to accept donations for “Heart Month”. on a treadmill, walk to work, and hike with her husband. She remembers walking up a small incline at the Pend d’Oreille and becoming extremely short of breath. At one point during
RECOGNIZE THE SIGNS Chest discomfort (pressure, squeezing, fullness, pain, burning or heaviness) Radiating pain to other areas of the upper body (neck, jaw, shoulder, arms, back) Shortness of breath Sweating, nausea and light-headedness If experiencing any of those signs: Call 911 Stop all activity and sit or lie down, in whatever position is most comfortable Chew and swallow and aspirin If you take nitroglycerin, take your normal dosage Rest and wait for the ambulance to arrive
that outing, her husband asked if she was having a heart attack, not realizing that such an event was only weeks away. Ciardullo suffered a massive heart attack on Feb. 22, 2010. “The day before it all happened, I was up all night,” she said. “I couldn’t get comfortable standing, sitting or lying down.” The morning of her heart attack, Ciardullo fought through chest pain and made coffee, lunches and drove herself to work as usual. Before her husband left for work, she finally surrendered to his ongoing requests to see a doctor. Ciardullo did see a doctor in a clinic, but
walked out and went back to work. Her state of denial was in full swing as she sat behind her desk. “It was the busiest time of the year in my office,” she said. “I thought I’d follow this up in March when things slow down at work.” However, her coworker could see that something was horribly wrong, and convinced Ciardullo to accept a ride up to the emergency room at Kootenay Boundary Regional Hospital. “It wasn’t until I was in the ICU, hooked up to machines that it finally became real to me,” she said. Ciardullo was quickly transferred
to Kelowna General Hospital (KGH), but it was too late to save 30 per cent of her heart function. A cardiologist at KGH performed an angiogram, which revealed three blocked coronary arteries. “I ignored the signs, and by waiting so long, nothing could be done to reverse the damage.” Heart attacks, officially called myocardial infarctions, typically occur when a blockage forms in one of the coronary arteries, depriving it from blood. Doctors can open the blockage with drugs or catheterization, but the more time that takes, the more heart muscle dies. With no cardiorehab program offered in the Greater Trail area, Ciardullo said that her nine-month recovery at home was difficult. “If it wasn’t for my husband and family by my side, I don’t think I could have done it.” Today, Ciardullo is back to work, but with a new outlook on life. “I don’t ever want to go back to that experience again. Now I arrange my day the way I want it and I walk away when I’ve had enough.” Ciardullo is the number one volunteer for the Heart and Stroke Foundation in the Greater Trail area, said Nancy Liknes, area coordinator for the Kootenays. “I got a second chance at life,” said Ciardullo. “If telling my story can help save others, then I’ll do it.”
BY TIMOTHY SCHAFER Times Staff
Nothing like saving the worst for last. The city is preparing to embark on replacement of the last of the worst documented sanitary sewer pipes in the city this spring. The City of Trail has awarded a $517,000 tender for the work to be done on Binns Street and the alley between Cedar and Bay avenues, putting a full length lining in the sanitary sewer pipes as part of its Trenchless Sanitary Sewer Rehabilitation program. After a 2006 video inspection of the sanitary sewer system in East and West Trail, Sunningdale and Shaver’s Bench, several pipes were identified as category five (worst), said Chris MacIsaac, the city’s utility superintendent, and were red flagged as needing to be replaced. Much of the city’s sanitary sewer system is 60 to 80 years old, said MacIsaac, meaning several kilometres of pipe were in need of replacement. “What we are trying to do is just complete the worst pipes, which are category five and four systems,” he said. “Full on replacement of all (problem) pipes right now would be too costly.” See CITY, Page 3
Bear encounters down last year BY TIMOTHY SCHAFER Times Staff
The 2012 Bear Aware season was slightly quieter overall than previous years in Trail, according to the recent report released by the Rossland Trail Bear Aware committee. The number of problem wildlife occurrence reports (PWOR) in the city rose by one to 124 for 2012, but far below the six-year high of 189 in 2010. And the number of black bears destroyed in the city was down as well, with four bears compared to six in 2011 and 13 in 2010. Sharon Wieder, Rossland Trail Bear Aware community coordinator, said a very wet spring with cooler than normal temperatures affected bear activity. But the common theme of unsecured garbage continued unabated in 2012, she said in her report. “People in both communities are calling more often to report garbage problems such as unsecured dumpsters and residential garbage issues such as outside storage and putting garbage out too early before scheduled pick up.” See GARBAGE, Page 3
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