Red Deer 1913 — 2013 Create Celebrate Commemorate
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CENTRAL ALBERTA’S DAILY NEWSPAPER
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WHITECOURT
Sheriff shot in hand DURING SCUFFLE AT COURTHOUSE; SUSPECTS IN CUSTODY BY THE CANADIAN PRESS WHITECOURT — Three men are in custody after a backroom scuffle in a small-town courthouse ended with a sheriff being shot in the hand and a short-lived escape in the officer’s vehicle. The shooting took place just before noon on Tuesday in Whitecourt, where two local men were making their first court appearance after a drug bust last week. An eyewitness said the disturbance began with what sounded like a fight in a hallway used to transport prisoners. “You could hear behind the door where they keep prisoners to stand trial, you could hear there was a fight happening between whomever,” said Kathlene Campbell-Conlon, a reporter for radio station CFXW, who was in court to cover the appearances. “An officer who was in the court at the time hopped the guardrail and ran behind the door,” she said. “The door shut, you heard more fights, you heard a couple of high-pitched screams, then two, maybe three gunshots.” The impact of the shots, she said, knocked hangings off the wall inside the court. The immediate reaction among those in the room was panic. Everyone was pushing to get out and chairs were being thrown around, said Campbell-Conlon. Once outside, she said bystanders got help for the wounded officer. “You (could) hear people saying, ’You have to call 911! We have to get an ambulance! This officer needs medical attention!’ ” Then she watched the suspects flee. “As I walked toward the sounds of everything that’s happening, I saw a man climb into the passenger side of this sheriff’s van.”
Please see SHOOTING on Page A2
WEDNESDAY, FEB. 27, 2013
Desperate times, desperate measures Photo by JEFF STOKOE/Advocate staff
Bill Welikoklad of Red Deer is travelling to the United States this week to undergo his second hip replacement. BY SUSAN ZIELINSKI ADVOCATE STAFF A Red Deer County senior says severe hip pain is forcing him to go to the United States for hip replacement surgery. Bill Welikoklad, 77, said that in December a doctor was finally convinced he needed surgery, despite his having pain since June. Welikoklad said he was informed it would take four to six months for an appointment with a surgeon and another six months to a year for surgery. Instead of waiting, he opted to call the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Ariz., in mid-January and will be on the operating table on March 6. Welikoklad said it’s terrible that people living in pain should have to wait for surgery. “I think this is disgusting. It should never happen. The amount of pain I have gone through, nobody will ever know,” said Welikoklad on Monday. “I take 12 pills of Tylenol 4 a day and now I’ve also got morphine and I’ve got Percocet.”
The pain still wakes him up in the middle of the night and the pills are wrecking his stomach, he said. Next week, Welikoklad will have his right hip replaced at a cost of about $70,000. In 2010, he had his left hip replaced, also at the Mayo Clinic, after giving up waiting for surgery in Al-
terprise. If you don’t have any private clinics, it will never work.” Once you do finally get in for treatment, the service is good, he said, adding Alberta has to get caught up with the demand. According to Alberta Health Services, currently 90 per cent of those waiting for a hip replacement will have surgery within 35.2 weeks from the date of the decision to treat made by the surgeon. That’s an 11 per cent improvement from last year when 90 per cent of people waited 39.7 weeks. Dr. Jason Werle, co— BILL WELIKOKLAD chair of the hip and knee working group with Alberta. berta’s Bone and Joint Strategic CliniIn Alberta, it would have taken cal Network, said Tuesday that hip 11-and-a-half months just to speak to a replacement is definitely an important surgeon regarding his first hip surgery, surgery for quality of life and patient he said. health and there is a significant backWelikoklad feels bad for people log of people waiting for surgery. who can’t afford to pay to get surgery “There will come a time, we hope, elsewhere. that the wait times will be reduced and Canada’s health-care system isn’t we’ll kind of hit that steady state and working, he said. be able to manage it appropriately,” “What the hell good is it if it’s free if said Werle, who is from Calgary. you can’t use it.” “You’ve got to have some private en- Please see SURGERY on Page A2
‘WHAT THE HELL GOOD IS IT IF IT’S FREE IF YOU CAN’T USE IT.’
Ronald McDonald House marks anniversary BY SUSAN ZIELINSKI ADVOCATE STAFF
Photo by JEFF STOKOE/Advocate staff
Anna-Maria Marten and her two sons, Caide and Tehgan Thacker, share a moment with Nevaeh. The family spent some time at the Ronald McDonald House in Red Deer after Nevaeh was born on November 30th of last year.
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FORECAST ON A2
One year ago today, Central Alberta Ronald McDonald House first welcomed families with sick children. With almost a full house, celebrations will be low-key today compared to last February, when there were public tours, a ribbon-cutting ceremony and speeches to open the 11-suite facility located near Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre. “We’re actually encouraging people in Red Deer and Central Alberta to send in well wishes to the families via social media like Twitter and Facebook. People can send their messages and we’ll read them to the families during dinner,” said Larry Mathieson, executive director of Ronald McDonald House for Southern Alberta and Central Alberta, on Tuesday. During its first year, 212 families from Central Alberta and beyond have lived in the house and another 758 people from the Red Deer area have dropped in for day programs to get a meal, shower, or just a break while
their children were in hospital. “(Ronald McDonald ) Houses tend to be kind of driven by what the closest hospital provides. In Red Deer, about 75 per cent of our families are using a special care nursery or neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). We see a lot of high-risk babies. Essentially you’ll spend literally months at bedside, or incubator-side, in many cases,” Mathieson said. “The other 25 per cent is anything you could imagine that a child would be at Red Deer hospital for.” The average stay is nine or 10 nights, with the longest stay just over 50 nights. The majority of people who stay are from all over Central Alberta. This month occupancy hovered at eight to nine families at the facility located at 5002 39th St. “Kind of a surprising thing for us is we do get the odd family from Calgary or Edmonton. We’ve had a number from Wetaskiwin. Right now we have a family from Fort McMurray.”
Please see HOUSE on Page A2
ALBERTA
BUSINESS
ENERGY REGULATOR CRITICAL OF PLAINS MIDSTREAM
SALES TAX CHORUS GROWS
Alberta’s energy regulator is sharply critical of a company responsible for a massive 2011 oil pipeline spill that fouled land in the northwestern part of the province. A7
The Conference Board of Canada has added its voice to the choir calling on Alberta to implement a provincial sales tax to offset its revenue shortfall. B1