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NEW FIRE CHIEF P. 2 EDITORIAL P. 6
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ENDAKO JOB FAIR P. 3 PUZZLE PAGE P. 8
E xpress OMINECA
Publications Mail Contract # 40007840
$1.30 Inc. GST Vol. 37 No. 46
Serving Vanderhoof ● Fort Fraser ● Fraser Lake & Area www.ominecaexpress.com
Wednesday, January 14, 2015
Happy New Year baby 2015
Photo by Dennis Parfitt
BABY: Ailee with her parents Asheena and Hyyt Hilmann. Rebecca Watson Omineca Express Ailee Vivian Betty Hilman was born to Asheena and Hyyt Hilman on Jan. 2 making her Vanderhoof’s first baby of 2015. “I was so very happy. I cried,” Asheena Hilman said, proud mother of her second child. Ailee was delivered by Dr. Makin and Dr. DeVos at St John Hospital at 8:21am at 21 inches weighing nine pounds seven ounces. Mother Asheena lives in Prince George but has kept her family doctor, Dr. Mike Makin, her whole life. “He’s an awesome family doctor and very well informed,” Asheena said. “Anyone who knows him knows he’s a good doctor.” The birth of Ailee was a scheduled cesarean. Dec. 31 or Jan. 2 were the date choices. Asheena went with early in the year since her birthday is in October. Complications with Asheena’s first pregnancy resulted in an un-scheduled cesarean. She was in labour for eight hours dilated only one centimetre and the doctor didn’t want the baby to go into distress. “The first one wasn’t planned, I had to have it,” she said. “This time I didn’t’ want to chance it so I choose to have the cesarean. I was exhausted the first time even being in that little bit of labour. This time was very easy,” Asheena said. Ailee’s parents brought her home four days later to meet her two-and-a-half-year-old sister Mhuiri, which is normal for a cesarean birth. Both Ailee and Mhuiri are irish names since both their parents are from irish decent.
Photo by Rebecca Watson
RAISING FUNDS FOR ECG TREADMILL: April Hughes, Northern Health administrator and Dr. Mike Makin accept a cheque for $10,000 from Bud Pye, president of Vanderhoof and Districts CoOp and Allan Bieganski, CoOp general manager.
Treadmill tests heart temperament Rebecca Watson Omineca Express Cardiac stress testing will soon skip leaps and bounds at St. John hospital in Vanderhoof by means of a medical treadmill. “It will allow us to pick up [even the slightest] damage to the heart and ultimately avoid death,” said April Hughes, health services administrator, Omineca region. The treadmill and accompanying electrocardiography (ECG) technologies are specially designed to monitor cardiac rhythms at a cost of more than $60,000. Although the test themselves
will be free to patients of all ages, special training is needed to give physicians and nurses the proper know-how to run them. A hopeful $40,000 has already been collected to go toward the state-of-the-art equipment, solely supported by local businesses and individuals, along with a $15,000 commitment from the hospital auxiliary. Additional add-ons such as a special table to hold wiring and a resuscitation life pack will also be purchased, but more funding is needed Ms. Hughes said. “The life pack itself is $22,000 but includes a defibrillator that’s portable so if someone has a heart attack while being tested you can save their life,”
Ms. Hughes said. The idea sprung to Dr. Mike Makin last fall and with help of the hospital auxiliary society, orchestrated public and private donations through letters sent out in November 2014. Bud Pye, President of the Vanderhoof and Districts CoOp board of directors, jumped on the idea. “I’ve been though heart problems and the sooner a doctor can look at a person the better,” Mr. Pye said. “This will reduce the waiting because until now people had to go out of town.” This kind of treadmill testing has been offered in Fraser Lake for a number of years but never in Vanderhoof. Continued on page 2
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