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‘NEVER, EVER, EVER HAS ANYONE BEAT THE ODDS THE WAY SHE HAS’
Narrow vote stalls closure debate BY NIKI HOPE REPORTER
nhope@royalcityrecord.com
Enrolment at Hume Park Elementary plummeted this year, and parents from the school are blaming it on the fact that the board of education has targeted the school for closure two years in a row. The back-and-forth debate on whether to keep the small Sapperton-area school open is what prompted parent Sandi Pinkerton to pull her two sons out of Hume and enroll them at Richard McBride Elementary. Shrinking enrolment meant her sons would have been placed together in a Grade 12-3 split. She was concerned about the educational impact of the split. “It is an unacceptable solution,” Pinkerton said. Another blow to the school was the district’s decision to not offer a kindergarten class this year, Pinkerton said. (The district has said only two students registered for kindergarten at the school.) “Once they cut out the kindergarten class, they basically destroyed the school,” she said. Despite having to uproot her kids and her concern over Hume’s closure, Pinkerton ◗Hume Page 9
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Larry Wright/THE RECORD
Happy reunion: H1N1 survivor Alexandra Kroetsch had an emotional reunion with the hospital staff at Royal Columbian Hospital’s intensive care unit, where she spent four months recovering from a near-death experience with the flu last year.
‘I remember bartering with God’ H1N1 survivor returns to RCH to thank staff for saving her life BY NIKI HOPE REPORTER
nhope@royalcityrecord.com
An H1N1 survivor had an emotional reunion in Royal Columbian’s intensive care unit Thursday with the staff who saved her life. Burnaby resident Alexandra Kroetsch and her family visited the hospital to say thank you to the doctors and nurses who cared for her as she clung to life for four months in intensive care. “It’s kind of weird, but I’m happy I was here. I’m thankful everyone was here to help me,” said the 28-year-old flu survivor. Kroetsch shared hugs and tears with the
team of hospital staff who gathered around their former patient. Nurse Yasmin Pickering was among those on hand for the reunion. “I looked after her lots and lots,” Pickering said. “I was here the day she arrived, and the day she left.” It’s remarkable that Kroetsch survived, she said. “Never, ever, ever has anybody beat the odds the way she has,” Pickering said. “She was truly born again.” It was a year ago this month that Kroetsch got sick. Initially, she thought she had a bad cold. A doctor at a walk-in clinic diagnosed her with pneumonia and prescribed antibiotics. But her conditioned worsened. Three days later, she was so sick that her boyfriend said she looked grey, and he called the ambulance. She was admitted to Burnaby Hospital, where the then 27-year-old was diagnosed
with H1N1. She was then taken to Royal Columbian. By that time, Kroetsch’s lungs were already so badly infected that she had to be placed in an induced coma and put on a life-support system. “I do remember lying there and begging for my life … bartering with God,” Kroetsch said about her month in a coma. A few weeks later, tests showed that despite antibiotics and intense respiratory therapy, her left lung and other vital organs were showing signs of potential failure. Surgeons were forced to remove her severely infected lung while she remained in intensive care, as she was too unstable to be moved to an operating room. “The doctor said if they didn’t take out my lung, I’d be dead,” Kroetsch said. ◗H1N1 Page 3
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