Humboldt: Volunteer banquet See A4
2017 1867
Sports: KSHSAA reclassification See B1
The Weekender Saturday, June 17, 2017
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ters Felicitas and Ilennia. “It’s all about serving my country and doing what we can get done in order to keep peace.” Becky typically does the cooking, so when Sam was sent to Salina for culinary training in April, family members couldn’t help but tease him. “He sent a picture of a chocolate pudding
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback signed a bill Thursday that would increase spending on the state’s public schools while chastising lawmakers for what he called their failure to improve the funding system. The new law is designed to meet a court mandate and would phase in a $293 million increase in aid to the state’s 286 school districts over two years. The measure also would establish a new finance formula that would have funded all-day kindergarten classes and increase money for programs designed to help low-performing students. Even in signing the bill, the Republican governor expressed disappointment in its contents. The new funding formula resembles an old per-student formula that GOP lawmakers junked in 2015 in favor of predictable “block grants” for districts. Brownback was a vocal critic of the pre-2015 formula. The conservative governor also has been an advocate of measures designed to help parents who are unhappy with their public schools but cannot afford private
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Sam Aguirre says good-bye to family members as he prepares to leave for training at Fort Hood. Left to right, Kourtenay Sherwood, Ilennia Aguirre, Sam Aguirre, Becky Aguirre, Felicitas Aguirre. COURTESY PHOTO
Family honors deployed dad By SHELLIE SMITLEY
The Iola Register
PIQUA — Master Sergeant Sam Aguirre has been stationed at Fort Hood, Texas, since May 29, preparing for deployment to Kuwait. He will not spend Father’s Day with his wife, Becky, of 15 years and their blended family of six children ranging from 14 to 31 years old. The family
will instead communicate by email, phone and Skype for the next 11 months. Becky gets teary-eyed when she thinks about past wars and the soldiers who were limited to communicating by postal service. “We have it so good,” Becky said. “Some of those soldiers were in places where they could not be contacted.” As a civilian, Sam works as a federal
technician for the 891st Battalion in Iola. In layman terms, he is an auto mechanic. This is the third time he has been deployed during the 31 years he has served in the Army National Guard Reserves. The first two times, in 2004 and 2008, he received orders to deploy to Iraq. This time, Sam volunteered to serve with soldiers from the 635th Brigade of Topeka.
“I was surprised initially,” Becky said of Sam’s decision to volunteer. He elected to change his military application skill from federal technician to cook so that he could serve as part of the Support for Operation Spartan Shield regime. “The reason that I joined was to serve my country,” Sam said during a telephone call initiated by his daugh-
Wilson whips yellow dog plague By BOB JOHNSON The Iola Register
The yellow tint of his eyes was a dead giveaway. Four years ago Kenny Wilson sat down for a meal, but his usually robust appetite wasn’t there. “I told Candace (nee Lanquist, his wife) I didn’t feel good,” he recalled. “‘The flu?’ she asked. ‘I don’t think so,’ I answered.” Their son, Henri, had the key observation. “‘Your eyes are yellow,’ he said. A little later I noticed I had jaundice (yellowing skin),” Wilson said. Wilson had had few bouts with ailments. “It’d been 10 years since I’d seen a doctor; I didn’t even have a doctor.” The next morning Wilson felt fine, although “I still looked horrible.” After dropping Henri off at school — in Parkville, Mo., where the Wilsons had moved to find schools helpful with his Asperger’s — Wilson went to St. Luke’s North Hospital emergency room. Blood and other tests followed. That afternoon the ER doc’s diagnosis hit like a ton of brick. “‘I’m sorry,’ he said,” which caught Wilson off balance. “‘You have complete liver failure,’ he said. ‘You’re not going to make it.’ “I was in shock.” Rather than linger in a hospital bed, Wilson drove home — he still didn’t feel bad physically, although the blunt diagnosis did nothing for his mental state. “Candace was in a panic,”
he said. They agreed it was a good idea to call Don Bodemann — he and the Wilsons were friends at Iola High School; today, Bodemann is a doctor in Hot Springs, Ark. “Don told us to get another opinion and find out what was wrong,” Wilson said. The second opinion was the same: “Liver failure. No hope.”
drinker” — helped any. Between stress at work and other distresses — including a domestic breakup before “Candace and I, friends since high school, got together” — he was in the habit of taking as many as 15 Tylenol a day. His liver failure diagnosis occurred in February 2013. “I
was going downhill steadily” afterward, making the chances of qualifying for a transplant remote. A hospital room often was his home. Standards for a transplant always were on his mind, even though his physical ordeal gave little encouragement. On May 4 his blood pres-
sure tumbled to 70-over-30. He was moved to intensive care. Wilson slipped into a coma. Two weeks later he awoke to find Bodemann, with the good look and bedside manner of Dr. Kildaire, in the room, one of the many times Iola friends and “parents of friends”
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LIVER TRANSPLANTS aren’t uncommon. However, to qualify and to be put in line for a transplant, the patient’s condition must be such that the chances of success and recovery are predictable. Two weeks under hospital care changed nothing. “Really sick” was a refrain Wilson heard too often from doctors; “too sick for a transplant.” Pat Lonergan, who coached Wilson in football at IHS, where he was an all-Southeast Kansas League lineman, would know in a nano-second what Wilson’s reaction was — not about to cower in a corner and give up. Wilson “continued to take my meds” and put up with intravenous lines attached at several places on his body. Reflecting on his life, Wilson said the one he led might not have prompted his liver to play out, but it didn’t help. The six-foot-one Wilson played football at a little over 200 pounds. As occurs with many former athletes put behind a desk — he had put Iola-native Kenny Wilson, with his wife Candace, was diagnosed with liver failure in February on weight; up to 270 pounds. Doubtful if imbibing — 2013. Dr. Don Bodemann, a childhood friend, was one of many who visited Wilson after he though “I wasn’t a hardline slipped into a coma. COURTESY PHOTO
Quote of the day Vol. 119, No. 163
“Without my dad, I wouldn’t be here.” — Maria Sharapova, Russian athlete 75 Cents
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