Lawrence Journal-World 10-31-11

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Afflictions test her, but she ‘wins every time’

Increasing train use cited as good reason to buy depot ———

City officials still pondering details of possible takeover of ownership from railroad By Chad Lawhorn clawhorn@ljworld.com

Nick Krug/Journal-World Photo

AMYLYNNE “AL” BELLFI, A RESIDENT OF THE NEWLY OPENED MEADOWLARK ESTATES, laughs Thursday with Phalyn Batalia, front, a personal caregiver and friend, and Mary Sledge, a housekeeper at the retirement community. “I don’t make friends; I make family,” said Bellfi, who has a rare form of asthma and has been partially immobile and reliant on a wheelchair since her early 20s.

Optimism, laughter have been key for resident with rare form of asthma By Aaron Couch acouch@ljworld.com

AmyLynne Bellfi was 23 when her lungs stopped working. She had a rare form of asthma made much worse when a doctor gave her aspirin, a drug she wasn’t supposed to have. It ravaged her lung capacity. The few steps to the bathroom became a hike. The walk to the mailbox became unthinkable. Steroid treatments eventually got her lungs working again, but led to a host of complications that left her without mobility.

And she had sons, an infant and a 3-year-old, who needed care. She and her husband, Dennis, did what they could to make it work. They outfitted their bedroom with everything she and the boys would need while he was out working as a state trooper. They padded the sharp corners of her water bed so the boys wouldn’t hurt themselves. Her sons would grow up, go to school and leave that room. But AmyLynne was stuck. She would spend most of the next

Some stayed for a few days, others for more than a year. “My husband likes to say I collect broken people. But I think we’re all kind of puzzles waiting for all of the pieces,” she said. “There’s nothing that is going to hurt me by taking the time to listen.” A few years ago, AmyAn extended family Lynne came across two AmyLynne says she doesn’t strangers in a truck stop make friends; she makes fam- bathroom. It was a mother ily. and daughter having the type She and her husband have of argument only mothers opened their home to numbers Please see LAUGHTER, page 2A of friends who needed one.

20 years in spots much like that: areas measuring 10 feet by 10 feet. “It’s a conundrum of afflictions that test me, but I win every time,” she says, putting up her fists like a prize fighter. “I say, ‘Okay sepsis, what do you got? Come on.’”

The number of people using Lawrence’s Amtrak depot is on the rise, according to new numbers. But whether the prospect of the city buying the east Lawrence building is headed in the same direction is still an open question. Members of a grassroots group who are urging city leaders to take over ownership of the Santa Fe Depot at Seventh and New Jersey streets are pointing to new numbers that show Amtrak Ridership at the ridership at the station Lawrence depot soared well above the national average dur- increased by 26 ing the past 12 months. percent during “Word is getting out fiscal year 2011, that Lawrence’s depot is no longer consid- which ended in ered the ‘Stephen King September, acstation,’” said Carey cording to numbers Maynard-Moody, a from Amtrak. The leader of the Depot Redux group. “Now Lawrence increase that we have caretak- was well above the ers for the depot, it is 5.1 percent increase not a scary place.” Ridership at the in overall Amtrak Lawrence depot in- ridership nationwide. creased by 26 percent during fiscal year 2011, which ended in September, according to numbers from Amtrak. The Lawrence increase was well above the 5.1 percent increase in overall Amtrak ridership nationwide. Lawrence’s numbers also outpaced the ridership gains made on the Southwest Chief, the lone Amtrak route that travels through Lawrence. The Please see DEPOT, page 2A

With strained resources, KU ‘barely keeping up’ with doctor demand By Scott Rothschild srothschild@ljworld.com

TOPEKA — As the need for more doctors increases, the Kansas University School of Medicine has expanded to produce more physicians, especially for underserved areas. But more needs to be done, said Barbara Atkinson, executive vice chancellor of the KU Medical Center and executive dean of the School of

Medicine. “We are barely keeping up,” Atkinson said. “We would like to see the addition of more stuAtkinson dents to our class.” Rural legislators express sympathy. “We are losing so many of our doctors who have been there for years and

are retiring,” said Sen. Ruth Teichman, R-Stafford. But producing more doctors will require more money, and that may be difficult given Gov. Sam Brownback’s desire to build budget reserves and cut both taxes and spending. Brownback also has recently added reducing the state’s debt to his budget priorities. In recent years, the KU School of Medicine, based in Kansas City, Kan., has

opened a new campus in Salina and expanded its school in Wichita. Much of this has been financed with private donations and tuition. Prior to 2011, each incoming class had 175 students, all of whom completed their first and second years at the main campus at Kansas City, Kan. For the third and fourth

years of training, 55 would go to the Wichita campus. But through expansion, this year’s incoming class is 191 students with eight first-year students in Salina and eight in Wichita. Starting next school year, the incoming class will consist of 211 students: 175 in Kansas City, 28 in Wichita and eight in Salina. The Salina campus is the smallest four-year medical education site in the country, and KU officials hope that it will be-

come a model for producing rural doctors. With the number of qualified applicants KU receives, Atkinson said the university could have taken 100 more medical students this year if it had the resources. But funding problems are on the horizon. A medical school loan program that has produced doctors for rural areas needs Please see DOCTORS, page 2A

Volunteer: Helping at hospice ‘a very special thing’

By Micki Chestnut

BETTY SHAFFER, a volunteer with the Visiting Nurses hospice program, is the United Way Roger Hill Volunteer Center volunteer of the month for October. Shaffer has happily given more than 500 hours to the program and says the work is its own reward.

and their families with a vari-

Often, when you tell people you work or volunteer ety of needs. Some volunteers Like most people, Betty for hospice, they say, ‘Oh, I couldn’t do that!’ You’d be provide services like haircuts Shaffer had never thought surprised that it’s not that hard. It’s just life, really.” or massages for patients. Othabout what it would be like to die. Then she had a health crisis. Coming face to face with her own mortality unearthed in Shaffer a passion to help others facing end-of-life issues. For the past 18 years, Shaffer has volunteered for the Visiting Nurses hospice program, giving more than 500 hours of care and compassion to patients and their families as they walk through their final days together. Shaffer’s long-term dedication to the hospice program in-

— Betty Shaffer, a volunteer for Visiting Nurses hospice program spired Sarah Rooney, hospice volunteer coordinator with Visiting Nurses, to nominate her for the United Way Roger Hill Volunteer Center’s 2010 Wallace Galluzzi Outstanding Volunteer Award. Through the years, Shaffer has served as a hospice patient companion, spending time with patients so their caregivers can get a much-

Classified Comics Deaths Dilbert

4B-10B 9A 2A 10A

Events listings Horoscope Movies Opinion

10A, 2B 9B 5A 8A

Poll Puzzles Sports Television

Low: 40

Today’s forecast, page 10A

Please see HOSPICE, page 2A

INSIDE

Delightful

High: 66

needed break. She’s created life reviews, collecting patients’ stories to be preserved for future generations. And now she makes bereavement calls, checking in on family members to see how they are managing after the loss of their loved ones. Shaffer is one of 40 hospice volunteers who use their unique talents to help patients

ers help with house and yard work. Some come just to hang out, offering a breath of fresh air for people who are shut in. “We have seasoned volunteers who have experienced loss and have a passion for end-of-life issues; we have KU student volunteers who can be exceptional at connecting with patients,” Rooney explained. “We have quiet and serious volunteers and energetic and humorous volunteers. It really takes all kinds. However,

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Mike Yoder/Journal-World Photo

COMING TUESDAY A gallery of photos featuring local Halloween fun.

Vol.153/No.304 36 pages

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