Livingwell A SPECIAL PUBLICATION CREATED BY REPUBLIC MEDIA CUSTOM PUBLISHING
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HEALTHCARE NEWS YOU CAN USE FOR YOUR WHOLE FAMILY
AUGUST 2014
2 Safety at grandma’s house | 3 School nutrition changes | 4-5 Events & support groups | 6 Safe Havens for babies | 7 Vision care
Red Means Stop Working to eradicate red-light-running
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By Nick Kostenko
he week of Aug. 3–9 is National Stop on Red Week, a cause all too familiar to Glendale resident Frank Hinds. In 1997, a red-light-runner hit a car containing his daughter and her friends; the accident killed 17-year-old Jennifer Hinds. This tragedy happened at lunchtime in front of Ironwood High School in Glendale — a cross commemorating Jennifer was tended for many years at the intersection of 59th Avenue and Sweetwater. After Jennifer’s death, Hinds vowed to work toward ending red-light-running for good. With that in mind, he and a number of other community members started a local coalition known as Red Means Stop. Made up of victims, family members and traffic safety advocates, the mission of Red Means Stop is to reduce the number of motor vehicle crashes that injure or kill drivers, passengers and pedestrians.
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Educating young drivers
The group has established a number of programs geared toward educating young drivers, including sponsoring driver-training scholarships. For example, through a partnership with DrivingMBA schools in Scottsdale and Chandler, the coalition sends 15 to 20 teenage drivers a year to private driving schools they may not have been able to afford to attend. “We focus a lot on young drivers who are just now getting their permits and licenses,” Hinds said. “We have been trying to help these new drivers establish good driving habits so as they get older, they don’t have bad habits that are harder to break.”
Dentists are an important part of your healthcare team
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‘Kids just like them’
Red Means Stop members also travel to high schools to give presentations on safe driving. “We talk to them about real-life issues and things that have happened to us and try to instill in them that these victims are not just numbers and statistics,” Hinds said. “They are real people, young kids just like them who had hopes and dreams — and they lost their lives or they were destroyed by incapacitating injuries.”
Volunteers welcome
The group is always looking for new members to fill openings on its 15-member board, as well as volunteers for events and presentations. In addition, many of the board members and volunteers have been personally touched by a red-light tragedy and can provide support to those struggling emotionally and physically. More info: RedMeansStop.org; 480-305-7900
Daunting statistics
yy In the last decade, red-light-running crashes killed nearly 9,000 people yy An estimated 165,000 people are injured annually by red-light-runners Source: U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration
Story by Debra Gelbart | Photos by Rick D’Elia | Illustration by Thinkstock
arlier this year, Scottsdale resident Ruhi Streets awoke in the middle of the night with intense pain in her mouth. “Every root of every tooth, my lower jaw and my gums hurt,” she said. Streets knew that a dentist friend, Nafys Samandari, D.D.S., opens his office at 7 a.m. every day, so she decided to drive there in hopes of being able to see him without delay. Samandari extracted an infected tooth and performed a root canal on another tooth but Streets felt no relief from her unusual pain. “He said to me, ‘I think something else is going on’,” Streets said. “He made me promise to go to the emergency room or my cardiologist right away.”
Key to good health
“I believe in spending the time and attention necessary to determine a patient’s needs and concerns,” said Samandari, who practices in Scottsdale. With a proper oral examination, he said, a dentist can determine that a patient may have any of a number of medical conditions, including diabetes, liver disease and kidney failure.
Having a heart attack
When Streets arrived at her appointment shortly after noon, cardiologist Scottsdale resident Ruhi Streets (front) is thankful that dentist Dr. Nafys Samandari (rear) Suzanne Sorof, M.D., suspected almost immedi- recognized that her dental symptoms were indicative of a possible heart attack and sent her to see her cardiologist, Dr. Suzanne Sorof. She is grateful to both for saving her life. ately that she was having a heart attack. “If Ruhi had gone home from her Another example of the intertwining of dental dentist appointment and not sought further and overall health is seen in pregnancy, said medical attention, she would have died that Denise Mills, D.D.S, a clinical assistant professor at night,” said Sorof, who practices in Mesa. the Dental Institute at Midwestern University in “I had no idea that the problem was with my Glendale. She said that periodontal (gum) disease heart,” Streets said. Today, Streets is feeling good in a pregnant woman can lead to low birth weight and is grateful that two healthcare providers — of her baby because the same blood supply that a dentist and a cardiologist — saved her life. ORAL HEALTH, continued on page 5
a-z H E A LT H C A R E N E W S B R I E F S Level 1 Trauma Center opens at West Valley Hospital in Goodyear
Dr. Christopher Salvino, West Valley Hospital’s Trauma Medical Director (far right) watches during one of the mock drills leading up to the opening of West Valley Hospital’s Level 1 Trauma Center. | Abrazo Health
Located in Goodyear, West Valley Hospital, part of Abrazo Health, recently earned a state designation as a Level 1 Trauma Center, the highest status attainable. The first Level 1 Trauma Center in the West Valley, the Center offers 24-hour emergency care and advanced treatment options for a variety of traumatic injuries. The designation comes after extensive preparation including a $26 million expansion project that added two trauma operating suites, two trauma resuscitation bays and 32 new private patient rooms. To prepare for opening, more than 70 mock drills were executed 24 hours a day for 17 continuous days. More info: AbrazoHealth.com