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WILDFIRES
Seasonal crews seek health care coverage By Dan Elliott The Associated Press
DENVER — They work the front lines of the nation’s most explosive wildfires, navigating treacherous terrain, dense walls of smoke and tall curtains of flame. Yet thousands of the nation’s seasonal firefighters have no health insurance for themselves or their families. Many firefighters are now asking to buy into a federal government health plan, largely out of anger over a colleague who was left with a $70,000 hospital bill after his son was born prematurely. Their request has been bolstered by more than 125,000 signatures gathered in an online petition during this year’s historic fire season in the West and the ongoing national debate over health care. “You pray you don’t get sick,” said firefighter John Lauer, a member of the Tatanka Hotshots crew based in Custer, S.D., who recently worked the massive High Park Fire in northern Colorado and started the petition. The fire crews are heroes to those in the path of the flames. Politicians praise their bravery. Grateful residents buy them pizzas and send thank-you cards. “That’s what makes the job great,” Lauer said. “But sometimes I wonder to myself. I wonder if people know we’re uninsured.” Firefighters do get workers’ compensation if they are hurt on the job, but that doesn’t cover them in the offseason. The National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho, which coordinates firefighting efforts nationwide, says 15,000 wildland firefighters are on the federal payroll this year. See Wildfires / A4
BUILDING
First steps with a new heart
Bend to accept plastic for permits By Hillary Borrud The Bulletin
• Gabriel Lawson is not out of danger, with the biggest risk to a transplant patient in the first 30 days, but he is out of the ICU and can look forward to going home
If you want to purchase a building permit in Bend, you need cash: roughly $22,000 for a typical single-family home, according to the Central Oregon Builders Association. That will soon change when the city begins accepting credit cards for these payments, possibly in August or September. The convenience for customers who prefer to use plastic instead of cash or a check will come at a cost, for the city. Bend already accepts credit card payments for municipal court fines and utility bills, and credit card companies charged the city $93,000 in merchant fees during the 2011-2012 budget year, Finance Director Sonia Andrews wrote in an email. The cost for the city to accept credit cards for building permits and other development services is unknown, because the city does not have contracts yet with credit card companies for these services. Before the city begins accepting plastic for development fees, however, there are a couple of questions to be answered, such as how not to lose money. The city collects development impact fees for the separate Bend Park & Recreation District, and city staff has to figure out how to pass along credit card transaction costs to the district. Credit card companies will charge the city a merchant fee that is a percentage of the development fees that people pay with the cards, including the parks development charge. See Building / A5
Anthony Dimaano / For The Bulletin
Melanie Lawson kisses her son, Gabriel Lawson, 11, Monday morning at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital in Palo Alto, Calif. The boy is recovering at the hospital after receiving a heart transplant last week. By Markian Hawryluk The Bulletin
PALO ALTO, Calif. — A week after transplant surgery, Gabriel Lawson took his first few steps with his new heart, and moved from the cardiovascular intensive care unit to the regular cardiac floor at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital. The 11-year-old Bend boy has been in the Palo Alto hospital since late April awaiting a new heart, his old one damaged by a combination of three genetic defects. His recovery last week was slow but steady. He was under heavy sedation and relied on a breathing tube until Friday. But each day, Gabriel’s vital signs improved, as he woke up and started to interact with his parents. “We didn’t see our Gabe until yesterday,” said his father, Seth Lawson. Doctors got word that a donor heart
might be available on July 1, and confirmed it would be a good match for Gabriel. The donor heart is slightly bigger than Gabriel’s heart, but within the parameters that would work. Testing showed that Gabriel and the donor had very similar antibody profiles, a 98 percent match. The doctors told the family at about 10 a.m., dispatched a team to get the heart, and started to prepare Gabriel for the surgery. “For me it was a mixture of excitement, anxiety, fear, everything,” said his mother, Melanie Lawson. “And for Gabriel, he was freaked.” As the day went on, Gabriel went through a range of emotions. “He was very excited,” Melanie said. “He was so happy that he was going to feel better and he gets to go home and get
out of the hospital.” At the same time, he was scared and anxious. “He was afraid that if he went to sleep for the surgery, he would never wake up again,” Melanie said. According to his father, from the time Gabriel learned he needed a transplant, he has struggled with the notion that he would have someone else’s heart inside of him. “He was sad that somebody else had to die,” Melanie said, echoing a concern they all shared. “I felt like I didn’t want to lose Gabriel, but I knew that somebody else was going to lose their child.You can imagine their pain.” Doctors said those feelings are not unusual for transplant patients and their families. See Heart / A4
“Why would you want that information when we don’t have anything we can do for you? That is the fundamental question that has caused people to pause.”
Undersea mining: A test changes the game in cancer prognosis a gold rush in the deep — Dr. Keith Flaherty, melanoma researcher
This is the third and final part of a New York Times series about new approaches to fighting cancer. Parts 1 and 2 appeared Sunday and Monday on Page A1. By Gina Kolata New York Times News Service
In May 2011, Cassandra Caton, an 18-year-old with honeycolored hair and the soft features of a child, suddenly went
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Cassandra Caton’s right eye is marked with a “yes” prior to being removed. A new genetic test told Caton how high her chance was to recover with treatment and time.
blind in her right eye. Five months later, an ophthalmologist noticed something disturbing. A large growth in the back of her eye had ripped her retina, destroying her vision. He sent her to Washington University in St. Louis, a three-hour drive from her sparsely furnished apartment in the working-class town of Sedalia, Mo. See Cancer / A5
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Vol. 109, No. 192, 38 pages, 7 sections
INDEX Business Classified Comics
E1-4 G1-4 B4-5
Community B1-6 Crosswords B5, G2 Editorials
C4
Local News C1-6 Obituaries C5 Sports D1-6
By William J. Broad
New York Times News Service
Tom Dettweiler makes his living miles down. He helped find the Titanic. After that, his teams located a lost submarine heavy with gold. In all, he has cast light on dozens of vanished ships. Dettweiler has now turned from recovering lost treasures to prospecting for natural ones that litter the seabed: craggy deposits rich
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Mostly sunny High 90, Low 54 Page C6
in gold and silver, copper and cobalt, lead and zinc. A new understanding of marine geology has led to the discovery of hundreds of these unexpected ore bodies, known as massive sulfides because of their sulfurous nature. These finds are fueling a gold rush as nations, companies and entrepreneurs race to stake claims. See Mining / A4
TOP NEWS SYRIA: Annan turns to Iran, A3 EGYPT: Parliament showdown, A3