European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - July 8, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse Monday july 8, 1991 the stars and stripes Page 7long haul Boston apr it s 10 29 p.m., and Jonathan Taylor m.d., is Rushing through the new England medical Center caring for patients. Its his third Day on the Job and he has a problem. A a in a lost a he says squinting up at a fluorescent Light in the hallway. Armed with a White coat Stethoscope Beeper and medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania the 27-year-old Calls on All his training and makes a snap decision. A a in la go this Way a he mutters and sprints off. Taylor is one of about 15,000 medical school graduates embarking this week on the tiring and sometimes confusing three year residencies in . Hospitals. It is Likely to be the most demanding time of their professional lives. As first year interns they must survive 100-hour weeks and soak up knowledge to make the transition from student to foot Soldier on the front lines of medical care. What they find is that school does no to always prepare them when a Hospital corridor leads to a dead is studying human illness quite the same As caring for real people in need. As one resident put it a if medical school was Boot Camp then this is the Taylor is a a night Floater a watching Over the patients of other interns while they snatch a few hours sleep. This night he rushes from Ward to Ward juggling the records of 60 patients. Its a Tough shift to Start the year on. There Are Many patients and less supervision than on longer shifts where older doctors work closely with interns. Taylor was in Spain when the Hospital out the years schedule so he got stuck. Under the flickering Light of a to set Taylor draws blood from a 70-year-old woman with a blood clot in her lung. He wraps a rubber Tourniquet around her Arm just above the Elbow. She grips the bed rail bracing for the Needle then cringes when it pricks her skin. Later Taylor checks a 26-year-old cancer patient awaiting a Bone marrow transplant. Her immune sys ins for medical interns first year intern Jonathan from a 70-year-old patient. Taylor draws blood Tern is shot. A sign on her door warns against germs from things like uncooked food and ice. Her temperature is shooting up. And Taylor consults a Superior about what to do. A she could die from the fevers a Taylor says afterwards. A so he told me to Check her White blood count. And we might Start her on another the bad joke amort doctors is that with hospitals full of interns in july Medicine can be dangerous to your health. Critics charge that dazed interns working 36-hour shifts can make potentially lethal mistakes. _ two years ago. New York became the first state to limit intern hours. The action came after the death of a patient at new York Hospital that a grand jury attributed to inadequate care and errors by unsupervised interns. Since then some other hospitals have Cut interns hours. The night Floater shift that Taylor works is an attempt to relieve the older physicians still argue that interns have much to learn and that supervised Marathon shifts Are the Only Way to understand the Vicissitudes of human illness a they done to know their rear ends from their elbows right now a says or. Richard Kopelman a supervising physician at new England medical. A but that will twelve hours into her 36-hour shift at new England medical Andree Phillips a 26-year-old intern in the cardiology Ward scurries into the cafeteria to Wolf Down a pita bread Sandwich a few chocolate Chip cookies a diet Pepsi and an Apple. Between mouthfuls she consults an older physician about a patient. Twice during the meal her Beeper goes off and she races to a phone. Twenty minutes after the meal begins it ends with another beep a i think its hard on your system to work this Many hours a Phillips says. Harder still Are the lessons interns learn about the limits of their profession. Phillips a Montreal native in her fifth Day on the Job has already brushed against those limits. One of her patients is dying. Quot i can to do anything for her a Phillips says. A a it a frustrating when you know what you re supposed to do and it does no to football s Page urges academics Over athletics Miami Beach Fla. Apr football great Alan Page who has urged inner City youth to put academics before athletics received the National education associations highest Honor saturday. The former defensive Linesman for the Minnesota Vikings Between 1967-79 received the a Friend of education award at the near a annual convention in Honor of his work in motivating minority students to stick with their education. A each of us who has benefited from our education especially Black men and women must represent Hope for these children by becoming involved in our schools a Page told 8,100 cheering teacher delegates. Page 45, established the Page education foundation which provides scholarships for graduating minority seniors. In Exchange for the Grant Money students agree to Page inmates May be Given splatter proof meals Angola la. Apr prison inmates at the Louisiana state Penitentiary who throw food at guards May soon be served splatter proof mystery loaves. The proposal is aimed at problem inmates held in a discipline Camp at the prison. Under the plan submitted by state officials to a Federal judge All ingredients in a meal would be mixed together and baked in a loaf. Keith Nordyke an attorney representing inmates in a lawsuit Over prison conditions is willing to give the loaf a Fry. A a the food loaf is not As disgusting to Deal with As wet food and if thrown will Bounce off the Security officer Nordyke wrote in a Legal Brief filed june 14. Nordyke said he tasted a food loaf prepared from the ingredients of a Spaghetti meal. A it tasted like Spaghetti a he said. A it Wasny to Good to look at but it Wasny to bad to Angola Warden John Whitley said the loaves Are a basically the same meal that any inmate in this prison would a the idea is not to make the food bad a Whitley said. A the idea is if you throw food on an officer Weye going to give you something that wont splatter if approved the plan would go into effect 30 Days after inmates receive copies Whitley said. Do Community work As mentors and role models for younger students. Page who has been an assistant attorney general of Minnesota since 1987, said in an interview that he himself was a a Good student at times sometimes but he said his parents stressed education and he pursued academics because he had no idea that he would become a professional athlete. During his address to the Nea convention Page criticized school Choice and a National test two key planks in the Bush administration s school improvement program. Unless All schools Are helped to become better he said a Choice is an empty above All he said his work was aimed at giving Hope a for children who might aspire to become engineers or attorneys or entrepreneurs a not just basketball players or rap stars or Street hustlers or drug Page joins past a Friend of education Honoreen who include former president Johnson retiring supreme court Justice Thurgood Marshall the late teacher astronaut Christa Mcauliffe and last years recipient. Sen. Claiborne Pell . Rape victim sues after parolee charged in repeated attack Oakland Calif. A a 15-year-old girl sued the state and county for Parolino a Man Olio raped her when she was 9 and is charged with kidnapping and sexually attacking her again last month. The negligence suit filed Friday claimed prison officials promised to notify the girls family before releasing Samuel Leon Barnett. Barnett was paroled in april after serving six years of a 12-year sentence for raping the girl. A a it a utterly inexcusable and intolerable in a civilized society that a department of social services and corrections could have been so negligent to have let this dangerous Man out a said the girls attorney Melvin Belli in a statement. Barnett was arrested and charged with 14 counts of penetration with a foreign object forcible Oral copulation and kid napping. The girl told police that Barnett and another Man held her for seven hours and attacked her june 1 j. Barnett pleaded innocent. The other suspect is still at Large. A their failure to protect that Young girl and notify her or her family of his impending release after he had violated her before displays utter incompetence on their part a Belli said. The civil suit seeks $75 million in punitive and general damages for the Oakland girl and her family Belli said. Parole officers and police said the family never a formal request to be notified. The suit named the California department of corrections and the California parole Board and Alameda county As defendants
