European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - October 24, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Monday october 24, 1994 . Stars and stripes Page 5. Patient input found to Washington a a woman can lower her Odds of having a Hysterectomy by choosing a younger gynaecologist male or female and then simply Tell ing the doctor she wants to avoid surgery a new study concludes. --.". The study of North Carolina gynaecologists blasts the common Assumption that male doctors Are More Likely to perform the controversial operation and suggests that women have a lot More control Over their treat ment than previously realized. If a woman has any question at All she really ought to be right up front with her concerns said or. Nina Bickell whose study appears in today s american Jour Nal of Public health. That could have a major in  a a. A / critics say Between 25 percent and 50 percent of the 650,000 hysterectomies performed every year in the United states Are unnecessary putting Overall healthy women at risk of serious complications or death. The controversy is fuelled by the great disparity in Hysterectomy rates. In the South 83 hysterectomies Are performed for every 10,000 women is. A rate of 48 per 10,000 in the Northeast but nobody knew How much a woman could influence a doctor s decision about the operation or whether female gynaecologists really believe More hysterectomies Are inappropriate than their male counterparts. A o a  a a \ so Bickell then at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill surveyed 140 North Carolina gynaecologists asking How often they performed hysterectomies and having them rate How appropriate the surgery is in different hypothetical situations. The male gynaecologists performed 60 percent More hysterectomies than their female counterparts. But Bickell scrutinized that data further controlling Tor age. The gender Gap disappeared among recently trained gynaecologists leading her to theorize that Gyne Colby itself became More sensitive to hysterectomies when women began flooding the medical Field in the dearly 1980s., Xiv " v " a the. More recently trained gynaecologists tended to. Believe the uterus contributes More than just a re productive function to women and thus were less Likely to believe surgery was the Best Type of treatment said Bickell now at the new York state health depart ment. V. -. I More important Bickell found the first proof that the patients make a difference in their treatment. When patients objected to a , the doctors immediately changed their ratings of How appropriate the operation was. Again newer gynaecologist s changed their opinions at about the same rate regardless of their sex. Patients tend to be brought up in the United states that you go to the doctor to be told what to do and dutifully comply said or. Joseph Gambone of the University of California at los Angeles. This verifies that if physicians know patients want to be More involved they Are going to pay heed to  in the study doctors said a Hysterectomy for painful fibroid which Are noncancerous uterine growths was appropriate until women objected and then they said the operation was  the same thing happened for bleeding fibroid and cervical Dys Pansin Small cell changes in the cervix that can precede Cervi Cal cancer. Texas Oil cleanup Houston a the coast guard worked against a Strong current sunday to clean up More than a million Gallons of Oil and gasoline that gushed from pipe lines ruptured by floodwaters. One of the nation s busiest ports could re main closed through the week to nearly All traffic while Crews work on the gooey mess. Flooding that began oct. 16 has killed at least 19 people. Rushing water from the swollen san Jacinto River is believed responsible for at least four pipeline break that sent at least 1.2 million Gallons of Gaso line and crude Oil into the River thursday igniting  Blotchy ribbon of Black crude some patches still burning floated from the River Smouth through the Channel and into the Gulf of Mexico. Oil recovery ships worked to suck the Oil into storage tanks and barges with booms and skimmers. I think a week is a Good working figure for Resolution of the Oil spillage. We May be longer in resolving some of the other is sues coast guard capt. Richard Foresaid. It s too Early to predict exactly what Type of problems we Are dealing with and How Long it s going to  the Houston ship Channel is open to some barges during Daylight. Ford Esti mated that businesses along the port of Houston will lose $1 million each Day that Ocean going vessels Are kept out. Oil collecting ships bobbed sunday in 6 Mph currents that slowed their Progress. They re not particularly effective nor Are they designed to be in that Type of cur rent. Ford said. A private Salvage boat worked to raise a Large object possibly an unmanned tug boat reported missing last week sunk in the Channel near the san Jacinto s Mouth. Five . Army corps of engineers ves Sels scanned the Channel and a portion of Galveston Bay with radar and Metal Detec tors for cars Mobile Homes or other Large obstructions possibly carried there by flood water. ,.\rv a leading theory about the pipeline Breaks near where the san Jacinto empties into the Channel is that flood debris crashed into the fuel lines murky Brown floodwater carried tons of sediment that has settled in the 40-foot deep ship Channel reducing the depth in some places to 30 feet. But the Runoff in t expected to affect shipping once the Channel is reopened. Ford said he would t be surprised if All of about 25 Petroleum pipelines running be Neath the san Jacinto sustained structural damage in the floods. All lines in the area known As the spa Ghetti bowl were shut Down after two Colo Nial pipeline co. Lines carrying gasoline an diesel fuel exploded. A Texaco inc. Crude line and a Valero Energy corp. Natural Gas line were later determined to have broke about the same time. Officials on saturday believed a fifth line had broken but on Sun Day said they weren t sure. The coast guard has ordered the pipe lines inspected before allowing them to be reopened. Most flooded Rivers and lakes in the re Gion continued to recede sunday while the Neches Brazos and Trinity Rivers remained above their flood stages Down River. Also on sunday the red Cross opened three More shelters for flood victims in creasing the number to 47 operating in 33 Southeast Texas counties. Nearly 1,100 peo ple Are still housed at the shelters com pared with More than 8,000 last week. Oil washes up along the Banks of Houston s san Jacinto River As ruptured pipeline Burn nearby saturday after at least five lines ruptured in the Wake of flooding. La. Police officer shot dead los Angeles a a police officer who was killed in a shoot out at a Motel saturday was the City s 21st officer killed in the line of duty since 1985. Officer Charles Heim 33, died hours after he and his partner officer Felix f. Pena met an returned gunfire in a seedy Hollywood neighbor Hood. Pena received a minor hand wound. Heim whose wife is four months pregnant with their first child was the City s third officer to die on the Job this year and the 21st since 1985. Heim and Pena met gunfire when they knocked on a door at the Motel in following up a traffic Stop police said. Police evacuated the Motel s 53 rooms and lobbed in tear Gas after the shootout but the gunman fled. North attacks report he ignored drug traffic by the Washington Post Blacksburg a. Republican Senate Nomi Nee Oliver North on saturday denounced As hog Wash a report in the Washington Post that As a White House aide in the mid-1980s he failed to act on tips that drugs were being brought into the United states on a Contra Supply plane. North campaigning in Blacksburg before the Virginia tech Pittsburgh football game dismissed the Post news Story As a futile attempt to derail his candidacy. He said that the report will reinforce those people who want to believe the worst about me. But it will energize those people who feel that i m being mis treated. And i feel i am and i m going to remind  North predicted that in the last Days of this Campaign the Liberal Media will do everything in its Power to see that i m not  but he said the voters Are a whole lot sharper than Many in the Media give them credit  he declined to comment further on the substance of the report. The Post reported in saturday s editions that North received several tips in 1985 and 1986 about drug trafficking on . Government flights to help the nicaraguan contras including information about drugs being brought into the United states. North re corded the information in his personal diary. Although North testified during the Iran Contra hearings in 1987 that he told the drug enforcement administration about the tips an Agency spokesman said Friday that the Dea could find no evidence that North talked to anyone in the Agency about the drug information. P