The Wingham Advance-Times, 1983-05-18, Page 1Blyth Bra nob Library
Box 2U i?
Blyth , Ont o NON 1HO
Jan. 4
MYTH
SAVING ITS LIFE—Dr. Walter Wong, with nurses Mrs.
D. McCormick and Mrs. L. Mclnally, prepares to
defibrillate a mock heart attack victim. Local doctors and
nurses recently completed training in advanced cardiac
Ji upporL¢ iCLSI give Ly_a_team ,ofspecialists from
London. In conjunction with basic life support tecn-
niques such as cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR),
this offers heart attack victims a better chance of sur-
•
vival:.
For heart attack victims
Heart saver courses offer
a better chance of survival
Imagine, for a moment,
that while you are at work
one day you feel a tightness
in your chest.
The pressure builds
quickly until it becomes
unbearable and you collapse
to the floor, felled by a heart
attack.
What are your chances of
survival?
If you have to wait for an
ambulance, or for a
colleague to rush you to a
hospital, they are not very
bright.
If, however, you are for-
tunate enough to have some-
one nearby who is trained in
basic cardiac life support
(BCLS) techniques, also
known as CPR (cardio-
pulmonary resuscitation),
who is able to come to your
aid, you stand a chance.
And if this treatment is
backed up by professional
medical personnel who have
been trained in advanced
cardiac life support (ACLS),
your outlook is considerably
brighter.
According to Dr. J. C.
McKim, a member of the
CPR committee at the
Wingham and District
Hospital, "If you drop dead
from a heart attack, your
best chance of survival is to
get BCLS started within four
minutes.
"Your chances improve
dramatically if you can get
to someone trained in ACLS
within 10 minutes.
"If you drop dead and
those two things occur, your
chances of walking out of
hospital are 40 per cent"
That's not just a medical
guess, he added. Those are
actual figures taken from
Seattle, Washington, where
this type of program has
been in effect for a number
of years.
Because a prompt and
effective response is vital to
saving the life of a heart
attack victim, there has been
a strong -thrust in recent
years to train a core of
people in communities
across the country in basic
cardiac life support.
Such courses are offered
not just to emergency per-
sonnel such as police,
'firemen and ambulance
attendants, but to people
from all walks of life. A
BCLS course has been of-
fered on a regular basis at
the Wingham hospital,
training an estimated 400 to
500 people over that past two
years, and it has been made
mandatory for all hospital
staff.
Coupled with this, though
less well known, . is . a
program to train doctors and
nurses in speedy and ef-
ficient response to heart
attacks. Known as ACLS,
this program has been
around for a number of
years, but has generally
been restricted to the larger
centres.
A couple of months ago,
Dr. McKim said, the medical
staff at the Wingham
hospital decided there should
be people on staff with ACLS
qualifications and made
arrangements with Dr.
Corey Ferguson, a specialist
in emergency medicine and
head of Heart -Save London,
to bring group off car-
diologists and anesthetists
and offer the course here.
Seven local doctors and 11
nurses, as well as about a
dozen doctors and nurses
from other hospitals around
the area completed the
Licences available
Optimists will hold
a bike rodeo in town
Members of the Wingham
and District Optimist Club
and the Wingham Police
Department are putting
their energies together for
the biggest and best bike
rodeo in recent memory.
After a poor first year in
1981 and a successful but
very wet day last year, this
year's bike rodeo has been
changed and expanded.
It also has been tied in with
the effort by the town police
to licence bicycles, as a
means of identifying the
vehicles and discouraging
bicycle theft.
The Wingham Town
Council recently gave first
reading to a bylaw that, once
passed, will require the
licencing and registration of
bicycles in town. The
Optimist club has purchased
these licences, at a cost of
$600 for $500 licences, and is
offering to have them af-
fixed, free of charge, during
the two-day bike rodeo.
The rodeo and licencing
will run Saturday, May 28,
and Sunday, May 29, at the
Wingham arena, from 9 a.m.
to 5 p.m. Saturday and 1 to 5
p.m. Sunday. Mothers of
the police department will be
present to handle the
licencing and registration
and to help with the bike
safety program.
This safety program in-
cludes a short written test
for all cyclists as well as an
inspection of the bi4(ycle.
Cyclists then will try their
skills 'in a bicycle safety
course. Points will be
awarded for each aspect of
the program, and prizes and
trophies will go to the win-
ners.
The prizes will include
individual trophies for the
top three cyclists in the
junior and senior divisions,
as well as Optimist and
Coca-Cola ball hats, gym
bags, bike decals and rib-
bons.
Adults are welcome to try
their skills in the safety
program, but will not be
eligible for the prizes.
This two-day event will
give the Optimist club a
chance to prove its motto,
"Friend of Youth", and at
the same time give all local
bicycle owners a chance to
get a licence free of charge
and to test their riding skills,
commented John Chippa,
bike rodeo chairman.
Following an initial period
of free registration, there
will be a fee for the licences.
weekend course.
Really, the course was an
advanced training in the
acute management of heart
attacks and the disrhyth-
mias that occur with heart
attacks, "things that go
wrong that kill people," Dr.
McKim explained.
It also offered training in
management of obstructed
airways and in reading
electrocardiographs.
The last day was a test in
which the doctors and nurses
were run through a mock
disaster with a heart patient.
"They gave you a patient
whose heart had stopped and
why it stopped and what you
did."
He said he was really
impressed with the course,
and feels it is bound to have
improved the ability of local
medical staff to deliver the
proper care fast and ef-
ficiently in cases of heart
attack. •
People shouldn't kid
themselves about the
dangers of heart disease, Dr.
McKim added. Even with the
improvements in the care
and management of heart
attack victims, heart disease
remains the number one
killer, claiming an estimated
60,000 lives each year in
Ontario alone.
Sixty per cent of heart
attack victims die before
they ever reach a hospital,
he said, most within three
hours of the first onset of
symptoms.
One of the problems is the
"It can't happen to me"
attitude most people have
toward heart attack. Most
victims experience some
symptoms which they choose
to deny, rationalizing that,
"I'd feel so silly going to the
hospital if there is nothing
wrong. I'll just wait a
while."
"We try to teach people,
'Wouldn't you rather feel
silly than be dead?'." Dr.
McKim noted. "Or blame it
on your wife; say she sent
you.,,
As with most medical
problems, a gram of
prevention is worth a kilo-
gram of cure, and the CPR
committee has been going
into local schools with a
Heartsaver course that
includes tips on healthy
living as well as one-man
CPR and how to treat a
choking victim.
"This is part of preventive
medieine," he explained.
"That's where medicine is
best."
School board blamed for rise
Town tax increase is held
to five per cent for 1983
Property taxes -in the Town
of Wingham areup by five
per cent this year, under a
budget adopted last week by
the town council.
In dollars and cents, this
will produce a tax increase
of about $50 for a homeowner
whose property is assessed
at $3,500 and who pays into
the public school 'System His
tax bill will be $1,057 in 1983,
up from $1,007 last year.
Separate school sup-
porters escape a little more
lightly, with a talc bill about
five dollars lower for an
equivalent property.
Town councillors, who
approved the budget during
a special meeting to set the
mill rate Friday afternoon,
expressed considerable
satisfaction that the tax
increase has been held to
five -per cent, -,asd took pains
to point out it is the fault of
the school board that taxes
are going up at all.
Although Finance
Chairman Jack Kopas did
not have the figures handy,
following questions from
other members of council he
had Clerk -Treasurer Byron
Adams calculate the in-
creases in spending
requirements by the town
and the schoo4 boards, in
particular the Thi,tutt}.,y.
Board of Edn.
He then..•repbrted that the
school board portions of the
budget are up by about.seven
per cent over last year, while
taxation for the town's own
purposes has declined by
some two per cent. The rate
for Huron Co ty is down "a
miniscule amount", he
reported.
"Just so the person
responsible for increasing
your taxes stands up and
says he's responsible,"
Councillor Tom Miller
commented.
Mr. Kopas credited the
decrease in the general rate
for the town to a combination
of frugal budgeting, a
modest increase in the tax
base and the $64,000 surplus
carried over from last year.
Also helping to balance the
ledger is some $85,000 which
the town expects to receive
from ONIP (the Ontario
Neighborhood Improvement
Program) toward street
work this year.
These factors made it
possible for council not only
to hold down the tax in-
crease, but also to put aside
an additional $21,400 in
reserves, providing a
measure of breathing space
in case of overspending.
The budget is very tight,
and just one or two unex-
pected major expenditures
could have depleted the
previous reserve fund, Mr.
Kopas explained, so the
committee felt that since it
did have "a bit of money to
play with", it would add to
the reserves.
The finance chairman
added that he was very
pleased to announce that the
budget limits all mill rate
increases to five per cent or
less, "consistent with the
will of this council and the
Province of Ontario's
restraint on spending in-
creases to five per cent or
less."
The combined mill rates
for public school supporters
are up by a total of five per
cent, " he noted,while the
combined rates for separate
school supporters are up by
4.4 per cent, due to a lesser
increase by the separate
school board.
Of a total of $1,361,400 to be
raised in taxes this year in
Wingham, $628,000 will go
into the town's coffers for its
own spending. Another
$597,500 will go to the county
school board to pay . for
elementary and high
schools,; 816,900 will go to the
.separatesehooLboard for its,,
elementary schools, and
$119,000 will go to the county
to help pay for roads and
social service programs.
Art Clark, a Huron board
trustee from Wingham,
attended the council meeting
to answer any questions
from council about the
board's budget, but few were
directed his way.
He noted that while overall
spending by the board is up
by about 9.5 per cent,
provincial grants increased
by only five per cent this
year, producing a 15 per cent
increase in the portion of the
budget to be raised locally.
However a surplus from last
year reduced this to about a
10.5 per cent increase in the
municipal levy.
Early deadline
for next issue
The deadline for classified
advertising to appear in next
week's issue of The Advance -
Times is Friday afternoon of
this week, May 20.
The advanced deadline is
required because of the
Monday holiday on May 23.
'41100 -
GRADUATES
IN MEDICINE
Carey D. Purdon, on of Mr.
and Mrs. William A. Purdon
of RR 4, Wingham, graduat-
ed from the University of
Toronto School of Medicine.
He will intern at St. John's,
Nfld. A former student of
USS No. 12, West Wawanosh,
(Fordyce), Brookside Public
School, Ashfield Twp., and
F. E. Madill Secondary
School, Wingham, he also
holds a BSc degree from the
University of Western On-
tario.
GRADUATES
Janene A. Purdon, daughter
of Mr. and Mrs. William A.
Purdon, RR 4, Wingham, has
graduated from the Univer-
sity of Western Ontario with
a Bachelor of Science degree
in physiotherapy and biolo-
gy:- A former student at USS
No. 12, West Wawanosh,
(Fordyce), Brookside Public
School, Ashfield Twp., and
F. E. Madill Secondary
School, where she was an
'Ontario Scholar in 1978, she
has accepted a position in
Drayton Valley, Alberta.
Asked why the board's
budget for wages was up so
much in • spite of the
provincial wage restraints,
Mr. Clark explained that the
wage restraint for teachers
actually does not take effect
until the new contract year
begins this fall.
As a result, instead of
paying a five per cent wage
increase, the board is faced
with continuing to pay the 11-
12 per cent increase the
teachers won last fall for the
first eight months of this
year.
He said the restraint will
' go into effect in September
and run through next
August, and should produce
a saving for the board in next
year's budget.
In its final form, the
budget adopted by council
last week -had_cbangedJ.only
_
slightly from the
preliminary budget ap-
proved earlier. It projects
total spending for the year at
$1,993,000, up about 6.5 per
cent from last year's ex-
penditures of $1,872,430.
After the payments to
school boards and county
•
A. McBurney
is 100 years
Aniline( '.tve hutrney‘ cele
brated his 100th birthday
on Saturday, May 14, at the
Brookhaven Nursing Home,
Wingham.
Friends and relatives from
East Wawanosh, Belgrave,
Wingham, Waterloo and
Michigan were present and
enjoyed a tea in his honor. A
number of gifts and
congratulatory messages
also were received.
Accident causes
$5,000 damage
Two cars were demolished
and a house was slightly
damaged in an accident
which occurred along Vic-
toria Street in Wingham
during the early hours of
Saturday morning.
Police reported that a car
driven by Alexander B.
(Sandy) Thomson of
Wingham was eastbound on
Victoria Street just west of
Josephine Street when it
slammed into a parked car
which traveled ahead and
struck a house.
Both the Thomson vehicle
and the second vehicle,
owned by William Henry of
Wingham, were considered
write-offs, with damage
totaling $4,500. There was an
estimated $500 damage to
the house, belonging to Bill
Wall.
Police reported Mr.
Thomson suffered only
minimal injuries in the
accident.
totaling $733,400, the largest
budget item is roads at
$398,000, up from $322,861,
followed by police, $238,300
($226,389); administration,
$100,800 ($95,659); deben:
tures, $99,100 ($108,943);
recreation, $76,100 ($71,888),
and property, $69,300
($66,005).
The budget also features
an increase in taxes
amounting to $13,200 over the
preliminary forecast, which
has been used to bolster the
reserve fund.
ARMAND McBURNEY, a resident of the Brookhaven
Nursing Home, Wingham, celebrated his 100th birth-
day last Saturday. Friends and family held a small party
to help Mr. McBurney celebrate 100 years of life. The
party was held at the nursing home.
Board introduces
bus safety program
DUBLIN — The Huron -
Perth separate school board
has announced the start of a
new bus safety program for
pre-school children, to be
offered this summer.
The program, to be offered
with the cooperation of OPP
safety officers from
Goderich and Sebringville,
will be introduced com-
mencing June 1.
It will apply to all children
registered for Kindergarten
this September at all of the
board's schools.
In announcing the safety
program, the board noted
that school bus safety is a
concern throughout the
province. It added that an
essential ingredient to the
classes is the participation in
the program by at least one
parent from each family.
The board said it hopes
this program will provide
newly -registered children
with an opportunity to
become familiar with school
buses and be more alert to
signs of danger. it will give
these children a better know-
ledge of bus safety rules and
an opportunity to practise
those rules when they ride
the bus with Mom or Dad.
The program will include
all Kindergarten pupils,
including those from urban
centres who de not usually
ride school buses on a daily
basis but do ride buses for
inter -school activities or
field trips during the year.
A board -owned bus will be
made available to assist the
OPP safety officers in
delivery of the program.
Local RNA elected
national president
Mrs. Verna Steffler, an
RNA at the Wingham and
District Hospital, has been
elected president of the
Canadian Association of
Practical and Nursing
Assistants.
The election took place last
week during the associa-
tion's annual meeting, held
at Niagara Falls.
For the past six years,
Mrs. Steffler has been one of
two appointed directors from
Ontario to the national
association. Over these
years she held the positions
of second and first vice
president.
Over the next two years,
her duties will take her to
such places as Sydney, Nova
Scotia, this October to attend
the Nova Scotia Certified
Nursing Assistant Associa-
tion convention; to Victoria,
British Columbia, in April
1984 and in June of 1985 to
Charlottetown, P.E.I., for
the annual conventions of the
Canadian association.
During the meetings held
in Niagara Falls, the Ontario
Association of Registered
Nursing Assistants also
honored Mrs. Steffler with a
plaque in recognition of her
devotion and achievement
over her nine years of ser-
vice to the Ontario
association as a director and
executive secretary -treas-
urer.
VERNA STEFFI.ER