Star Tribune from Minneapolis, Minnesota • Page 1

VARIETY A MNNBAPt Ingenuity Americans still trying to build it better VARIETY Transplants Cartilage from cadavers tested for repairing knees OCoa, Triumphant rebel leader enters Chad capital4A Key Soviet replaced 4A Won to ask for probe Police shoot -i. to women and ninoritiesiB MONDAY December 31990 NEWSPAPER OF THE TWI NCI TIE 35 Company and FDA have done little to prevent deaths commissioner to study an increase in questionable deaths in nursing homes was dominated by past and present nursing home officials. Its recent report only briefly mentioned restraints, even though the task force, too, was aware of many strangulations and asphyxiations. Canada more vigilant In Canada, by contrast, local, provincial and federal authorities have expressed major concerns about restraint deaths. For more than a decade, they have been calling for changes in design and use of the devices to reduce the hazards.

safeguards newspaper to be more than 200 each year just in the United States. The FDA is not alone in its failure to act. In Minnesota, neither the nursing homes nor state and local authorities have paid much attention to the problem. Some homes fail to report the deaths to coroners or to the state. Coroners sometimes don't fully investigate reports they do receive, even when the victim is found tangled in restraints.

The state Department of Health has known about many of the restraint deaths, but despite the large numbers has never sounded an alarm. Second in a four-part series Copyright 1990 Star Tribune By Joe Rigert and Maura Lerner Staff Writers For years, the accidental killing of old people by protective restraints has remained one of the darkest secrets in health care. The Posey Co. of California, which developed the devices and dominates the market, knew that people were strangling in its products, but took no blame and was slow to warn of obvious dangers. To this day, in violation of federal rules, it has filed no death reports with the U.S.

medical-device hazards, has received information about 23 deaths, mostly involving products made by Posey's competitors. But it has never sought to uncover more of the problem. If the agency had consulted with the nearby U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, for example, it would have learned of 82 restraint-related deaths reported primarily by state agencies. The commission has done nothing with that information, either.

In its own search of records, the Star Tribune found 33 deaths in Minnesota and more than 200 in the United States and Canada since the 1970s. Those counts are only a fraction of the real total, estimated by the tnai kill Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The FDA, which is supposed to watch for A task force appointed by the state health Restraints continued on page 10A Urafadl Geo sKbh Voters reward leader for his role in calm transformation offers $6 billion to purchase NCR Corp. New York Times New York, N.Y. Trying once again to make itself a powerful force in the computer business, American Telephone and Telegraph Co.

offered Sunday to buy NCR Corp. for $6 billion. That amounts to $90 a share, 60 percent more than the $56.75 NCR that the result in the former East Germany is almost identical to that in the west. This means that in all of Germany we are the ones trusted to take responsibility." Challenger Oskar Lafontaine, 47, the Social Democrat who tried to convince voters that Kohl was lying to them about the cost of unification, went down to a resounding defeat. The Social Democrats collected 33 the support of Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher's middle-of-the-road Free Democrats, who won 1 1 percent, Kohl will lead the same center-right majority coalition that has maintained the German boom economy through even the rocky early stage of reconstructing the former East Germany.

"This is a day of joy," Kohl, 60, said last night. "I am particularly happy percent of the vote, the party's worst showing since 1957. Voters in eastern Germany answered Lafontaine's reluctance to support unification by giving the Social Democrats only 24 percent of their votes. Lafontaine was unrepentant in defeat, repeating his contention that Kohl committed "fraud" by failing to Germany continued on page 8A tional Socialists a plurality 58 years ago, Germans expressed confidence in Kohl's calm management of the historic transformation of Communist East Germany into a Western society. Partial returns and computer projections showed Kohl's Christian Democrats winning 44 percent of the vote, about the same as in the former West Germany's elections in 1987.

With Washington Post Bonn, Germany Germans from both sides of the defunct Iron Curtain Sunday rewarded Helmut Kohl, steward of the smooth, quick route to German unity, by electing him the first chancellor of their reunited country. Voting together for the first time since they gave Adolf Hitler's Na stock traded for on Friday. Great catch, hear tening win Iraqi missile tests rattle gulf nerves; 1 5 hostages free has had several failures in its attempts to become a giant in the computer industry, and some industry analysts estimate that it has lost more than $2 billion in these efforts. It has long been interested in the computer operations of NCR, the nation's fifth-largest computer company, which has a number of operations in the Twin Cities. Although portrayed its offer as friendly at present, NCR appeared not to be treating it as such.

continued on page 6A hammad Ali, the former world heavyweight boxing champion, who secured their release in talks with Hussein. A spokesman for Ali said he planned to return to Baghdad on Christmas Eve to try to bring out more of the hundreds of remaining captives, who were stranded when Iraq invaded small, oil-rich Kuwait on Aug. 2. Also in Amman, Jordanian Foreign Minister Marwan Kassem told Kuwaiti leaders that Jordan favors the total withdrawal of Iraqi troops from the emirate, according to Kuwaiti re-Gulf continued on page 14A From News Services Iraq's army rattled nerves around the Persian Gulf Sunday with the first test of surface-to-surface missiles since the invasion of Kuwait, and Iraqi President Saddam Hussein said the chances of war are "50-50." In Washington, Secretary of State James Baker said the United States would not attack Iraq, provided Iraqi troops withdraw from Kuwait and foreign hostages are freed. Iraq, which has been sporadically releasing captives, let more go yesterday.

Fifteen Americans flew out of Iraq to Amman, Jordan, with Mu i Abducted? Authorities say Pine County boy drowned, but parents disagree Aaron Copland Aaron Copland, hailed as 'dean of American dies swirling water and drowned. The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension didn't dispute the finding. A private detective who reviewed the case agreed. The FBI saw no hint of abduction. But 20 months later authorities haven't found Aaron's body, and Paulette and Steve Anderson have a different theory.

After consulting psychics, they accused a neighbor couple Boy continued on page 8A By Pat Doyle Staff Writer Pine City, Minn. The Snake River was high and swift the day Paulette Anderson said she watched little Aaron playing about 150 feet from the water. It was the last time she was to see her son. Ih the days and weeks that followed, the sheriff concluded that the 22-month-old boy probably wandered to the river's slipped into the Almanac Associated Press North Tarrytown, N.Y. Aaron Copland, 90, the pioneering composer who used folk songs and jazz in writing such classics as "Appalachian Spring," "Rodeo" and "Billy the Kid," died Sunday.

Admired by colleagues as the "dean of American music," Copland was a major force in gaining international recognition for the nation's 20th-century composers. His honors included a Pulitzer Prize, a Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Guggenheim Foundation's first music fellowship and an Oscar. Copland continued on page 6A Monday, December 3, 1 990 337th day; 28 to go this year Sunrise: 7:33. Sunset 4:33 tight snow tapering off this afternoon. High in mid 20s.

Winds 20-35 miles per hour. Gearing and cold Comics 6.7E Obituaries 4B Moviea 4E TV, Radio 8E Complete Indea 2A General Information 673-4000 ClaaahTda 673-7000 Circulation 673-4343 Staff Photo by Brian Peterson Vikings receiver Anthony Carter celebrated in the Green Bay that teammate Carl Lee called the third quarter Sunday at the Metrodome after a "catch of the year." The Vikings beat the Packers spectacular leaping touchdown reception against 23-7 for their fifth straight win. Details, Page 1C. 6 sections Copyright 1 990 Star Tribune Volume IXNumber 243.