The Burlington Free Press from Burlington, Vermont • Page 15

tjr farltwjton Deaths 2B Court Roundup 4B Thursday, April 28, 1983 Transplant Patient Taking Heart About Progress 7 get a little tired if I do too much or if my blood pressure goes up, but I try to get some exercise every day. By TED TEDFORD Froe Press Staff Wrilr Heart transplant patient Dana O'Donnell of Bradford has improved so much he and his wife, Peggy, may return in a month from California to their Bradford home. "I'm feeling a little better each day," said the 26-year-old Vermonter in a telephone interview Wednesday from his his apartment in Mountain View, about six miles from Stanford University Medical Center. O'Donnell received a heart transplant at the center Feb. 22 after undergoing a battery of tests to determine if the operation had a chance of success.

Hospitalized for a month, he said he has been on special medication to battle rejection of the heart and is rebuilding muscles by walking and using an ex- ford physicians to accept him as a prospective transplant patient, and spearheaded the fund drive. When O'Donnell's story was first published in the Bradford Journal Opinion, a weekly newspaper, the drive rapidly exceeded Lyon's expectations. The money has been placed in an account at the Woodsville Guaranty Savings Bank for anyone in the area who may need an organ transplant. O'Donnnell said a federal grant to the Stanford University Medical Center covered the costs of the transplant operation and 80 percent of his pre-operation costs were covered by Medicare. He said he believes hospital costs since the operation also will be covered.

"We're getting along fine," O'Donnell said. "We may- be back home in about a month or six weeks." that also works against rejection. He has undergone two biopsies at the medical center since receiving the new heart, O'Donnell said, because of indications his body was rejecting' it. Doctors run a catheter through the jugular vein down into the heart and take a miniscule snip of muscle to examine. O'Donnell said he is given a local anesthesia so there was no pain.

His wife said he has improved so rapidly "he really doesn't need me to take care of him. He just did 6 miles on his exercise bike." O'Donnell said he and his wife are getting along well on their savings and have not had to ask for any of the more than $40,000 raised in Bradford and several towns in New Hampshire. O'Donnell's doctor, Laurel Lyons of Woodsville, N.H., arranged with Stan Dana O'Donnell ercise cycle in his apartment. "I get a little tired if I do too much or if my blood pressure goes up, but I try to get some exercise every day," he said. O'Donnell is the first Vermonter to undergo a heart transplant.

He was stricken with a viral infection five years ago that weakened his heart muscle. He said he agreed to the heart transplant after learning of a new drug that fights the body's rejection of new organs. Before the surgery he was put on prednisone, a steroid, to- prepare his body for the operation. Since the new heart was implanted he has needed that drug as well as a cyclosporine, a drug i Gear Hands Out Choice Positions To Sanders Allies t- 's U' h. rr--t v.

a. i -It Cl- Free Pmi Photo by JYM WILSON 7 tried to be as fair with them as I Allen Gear needed to override a mayor's budget recommendation. One Republican, recently elected Alderman Diane Gallagher, R-Ward 6, said she asked to have her name taken out of consideration for the Ordinance or Salary committee posts. "Basically, I asked that my name be withdrawn from consideration for the major committees so the Citizens Party members could fill them," Gallagher said. She said she declined a Salary Committee post in favor of Breiner.

Although the Finance Board, which controls fiscal matters, has no aldermanic Sanders backers, the mayor and City Treasurer Jonathan Leopold Jr. have two of the five Finance Committee votes. The committee assignments are: Salary Chairman William Skelton, R-Ward 4, Linda Burns, D-Ward 5, and Breiner. Ordinance Chairman Musty, Michael Fitzpatrick, R-Ward 4, and James Burns, D-Ward 5. License Chairman Fitzpatrick, DeCarolis and James Burns.

"Civil Defense Chairman Terrill Bouricius, Citizens-Ward 2, Linda Burns and Paterson. Tax Abatement Chairman L. Burns, Maurice Mahoney, D-Ward 1, and Gallagher. Waterfront Chairman DeCarolis, Peter Lackowski, Citizens-Ward 3, Paterson, Linda Burns and Gallagher. Community Development Chairman Breiner, Bouricius, Skelton, Mahoney and Gallagher.

Old North End Development Chairman Lackowski, Breiner and DeCarolis. By SCOTT MACKAY Free Preit Staff Writer Burlington aldermanic president Allen Gear has been more generous than his predecessor in committee assignments for allies of Mayor Bernard Sanders, despite three weeks of battles between the two men. Gear, a Ward 4 Republican, named Richard Musty, Citizens-Ward 1, the new Ordinance Committee chairman. Alderman Zoe Breiner, Citizens-Ward 2, was named to the Salary Committee, which had no member of the Sanders coalition last year when Robert Paterson, R-Ward 6, was board president. Another Sanders backer, Alderman Gary DeCarolis, Independent-Ward 3, kept his chairmanship of the Waterfront Committee and Breiner has replaced Gear as head of the Community Development Committee, which makes recommendations for handing out federal funds.

"Given that we didn't have any Finance Board members, we wanted to have some committee chairmanships," DeCarolis said. "We asked Allen and he gave us that We are fairly happy with that and we think it will help us do some of the things we want to do this year." "I tried to be as fair with them as I could," Gear said. He said the only thing the Sanders faction did not get was voting control of the Community Development Committee, which has two Sanders supporters, two Republicans and one Democrat, about the same mathematical split on the board as a whole. There are five Sanders backers, five Republicans and three Democrats on the 13-mem-ber board. "My explanation was that the mayor has the real control anyway" over community development funds because they are part of the appropriations process, Gear said.

Under Burlington's charter, a two-thirds vote is By Dawn's Early Light The Williston Federated Church steeple catches the sunlight on a misty spring morning Wednesday, a day that prompted thoughts of the summer ahead as the thermometer reached 66 degrees. Foreigners Buy a Piece of the Sign this week. Money is still coming in, he said Wednesday. About three yean ago, the state said Thomas's small wooden sign violated Vermont's billboard law. In the name of freedom and private property rights, Thomas rallied supporters and fought the state.

Two years ago he sold the store. The sign was sold separately to a Milton man with the agreement that Thomas would take it back and refund the money if the state troubled the new owner. When the state did pursue its efforts to have the sign taken down, Thomas kept his promise. Donald Remick of the state Transportation Agency said he is seeking legal advice about how to handle the matter. "We feel it is an illegal sign and we're trying to find the legal way to take it down," he said By TENA STARR Ftm Prtu Cwrctpondent COVENTRY Chuck Thomas is continuing his three-year suit with the state over a roadside advertising sign in typically imaginative fashion.

The sign is now owned by nearly 600 people scattered throughout the world. Apparently intrigued by Thomas' fight to keep the sign which advertises the unfinished furniture Coventry store he used to own, a group of European skiers vacationing at Jay Peak bought shares in it. Twenty-one shares also are owned by sailors in the U.S. Navy who have likened Thomas' battle to their own fight for American freedom. Thomas put the sign up for sale at $1 a share last month, promising the proceeds to the financially-troubled Sacred Heart School in Newport.

He handed $576 to school officials Normally, the owner would be notified and given a certain time to remove an illegal sign. If he failed to comply, the state would remove the sign, store it for a while and then destroy it. The owner would be billed for costs. Remick said he is unsure whether all 600 owners of Thomas' sign must be notified. In fairness to others who have complied with the billboard law, he said, something must be done about the Coventry sign.

"Obviously he is playing games with us to thwart the law," Remick said. Meanwhile, two American flags have been placed on the sign and Thomas said one family which bought 30 shares asked if it would be possible to build a stone wall around the sign and plant grass and flowers near it. "I told them they could do whatever they wanted," Thomas said. "It's their sign." 'lit Pilot Gives Up After 3 Tries To Land Jetliner I i 1 I "el 1 1 i- 111' Iranians Caught In U.S. Might Request Asylum By WILLIAM H.

BRA UN Ftm Pmt Staff Writer Three Iranians from a town on the Iran-Iraq border may seek political asylum in the United States, their attorneys said after the men pleaded guilty Wednesday to illegally entering the country from Canada April 16. A Montreal cab driver who brought them Into the country on an Alburg back road and took them to the Plattsburgh, N.Y., bus station pleaded guilty to a border violation charge Monday. He also agreed to testify against the three and an Iranian citizen living in Canada at a landed immigrant. All three entered guilty pleas at their arraignment in U.S. District Court in Burlington Wednesday.

William Fead, attorney for Mohammad Reza Bahmae, 24, said after the proceeding that the three fled their native land because of "general political conditions and the war against Iraq." He said he did not believe it would be proper to comment beyond that until the men are sentenced. James Dunn and Randolph Ami, attorneys for the other two, declined comment until the sentencing. Fead (aid Bahmae, Ghodratallah Mombini, 24, and Esmael Jallpour, 23, are from the same town and have known each other for years. Montreal taxi driver Alireza Amlri, 27, also an Iranian, helped arrange the April 16 trip with fellow taxi driver David Reginal Poldvin, about 30, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Kathleen Coleman.

Poldvin was released on his own recognizance after 'entering feis plea. The foif others are being Turn to IRANIANS, Po 61 An Air Florida flight from Boston made three landing attempts Tuesday night at a foggy Burlington International Airport before returning to Boston. The experience rattled passengers on the plane, said Stephen D. Phinney, a University of Vermont physician who was among them. He said he drove to Burlington in a rented car after the return to Boston in order to keep Wednesday appointments.

Phinney said the aircraft came within 50 feet of the runway on each pass and touched the pavement on the third run. An Air Florida employee who refused to give his name denied that the airplane touched the runway. The airport has shut down its strobe guiding lights and a prime navigational system while equipment is installed on the runway to help Vermont Air National Guard F-4 jets stop in case of emergency. The work has shortened the runway's available length from 7,800 feet to 6,000 feet. Pilots not only have a shorter runway on which to land, they must be able to see clearly as they come in.

Phinney said the incident "caused a lot of anxiety among passengers." G. Mark Birch, Federal Aviation Administration Burlington tower manager, said multiple approaches are not unusual. "I don't find anything wrong with what the Air Florida pilot did," Birch said. He said there are no requirements that such events be reported. The fact that the pilot was selective and recognized "the situation wasnt all lhat he wanted those are all pretty positive Indicators to me," Birch said.

Free fW Ptirto by STU PMY Going, Traffic rumbles past a crumbling section of Riverside Avenue, which has suffered from recent rains. Burlington Street Department officials have been aware for several years that the road was sagging, Superintendent James Ogden said. "I'm not sure it's stabilized," Ogden said. Burlington has asked the state Transportation Agency to evaluate the problem and make recommen dations, Ogden sofd. 4.