Daily News from New York, New York • 40

.1 i i i ii fl VfmViWn) TAW) a "ii ii mmm VJIQ In HmmJ mum mmm bd I mfcjjr mmm I OlGCOUGS S.I. ferry terminal also gets fed boost By WILLIAM GOLDSCHLAQ Daily News Washington Bureau WASHINGTON New York got some solace yesterday amid the budget train wreck: an extra $26.1 million toward a new Penn Station. New York lawmakers also ff tit'? yv co 1 Tf r. a A Ii 1 II ill 'r Ui I (If 1 ir won $3.6 million more to rebuild the Staten Island ferry terminal in lower Manhattan. Penn Station and the Whitehall ferry terminal are pet projects of Sen.

Daniel Moyni-han and Rep. Susan Molinari respectively. The $26.1 million for the new Penn Station was added in a House-Senate highway bill conference. It is in addition to $25 million in another transportation bill. Including past years, the federal contribution to the $300 million project now stands at $77.6 million.

"The funding is nearly complete. Now we can build," said Moynihan. Similarly, the $3.6 million for the $80 million Whitehall terminal, with $2.5 million from another bill, brings the feds' outlay to $8.6 million. Congress also gave final pas-sage to a bill for a new $200 million federal courthouse in Central Islip that was pushed by Rep. Rick Lazio None of the bills containing the New York projects is snared in the budget stand-off between the GOP and President Clinton, so they appear to be done deals.

It's a different case, however, for one of the biggest ticket items Medicare funding. Molinari announced yesterday that House-Senate conferees had added $1.2 billion for New York teaching hospitals by restoring funds for training foreign medical students, and $126 million for hospitals serving poor areas. Though the GOP Medicare plan is destined for a veto, the improvements should give New York a better starting position for post-veto negotiations that could put more money in the program. Gym dandy luxuries stay put WASHINGTON Nobody can visit the Statue of Liberty, but Republicans are keeping the House gym open. Even though the government is shut down, staff sources said that Speaker Newt Gingrich insisted that the facility reserved exclusively for House members and former members stay open.

"This just shows how willy-nilly the speaker is handling the government shutdown," Rep. Chuck Schumer (D-Brooklyn) said. For a few minutes yesterday, the short subway that carries members from their office buildings to the Capitol was stopped. But complaints got the wheels rolling again. The House photographer remained available for shots of members with visiting constituents.

And the franking office stayed open for the members to send their mailings back home at taxpayers' expense. The law on government shutdowns calls for nonessential services to cease and furloughs for nonessential workers. Asked why these services remained running yesterday, the GOP House Oversight Committee failed to provide any answers. Timothy Clifford and Dave Eisenstadt su'irgeiry By JOE NICHOLSON Daily News Staff Writer A state probe has found that Memorial Sloan-Ket-tering Cancer Center surgeons committed a series of outrageous errors that led to an operation on the wrong side of a patient's brain. The neurosurgeon op erating on Rajeswari Ayyappan did not examine the patient or even look at her medical history or X-rays before open-ing her skull, State Health Commissioner Barbara DeBuono said.

"There was no one isolated failure, but multiple failures that led to this tragedy," said DeBuono. The state said Sloan-Kettering neurosurgery chief Dr. Ehud Arbit: Didn't talk to Ayyap-pan's original Sloan-Ket-tering surgeon, who was going on vacation. Mistakenly assumed the "patient from India" referred to in a note left on his office chair by the original surgeon's secretary meant another Indian patient, a man who had a tumor on the opposite side of his brain. Put Ayyappan's medical records "on the floor next to his desk, unopened and unread." Failed to "examine Mrs.

Ayyappan prior to surgery." When a neurosurgical fellow discovered different names on the patient and the X-rays during surgery, he failed to inform Arbit, the state said. He "consulted with the other neurosurgical fellow, who advised him it was the custom in India to use several names." "In medicine we really can't accept this kind of error," said DeBuono, who wants to fine Sloan-Kettering $16,000 for the botched May 26 surgery. Ayyappan is the mother of Sridevi, India's biggest movie star. Ayyappan's lawyer, Harvey Wachs-man, said the mistake "destroyed portions of the brain that control recent memory as well as some of her vision." SIoan-Kettering said state findings "reflect in large measure the results of our own exhaustive internal review." "This serious violation prompted Memorial Hospital to immediately suspend Dr. Arbit," said the hospital, which later fired him.

"Memorial Hospital accepts full responsibility for insuring that such a breach in our standard of rate will not MAjntY HAM BURS DAILY NEWS TREASURY SECRETARY Robert Rubin announces $61.3 billion bailout, while Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole heads to meeting. 1 i ii- 'w( a 4 CO 5 ui 3 SHUTDOWN FROM PAGE SEVEN mi. in CD CD support for his stand, Clinton told CBS-TV that he would not cave to the Republicans. "I'm not going to do it, even if it's 90 days, 120 days or 180 days. If we take it right into the next election, let the American people decide," the President said.

Meanwhile, Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin took more than $60 billion from two Civil Service- retirement -funds -to- U.S. history. Clinton vetoed the GOP's debt limit extension Monday, forcing Rubin to take the extraordinary action that guarantees that the U.S. can pay its bills through the new year. The financial markets showed approval of Rubin's actions, but the Federal Reserve failed to cut interest rates, as many expected it With Karen Ball CD CO TD CO mi -stavf ofr the first aetaim in 'iHNW 1.

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