Birmingham Post-Herald from Birmingham, Alabama • 21

Birmingham Post-IIerald 0 I February 6 1998 3 A Program will help stroke patients By Johi Staed Birmingham Port-Hendd Birmingham will serve as the first multicounty area to develop an emergency response network to specifically aid people who've had a stroke or according to emergency medical officials Mote than 700000 people have strokes each year in the United States And Alabama has the seventh-highest rate at strokes among the states according to the American Heart Association Every day in the Birmingham area up to four stroke patients are brought to hospitals by emergency medical per aonneL To know how to respond the public needs to know bow to sjxd a stroke But one study found that 40 percent of sts and blood enters the brain tissue Bath result in death to the brain tissue Train paramedics on how to respond to a stroke Medical experts now know to lay stroke patients down instead of hawing them sit up and to maintain high blood pressure rather than try to immediately lower it "The EMS has to respond and do a better job of treatment than weVe Acker said Get the patient to the right hos pital While aU area hospitals will be participating in the pilot program certain hospitals will rotate a "stroke response to provide 24jiour coverage It's too expensive for all homitdls to develop a stroke team bcMpg a neurologist emergency physician and CT scan technicians that is available on a 24-hour basis he said Please tints HEALTH page R2 ADAMSVILLE stroke) in terms of mortality and disability said Dr Camilo Gomel director of the Comprehensive Stroke Center at the University of Alabama at Birmingham Birmingham will be one of five cities serving as pilot sites for the stroke response program The nystem will work off the existing trauma program which mutes different levels of trauma patients to appropriate hospitals Through the Birmingham Stroke Task Force the group of health professionals plans ta Educate the public about the signs of stroke They are numbness or weakness on one side of the face or Americans don't know the symptoms of a stroke according to the asanriation Advances in drugs treatments and technology mean that many people who have strokes could if the condition is caught in time resume fairly normal lives But health officials said it is crucial that stroke victims get treatment immediately got a window of opportunity with these stroke patients of three to four hours to get them to the right hospital and get this therapy started" said Joe Acker director of the Birmingham Regional Emergency Medical Services System hope to reduce the impact (of body difficulty speaking or understanding blurred vision a sodden severe or unexplained headache and loss of balance Acker said some patients have mini-strokes before a full-blown stroke with severe headaches slurred speech slight memory loss and tingling hi a limb At these signs 911 should be called Strokes occur when there is an abnormality in brain circulation Gomel said Up to 90 percent of strokes are ischemic or involve a blockage of a blood vessel cutting off the flow of blood to the brain A hemorrhagic stroke occurs when a blood vessel bur- Update i BIRMINGHAM I Mm ahot A 41-year-otd Birmingham mm was fatally shot urij this morning The shooting occurred about UJSun at 1785 Pearson Avenue in southwest I Birmingham The victim was Identified as Jerry Dawson of 1752 McMillian Ave Southwest He pnmmced dead at the scene said i Jefferson County Deputy Coroner Jay Glass Birmingham police are investigating the shooting William Singleton WBRC-6 general manager moves on: Stan Knott the general manager of WBRC-4 the Fax station in Birmingham is taking a job as general manager of WDAF-4 the Fox station in Kansu City Mo Knott organised the Birmingham station's launch and ownership change to Fax in Sept 1996 He became general manager of the station in July 1995 Knott is a native of Alabama and an Auburn University graduate press report i Commendation set Mayor i i Richard Arrington will present Capt Richard Macon a former Tuskegee Airman with a commendation at the Black History Month observance at Miles Cbilege at 11 am Monday Macon was one of five pilots shot down on Aug 12 1944 during a strafing I mission against the Germans in southern France He was captured and was a prisoner of war in Germany Ik was liberated in 1945 Macon later became a commercial flight instructor starting a flying school in Birmingham Anative of Birmingham and a graduate of Miles Goifege Macon lives hi Detroit press reports New 42 has slick quick newscast Tapeetftor Don Page left and chief video ecKtor Kim Jones prepare videotapes for the newscast at WIAT-42 i 7 a 1 -1'' iJ 1 i B- I if i i 7 -S a tf r- jf -4 -T- A ''7' i -yjASi yj-y I HUNTSVILLE By Elizabeth Wine Birmingham Post-Herald i A judge on Thursday denied bond to a 16-yeardd charged with capital murder in the death of an Adamsvilie woman Jefferson County District Judge Robert Cahill denied bond to Michael Rale who was charged as an adult in the Jan 22 slaying of Karen Jewell 37 The mother of two was bund by her sons fatally shot in the kitchen at her home at 3905 Defaby Circle Became of the seriousness of the charge Cahill said he waited to writ until a March 5 preliminary hearing to decide whether to grant hand Hale an eighfbgrader at Bottenfidd Junior High School is charged along with another area teef who is being tried on capital murder as a juvenile Henry Penick attorney told the court "The trial will show not the trigger person He said Hale was not the houte at the time of the shooting and did not know the shooting was going to take place When asked what Hale thought the purpose of the visit was Penick said he wm not at liberty to uy He also declined to say what the you did following the shoottog Please tan to TEEN page B2 One of triplets dies: One of the tiny triplets bom prematurely and 11 days apart to a Decatur couple was buried Thursday Kristina Kamphouse 8 daykold died Wednesday Her father Matt said Kristina was ust too little to fight an infection Huntsville Hosptial officials listed extreme prematurity as the cause of death Doctors had hoped the babies would weigh enough within a few months to survive outside the neonatal intensive care unit The By Daria Powell Birmingham Port-Herald The management at Channel 42 promised that the station's new retooled local newscast would be different from anything seen before in Birmingham Consider it a promise kept The newscast which made its debut at 5 Thursday wax definitely different lean and fast-paced chock-full of snaxqr graphics and notably free of fluffy chitchat -It was marked Improvement over the old Channel 42 newscasts' which sometimes resembled something see on public access But the emphasis on speed aim made it seem a bit impersonal TV Dam'nr Viewers who like their i Kcwew local news delivered with a dash of friendly banter might feel as if something's missing Boasting brand new call letters WIAT-42 replacing the station began the broadcast with one last shot of the now-familiar countdown clock that's been airing in place of the news throughout the past month Then the news began with anchorman Keith Cate giving a rapid-fire introduction to the night's top stories complete with laser-gun sounds between each clip He was perched on a red-and-blue set that looked like the bridge of the starship Enterprise as designed by Dan Rather No doubt about This was not the old Channel -j' The broadcast soon settled into an identifiable routine i In comparison to other local newscasts the most obvious difference was the lack of on-camera reporters Cate and anchorwoman Sherri Jackson narrated all the stories There were no live from the scene" updates or first baby Victoria weighed just over 1 pound when she was bom Doctors stopped delivery after Victoria to give the other two triplets a better chance to survive 1 Eleven days later Jennifer 5 Kamphouse delivered Jessica who weighed 2 pounds and 1 ounce and Kristina who weighed about 2 pounds Victoria and Jessica were I listed in stable condition at Huntsville Hospital Associated Press SELMA Training completed class at A 53 new guards completed 10 weeks of training Thursday at the Department of Corrections Academy in Selma and will be report for guard duty at state prisons The new officers will help reduce the prison 390-man security staff shortage and the department plans to hire 250 more guards by Oct 1 prison Commissioner Joe Hopper said press reports DEKALB COUNTY Delegation blocks budget I forUAB The Aworiated Pros MONTGOMERY- The Unirenity of Alabama at Birmingham may be a newcomer to big-time football but it is the big boy an the block among tate universities in the legislative aren II Alabama House members from Jefferson Chuty including two who work for UAB showed that nun-day in blocking action a 3J tJHim Education Trust Fund they contend would be unfair to the university UAB hM just finished its first season a Divison I football team and it trying to catch traditional powers Auburn and Alabama But it also has a meifical complex that is the county's largest employer and that's why the UAB team of Mx-k Democrats and white Republicans held off legislators representing the state's other public univnities The UAB loyalists complained the univenity would not get enough money to give employees the L5 percent cost-of-tiviig raise that Gov Fob Jamea promised all state-funded educators The House adjourned without acting on the budget House Ways and Means Cbnutyittee Chairman Bill Fuller DLaFagette said he might recommend Tuesday that the lawmakers reduce the percentage of the pay raise for umversities and mandate it in the budget Campus presidents have opjtaed giving up control of the pay raise money The budget in line far House debate would provide 15 percent pay raiaea far employees in public schools and twoyear colleges the fiaeri jear that start! Oct PaaetantoUABpagiB2 hands It was like watching a local version of CNN Headline News i were plentiful Every story carried an bar at the bottom of the screen and graphical flourishes were used as transition stories in a style similar to many TV newsmagazines' 1 And everything seemed was subdivided into minutes There wa the The "Medical The And in sports Two-Minute Drill Spnking of sports it wh the least-polished segment Diat was partly because of the unusual fonnat with Birmingham Fost-Herald columnist PaulFinebaum anchoring from the set of his WERC radio talk show And it was partly because Finebaum unlike the other anchormen and -women is not a professional TV personality If you were expecting Finebaum to be a traditional sports anchorman you should have known better His opening line was a joke about an Auburn fan calling to complain about the countdown dock being gone But while the sports segment lacked the polish of the rest of the newscast it did provide the most down-home moment of the whole half-hour In that regard it helped balance out the rapid-fire slickness of the other segments Too bad it was so short Perhaps the biggest complaint about the newscast was that it seemed a little light on local news Most of the local attention was given to qxiates an the abortion clinic bombing Seven minutes into the newscast we were already getting repackaged national an increasingly imtating trend in local news broadcasting both in Birmingham and elsewhere around the country Later in the broadcast there were two local stories that relied mostly on on the street interviews While not a new concept the approach was notable because the focus was completely on the comments of the people being interviewed not on the reporter doing the story Please tars to TV page B2 Body identified: Authorities identified a body found Monday night that of Chuck Carson 35 I body shop is still missing i Authorities are still searching for co-worker Tracy Allen Stoops 31 of Kilpatrick who disappeared Saturday from his home Carson's body was discovered while DeKalb County authorities were searching a burned-out chicken house near where abandoned pickup was discovered near Rodentown DeKalb County investigators were in Birmingham Thursday interviewing Charles Willis Dorsett 4 Sr 35 who is in University Hospital with buna authorities believe he suffered hi the chicken home fire Dorsett who also worked at Carson's body shop is in critical condition Dave Fits Cameraman Erie Morrison above folds up the script for the 10 pm news in the WIAT-42 studio Morrison wanted to keep the script after the first day back on the air with a newscast The premiered Thursday At right a cameraman dusts the set while WIAT-42 anchorman Keith Cate prepares for the newscast Mato EdUam SMa PHdsy and EHm Wn mpnpnniHwiwi i niy chi in raachad at 329-2344 and Jim i.