Healthcare

Swedish/Ballard’s first baby of the new year – and the medical center’s centennial year – was born at 12:21 a.m. on Jan. 2.

Henry Alvin Ramirez – who weighed in at 8 pounds, 3 ounces and a little over 20 inches long – was welcomed by first-time parents Mary and Dan Ramirez of Crown Hill.

For having the first baby of Swedish’s centennial year, the Ramirez family received a newborn gift basket from the Swedish Auxiliary, a baby receiving blanket from Swaddle Designs and a manicure-pedicure set from ButterLondon.

In addition, Henry – and every baby born at the First Hill or Ballard campus throughout 2010 – will receive a souvenir ‘I’m a Swedish Baby’ one-piece.

“We knew we wanted a natural childbirth, but also wanted the security of being at a hospital," said Mary Ramirez. "After meeting with the Certified Nurse Midwives at Swedish/Ballard, we realized their philosophy on childbirth matched ours perfectly."

Recognizing the New Year’s baby is an annual tradition at Swedish, but it is even more special this year because 2010 represents the medical center’s 100th anniversary.

The 50-member WellnessWestSeattle.com is in its second year of serving the West Seattle community. The ad-free site includes a directory of health and wellness practitioners with educational links. Visitors to WellnessWestSeattle.com can find service descriptions, photos of practitioners, contact information, and links to practitioner sites.

Categories include Acupuncture to Yoga. Some of the services include medical and dental, mental health and well being, coaching, complementary and alternative medicine, body work and fitness, youth care and other “community care” services, and more.

To celebrate their second year as a community wellness resource, health and wellness professionals at WellnessWestSeattle.com have been talking about the special things they personally appreciate about West Seattle. With the perfect storm of economic pressure meeting typical holiday stress, the gratitude antidote is especially valuable.

This summer, third-generation Ballardite Mike Erstad will be climbing the 14,410 of Mount Rainier to raise money for the American Lung Association as part of the 23rd Climb for Clean Air.

For Erstad, an avid backpacker and hiker who scaled Rainier in 2006, lung health is a personal issue worthy of support.

His oldest son suffers from asthma and his grandfather died of lung cancer.

Erstad's goal is to raise $4,000 in pledges for the American Lung Association. The group of about 50 climbers embarking on the Climb for Clean Air in July have an overall goal of $200,000.

The Mount Rainier climb is going to be a treat, Erstad said.

"I'm a Northwest guy, so I love getting outdoors," he said. "When you get out, it's just so beautiful. I can't get over the scenery."

In addition to the views, Erstad will get to spend some time with the Whittaker family, mountaineering legends.

"It's like hanging out for a few days with Michael Jordan for a basketball player," he said.

Lou Whittaker, founder of Rainier Mountaineering, Inc., led the first successful American summit of the North Col of Mount Everest.

Ballard residents Laura Hornung and her boyfriend Joshua Slagle had just returned from a trip to Denver and San Antonio Nov. 1. By Nov. 4, H1N1, or swine flu, struck Slagle. Two days later Hornung caught it. Their roommate got it the following week.

It took Hornung and her boyfriend 10 days to recover, and their roommate, who has asthma, is still fighting it.

"I think we caught it on one of those flights," said Hornung. a planning purchaser at K2Sports in Seattle. "We had aches, pains, a sore throat and couldn’t get out of bed. I felt like I couldn’t handle the pain. Our skin hurt to the touch. I was sleeping 12 to 15 hours a day. I didn’t eat a whole lot, maybe broth, crackers and pho. I couldn't move for seven days. It took energy just to get up to walk to the bathroom."

Hornung went to her doctor at Virginia Mason.

"The doctor looked at me, felt my face, and said, 'Don’t cough on me,'" Hornung said. "He then had me see an urgent care doctor. My temperature was 104 for a day and a half."

She was given Tylenol and Advil and said Tamiflu, the antiviral drug, is only effective if you start within two days of being diagnosed.

State Sen. Karen Keiser, chair of the Senate Health and Long-Term Care Committee, and state Rep. Eileen Cody, chair of the House Health Care and Wellness Committee, brought the national healthcare debate to Ballard and the 36th District Oct. 27.

The town hall meeting at the Swedish Medical Center was markedly different than what Keiser and Cody experienced while touring elsewhere in the state over the summer.

"This room is a lot different than the rooms we had in July and August," Cody said. "There were a lot of people concerned over whether we should do this at all."

Of the 26 Ballard, Magnolia, Belltown and Queen Anne residents at the Oct. 27 meeting, only one expressed concern over healthcare reform and the possibility of a federal healthcare system.

"It's almost incomprehensible that we don't have universal public healthcare," said one attendee.

"I'm pretty disgusted with the way it's gone on national level," said another.

Keiser said she thinks there will be a healthcare reform bill on the President's desk for approval by Christmas, though it will not include everything members of the 36th District want.

To quote Doug Bandow, senior fellow at the Cato Institute, “[Government entitlements] have become the worst sort of fool's bargain—at least for everyone but the politicians who take credit for handing out money to a pliant population.”

This past September, I finally got hear our Congressman Jim McDermott speak on healthcare reform, and his vision of the ‘public option.'

He stated at that time: “My druthers – the public option would be a single-payer option."  In defense of instituting a public option, he referred to Medicare and its successes as an example of how the government got it right. 

My question to him is, “OK… at whose expense?” 

Congressman McDermott is either ignorant of the facts or dishonest about the burden which entitlement mentality places on us and future generations.  But I seriously doubt the former. 

Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, SCHIP and the Prescription Drug entitlement have already dragged this country to the brink.  In my opinion we are already doomed if how the federal government operates, and how Americans perceive its role, are not radically changed.

Providence Mount St. Vincent, a non-profit assisted living and skilled nursing home in West Seattle, on Oct. 16 received the 2009 Washington State Psychologically Health Workplace award presented by the Washington State Psychological Association.

The award is given to employers that practice exemplary practices to create a psychologically healthy workplace to benefit the employer and the employees, said Anne Purcell, Ph.D., of the Washington State Psychological Association. Through a questionnaire and site visit, the association assesses employee safety and health, employee training and development, employee involvement in a business’s practices, and whether and how businesses solicit employee feedback.

Purcell said the awards committee was “very positively impressed by Providence Mount St. Vincent and the philosophy underlying patient care/well-being by promoting a sense of community via `neighborhoods’ within the long-term care facility.”

Representatives of Swedish Medical Center and the city of Seattle broke ground on Swedish's new medical office building Sept. 16.

The five-story building will be 90,000 square feet of physician offices, an emergency department, an expanding imaging center and primary care clinics.

During the groundbreaking, Jennifer Graves, nurse executive at Swedish, congratulated those behind the project on their vision for Swedish.

"Ballard was a diamond in the rough," she said. "It only needed to be pulled out of the ground and polished a little bit."

Dr. Rod Hochman, Swedish's chief executive officer, said healthcare should be a commitment to the community. The construction of the new medical office building is only the start of building an exciting and dynamic campus to serve the Ballard community, he said.

"In my two-and-a-half years at Swedish, I have to say, this is one of my favorite days," Hochman said.

City council member Sally Clark told those gathered for the event that many people around the city are excited to see the Swedish groundbreaking and the jobs it will create because there have been few large projects started this year.

The Alki Beach Walk/Run 5K, which will benefit the Northwest Hope and Healing Foundation and women battling breast cancer, is scheduled for Sunday, Sept. 27 this year and organizer's hope to raise more than $60,000.

This is the seventh walk/run benefit for Northwest Hope and Healing, said Erin Mooney, a spokesperson for the event.

This year's waterfront 3.1-mile route will take runners and walkers from the Statue of Liberty at Alki Beach Park and the historic Bathhouse, along the waterfront to Anchor Park. It is a U.S.A. Track and Field certified and sanctioned course, according to organizers, and timing services provided by Rogue Multi-Sport.

"Our prior events included a half marathon (13.1 miles) based out of Lincoln Park, but we have found the shorter distance to be more attractive to runners in the area," said Shari Sewell, the director of Northwest Hope and Healing Foundation. "The Alki Beach 5k Walk/Run is a family friendly event in a gorgeous setting along Alki Beach."