KVH's new doctors add depth to practice
Andrew Christiansen
Reporter
The major league baseball trading deadline came and went last week, and of course our Mariners threw in the towel-but Klickitat Valley Hospital (KVH) made a move that will help now and in the future by signing two doctors, Dr. Michael Thorpe and Dr. Natalia A. Luera.
Thorpe should be a familiar name at KVH, as he has been working as a fill-in doctor since 2002, including many stops in Goldendale.
"My son calls me a rent-a-doc," says Thorpe. Not anymore. Although he loved the life of a free-lance doctor, working in Florida, Tennessee, and Alaska, to name a few, he says he is happy to be hired as a full-time emergency room doctor at KVH. Dr. Thorpe currently commutes from Othello, where he and his wife Nikki are raising eight children, ages 15 to two and a half. He attended Northwest Nazarene and received his medical degree at the University of Utah.
Dr. Thorpe began as a family practice doctor in the U.S. Navy. He was transferred to the USS Sacramento where he served as a trauma doctor in Afghanistan. As an emergency room doctor, his primary interest is in treating trauma related to outdoor sports. However, Dr. Thorpe describes the role of a rural emergency room doctor as a general practitioner in some ways. A good share of his emergency room patients in the past did not have life threatening ailments.
"When we are low on primary care givers, the emergency room covers. We don't want people going to The Dalles just because they can't get an appointment with their primary doctor on a given day," says Thorpe.
Dr. Luera is also familiar with Goldendale, having spent a month training at KVH last November. It is an example of how KVH's arrangement with Family Medicine of Spokane has paid off for the hospital. Dr. Luera, a Pasco native, graduated from the University of Washington and served her residency program at Family Practice Spokane.
"I fell in love with the people at Goldendale," said Luera. She joins doctors William Bothamley, Michael Garnett, and Jennifer Lentz as a family practice doctor. Her primary interest is in women's health. Dr. Luera said she is "eager and anxious" to get started. She likes the variety and constant learning that goes with family practice.
The addition of Dr. Thorpe and Dr. Luera put KVH in good stead in terms of doctors, according to Medical Staff Coordinator, Marguerite Kelley. KVH had been looking to fill the positions, and while they are still open to finding more doctors, facilities are a limiting factor. Both new doctors admitted that past administrative issues were factors in their decisions. For Dr. Luera, it was a very small factor.
"I felt they were solid enough that they would figure things out," says Luera. The "politics" of the past prevented Dr. Thorpe from committing to KVH sooner, but he believes the hospital is very solid now.
Dr. Thorpe describes himself as a country boy. He likes to have access to a metropolitan area, but the Othello to Seattle trip (about 160 miles) is close enough. He lists his kids, horses, and the outdoors as his hobbies, and he teaches karate and is involved in competitive pistol shooting. Dr. Luera is single and a cat owner. She leans toward hiking and running and completed her first half-marathon at the Rock and Roll Seattle event in June.
The new additions give KVH a balanced mix of experience with three surgical doctors, and now four doctors in the emergency room and four in family practice.
Bickleton moves ahead with water feasibility study
Bickleton's long-awaited water system feasibility study officially began about two weeks ago, as hydrogeologist Mark Yinger attended the Bickleton Community Council meeting on July 23 to introduce himself and ask questions of the community.
Yinger's presence in Bickleton focuses on studying the geology of the area and identifying and evaluating available aquifers. Information is gathered about local wells and issues such as changes in water levels, cascading water, and well deepenings, among other related matters. Yinger told the council that he is preparing a questionnaire for well owners, which the council will distribute throughout the community. A high return of questionnaires is urged among residents, in order to allow a fully informed process. Additionally, he announced that volunteers are needed for well static level testing. Requests for volunteers will be included on the outgoing questionnaires.
Yinger has worked as a groundwater and environmental consultant for more than 20 years, including on other projects in Klickitat County.
The July 23 meeting was also attended by Andy Cervantes of the Department of Health, and Tim Furlong and Ron Ihrig of the Klickitat PUD. According to some on community council, the PUD has shown increased interest and commitment to the Bickleton project.
The next meeting of the Bickleton Community Council is Aug. 27. Current plans are that the guest speaker will be Curt Dreyer, Director of the County Planning Department or someone from his office.
The council is also presently putting together a response to the letter received from Yakima County in June, stating it would not consider repairs on its portion of Glade Road. The council continues to maintain that the response missed the point, which the council claims is that Glade Road is the only paved road from Bickleton to the lower Yakima Valley and that its condition is substandard.
Fires raging throughout Washington and Oregon
As of Monday, 12 large-scale fires raged throughout Washington and Oregon, according to the Northwest Interagency Coordination Center (NWCC). All of the fires in Washington were caused by lightning.
Two of the fires are burning an area approximately 20 miles north of Mt. Adams. A fire 15 miles southwest of Randle is called the Langille fire. It started on July 27 and is burning 470 acres of mixed, downed timber and brush. It is being allowed to burn with a controlled perimeter. The other, the Discovery fire, is 30 miles west of Yakima. It is burning in sub-alpine forest in highly inaccessible terrain. There are 422 firefighters working the blaze, which was listed as zero percent contained. Yakima has been experiencing ash fall from the fire that is spreading through 2,000 plus acres.
A fire one-half mile north of Chelan was listed as 90 percent contained, and a fire near Darrington, which ignited a day later on July 29, is 25 percent controlled. The Darrington fire is actually at least 30 small fires called the Gold Hill complex, affecting 30 acres and involving 407 firefighters. Two fires in the northern part of Washington have yet to be controlled, as they burn in extreme terrain. Panther Creek fire is 21 miles east of Marblemount and started June 28, and Skull Ridge fire is 22 miles northwest of Mazama. It began on July 13. The seventh fire is in Olympic National Park and also is a complex of several fires covering 883 acres with zero percent control.
The Oregon fires include the Long Prong fire, which began in Hells Canyon National Recreation Area on July 26. One hundred fifty-six people and two helicopters have that fire 75 percent controlled. More than 1,000 acres were burned 10 miles south of John Day by a fire that started on July 25. The fire is 90 percent controlled with just middle burn-out areas on fire, in the remote Strawberry Wilderness.
The NWCC works to coordinated resources and logistics among Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Forest Service, Oregon Department of Forestry, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Washington Department of Natural Resources, and the National Park Service. It also works with the Pacific Northwest Wildfire Coordination Group, which includes the same agencies plus the Washington and Oregon fire chief associations. |
