Cal Trans awesome
EDITOR: Two weeks ago I submitted an online request for landscape maintenance along 101 south. I don’t know if you had noticed, but as cars merged onto 101 from Memorial Beach, the cars going south had trouble seeing them due to overgrowth. When I drive that stretch in the dark, it is often hard to see the merging cars until they are right there. I reported that and last week they sent a crew. Have you seen the on ramp now? Southbound drivers can now see the cars as they merge. Thank you, Cal Trans.
Mary Doll
Healdsburg
I never said that
EDITOR: In my last letter to the editor I didn’t state that children couldn’t have opinions. That’s one of the joys of living in America, everyone can have an opinion. My words had to do with why would a group of adults ask a group of children for their opinions before they established a set of rules and/or laws.
Everyone knows that guns in the hands of criminals are scary regardless of whether the classroom is made up of students who are eight or 16. Whether or not one has actually reared children certainly doesn’t discount the opinions of those who didn’t or couldn’t have children, and to suggest that I or another teacher who didn’t rear children didn’t or doesn’t care for my/their students as much as you is ludicrous.
I also taught for over 30 years at HHS in a classroom with a wall of windows, next to a parking lot, and with a door that only locked from the outside; part of the complexity that made up the life of this teacher was always worrying about the safety of my students. Threatening society with high school seniors who will be able to vote in the next election may actually prove how short-sighted they are if they refuse to support those who support the Second Amendment.
Your examples, however, prove my point. One has to eat his or her vegetables, and one has to wear a shirt. Adults made those rules, not children.
Brent Mortensen
Healdsburg
Well done
EDITOR: Congratulations to Ray Holley, managing editor of the Healdsburg Tribune, and to Sonoma West Publishers for receiving three awards for journalistic excellence from the California News Publishers Association. Especially now, when our written correspondence is ephemeral, newspapers, especially local ones like ours, perform a valuable service by recording and communicating our history.
Jane St. Claire
Healdsburg
Opioid overdose strategy for everyone
EDITOR: In the last few weeks, you may have noted in the Tribune that there has been an effort by doctors and nurses in our community to increase the public awareness and discussion of the opioid crisis, which is taking many thousands of lives per year in the United States, as many as 115 opioid deaths per day.
This problem is so widespread that the life expectancy in the U.S. has actually decreased. Opioid use disorder (OUD), as it is called, is as common as diabetes, so if you know someone with diabetes, you probably know someone with OUD.
This commentary is to help you recognize someone who is suffering a potentially fatal opioid overdose, and discuss some things you can do to help that person.
How to recognize opioid overdose (The patient may not have all of these symptoms)
• Loss of consciousness
• Pupils are small
• Unresponsive to outside stimulation
• Breathing is slow, erratic and may have even stopped
• Choking sounds, or snore-like noise, sometimes called the
“death rattle”
• Vomiting
• Body is limp
• Face is pale and clammy; fingernails and lips have turned
blue as they are not getting enough oxygen
• Pulse is slow, erratic or maybe absent
What to do if you witness this
• Try to wake him/her up
• If the person does not wake up, call 911
• You may have to breathe for the person, give him mouth
to mouth
• Administer Narcan (naloxone)
Naloxone is the magic medicine that can reverse an opioid overdose. And it is easy and safe. It is a nasal spray and can reverse the opioid effect within minutes, thus saving the person’s life. So who has this magic naloxone and how can you get it? It is easier than you may think to have access.
First, we are working with the first responders in Healdsburg and the surrounding area, the police department and fire departments to carry naloxone with them in their vehicles. You may have read that the police department in Rohnert Park has saved two lives already this year with the use of naloxone, so first responders are very important.
And here is more: our local Bell’s Ambulance has had naloxone available in nasal spray and injectable form for several years and report that they used it 46 times in 2017. To me that shows how important this project is.
If you have a family member or close friend whom you feel may be in danger of an opioid overdose, you can obtain naloxone from your local pharmacy. You must meet with the pharmacist, and he or she can instruct you in its use, and write the prescription. No doctor is needed; just see the pharmacist.
I have spoken to all three pharmacies in Healdsburg and they are all anxious to participate in this program here.
As a matter of fact, Surgeon General Jerome Adams has recently encouraged more and more people nationwide to have access to naloxone. Notably, he said “Anyone can be a hero and save a life.” In this current nationwide crisis, he is absolutely correct.
Now this may acutely save the person’s life, but the person is still in danger, so make sure you have called 911. The patient of course is also still addicted. Addiction is a huge problem and not easily managed. But if you have saved a life, you now recognize this person has a huge life threatening problem, so hopefully you can see that he or she gets ongoing care for the addiction.
David Anderson MD
Geyserville
