In brief: Free pop-up health clinic draws 3,111 at fairgrounds
In just two days, volunteer medical staff treated 3,111 patients – free of charge – at a pop-up health clinic at the Spokane County Fair and Expo Center.
Volunteers treated patients on a first-come, first-served basis Monday and Tuesday at the health clinic event, Your Best Pathway to Health, which garnered help from more than 1,600 volunteers. Among them were more than 100 physicians, dentists and ophthalmologists and nearly 300 nurses and hygienists.
The clinic treated 1,485 patients on Monday and 1,626 on Tuesday.
“We are honored and thrilled that we have brought hope and healing to over 3,000 Spokane residents,” said Costin Jordache, a spokesman for the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, which helped coordinate the event. “We won’t soon forget Spokane.”
The clinic is a service of Adventist-Laymen’s Services & Industries and was supported by the Spokane County Commission, Spokane Mayor David Condon, and numerous local sponsors and medical companies.
Ex-Ferris High official jailed again
Todd Bender, the former Ferris High School assistant principal accused of molesting a teenage boy, is back in the Spokane County Jail.
Bender, 45, resigned in November after pleading not guilty to two counts of child molestation. The former English teacher and track coach acknowledged having sexual contact with the boy on three occasions in 2011 but told investigators the victim initiated the interactions, according to court documents.
In three separate incidents, the victim said, Bender gave him alcohol, then put his hand down the boy’s pants.
Bender, who had worked at Ferris since 1995, spent four hours in jail Nov. 18 before posting a $50,000 bond. As a condition of his release, a judge ordered him not to contact or go near the victim. He allegedly was spotted Wednesday driving past the teen’s house as the teen mowed the lawn, KHQ reported.
Bender appeared Thursday in Spokane Municipal Court. His bond was set at $20,000.
Doctor’s patient accused of threats
A patient accused of stalking his doctor at Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center now is accused of threatening her co-workers.
Timothy Carroll, 56, has placed hundreds of calls to Sacred Heart, Group Health Inc., and a doctor-to-doctor phone line in attempts to reach the woman who treated him in May, according to court documents.
Carroll repeatedly called his doctor directly and was told to stop, so he began placing calls to Group Health’s call center and to Sacred Heart, court documents say. He often claimed to be a doctor using names like “Dr. Roanick” and “Dr. Flannigan,” court documents say. On one day in mid-June, he called 32 times in a two-hour span, according to court documents.
Carroll was scheduled to appear Thursday in Spokane County Superior Court on charges of stalking, impersonating doctors and interfering with health care facility operations. But, he was being treated in a local hospital and couldn’t make it. He also faces charges of tampering and intimidating witnesses for allegedly asking that his doctor drop the charges against him. In a recorded call reviewed by a detective, he sounded angry and threatened to “blow up” hospital staff, according to court documents.
State trooper dies while on duty
BELLINGHAM – A state trooper from Whatcom County died Thursday from an apparent medical emergency while on duty near Yakima.
The Bellingham Herald reported 47-year-old Brent L. Hanger was following up on a tip about a marijuana grow operation when he started having chest pains and shortness of breath. The Washington State Patrol said Hanger died Thursday morning.
The Yakima Herald reported his body was airlifted from the Chinook Pass area to an airstrip, then brought to Yakima in a procession of troopers and deputies.
An autopsy has been scheduled for this morning.
Hanger received an award of merit for helping to save the life of a suicidal person in 2000.
He is survived by his wife and six children.
Famed male wolf has two new pups
GRANTS PASS, Ore. – Trail camera photos confirm that Oregon’s famous wandering wolf, OR-7, has fathered at least two new pups.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist John Stephenson said Thursday that brings the number of wolves to seven in the Rogue pack, which lives on the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest in the Cascades of southwestern Oregon. That includes three pups from last year.
OR-7 became famous as his GPS collar tracked his travels across Oregon and into Northern California in search of a mate. That collar’s batteries have since died, and biologists have been unable to replace them.