Newspaper Page Text
Good News
Doctors, people
aid Mexican girl
By FRANK MACOMBER
Copley News Service
Rosario is a 9-year-old child who lives in Puerto Vallarta, Mex
ico. Her last name is not important. What happened to her is.
Some time ago Rosario came to Tijuana, Baja California, an un
happy, pitiful child, deformed by a bilateral cleft lip and palate de
fect.
When she spoke her words were unintelligible. She often turned
her face so you couldn’t see her.
That is the sad story of Rosario. Now comes the happy one:
In Tijuana, Rosario went to the Project Concern office, one of
several stretched around the world. Things began to happen. To
day, five facial operations later, Rosario is indeed a beautiful child,
and a healthy one. Dr. Donald R. Laub of the Stanford University
Medical Center and a Project Concern director, used the magic of
surgery to turn Rosario into a pretty, smiling youngster.
“Today Rosario looks in the mirror several times a day, marvel
ing at how different she looks,” says Dr. James W. Turpin, founder
of Project Concern, a nonprofit international medical service pro
gram.
“While the operations were in progress (at Stanford) she lived
with the David Anderson family, and went to school for the first
time in her life.
“Today she is back in her home village, with a lovely face and
great hope for the future.”
When Rosario grows up, Dr. Turpin predicts, she will learn that
countless people helped to work her miracle. These included many
contributors to Project Concern, the project’s Tijuana clinic, and
the late Mrs. Maria Renteria de Meza, a woman who dedicated her
life to helping impoverished mothers and children and lived long
enough to help Rosario.
There are physically handicapped children on the American side
df the international border who need help, too. Industrialist Kent H.
Landsberg came to realize this. So he bought out the house —a
1.000-seat theater.
President of a San Francisco paper products company, Lands
berg learned about the hundreds of children who have only half a
life ahead of them because they either were deaf or hard of hearing.
Today he is the only sponsor of a premiere performance of the
film “Fiddler on the Roof” at a Beverly Hills, Calif., theater Nov.
16. Proceeds from the sale of tickets for his 1,000 guests will go to
the Oral Education Center of Southern California, an organization
serving deaf children.
* * *
With airline hijackings or attempted air piracy constantly in the
news, it is encouraging that the Federal Aviation Administration
has tested successfully two harmless X-ray devices to detect weap
ons and explosives in carry-on airline luggage.
During a seven-day test, the prototype devices were able to ferret
out and identify a wide variety of objects in unopened hand lug
gage, says John H. Shaffer, FAA chief.
Some of the items they detected were an electric iron, a set of
scuba diving pressure gauges and quantities of movie film. They
also picked out such objects as hand grenades, homemade bombs,
knives and hand guns and dynamite “planted” in luggage by test
engineers at Washington’s Dulles International Airport.
‘ ‘These devices promise to be a useful addition to ground security
systems at our nation’s airports,” Shaffer says. “They will im
prove and expedite the screening of passenger hand luggage and
provide passengers with increased protection against acts of an
aerial piracy.”
The low-radiation X-ray units won’t harm photographic film, re
cording tapes or people. In each unit an X-ray pulse is sent through
the hand luggage to “shoot” an X-ray shadowgraph. It is displayed
on a television screen (cathode ray rube) for study by security offi
cers. They have been able to identify most objects from the outline
of luggage content on the shadowgraph.
The FAA also plans X-ray unit tests to check luggage stored in
airliner holds at Oklahoma City’s Will Rogers Airport.
DR. LAWRENCE E. LAMB
You're Not Useless
If You Have Asthma
i A
By Lawrence Lamb, M.D.
Dear Dr. Lamb — Would
you be so kind and tell me
if a doctor takes a blood test
would it show up asthma
or not? I am 48 years old,
single and I worked at this
place one-and-a-half weeks.
They fired me because they
told me I had asthma. It is
a mild form.
I can work 12 or 14 hours
a day. I use very little med
icine as I hate to take pills.
I never lose time from work.
Please let me know.
Dear Reader — It takes
more than a blood test to
diagnose asthma. Usually,
the patient’s history is im
portant or “wheezing”
sounds in the lungs may be
heard during examination or
in long-standing cases some
changes in the lungs may be
observed by X ray.
Your problem brings up
an interesting and neglected
point. There is so much con
cern about minorities and
their job opportunity and
very little concern about the
“right to work” for many
people with a vast number
of medical problems. All
should have the right to
achieve their maximum po
tential and make their max
imum contribution to our so
ciety.
There are hundreds of peo
ple shelved because they
have had a heart attack —
yet many people go on after
such an event to new heights
in their career. Lyndon
Johnson is a classical ex
ample. After his heart attack
during his Senate days he
became vice-president and
president. President Eisen
hower was another example.
There are countless more.
The person afflicted with
epilespsy is discriminated
against, in marriage, driving
a car or in job opportunity.
A drunk can drive but not
a person with epilepsy.
There is a great unspoken
ambivalence in our society
about sickness. While there
is concern on one level there
is downright hostility and
discrimination on other lev
els.
Having a sense of belong
ing and accomplishment is
part of one’s mental health.
A job is more than just the
money it generates.
In a time when there are
too many people who are
content to do nothing to con
tribute to their society your
letter is refreshing. I would
hope that you and other peo
ple who are barred from a
"right to work” because of
unfortunate medical prob
lems will sometime soon be
given the proper considera
tion you deserve from our
society. That means oppor
tunity, not a hand out.
(NEWSPAPER ENTERPRISE ASSN.)
Please send your questions and
comments to Lawrence E. Lamb,
M.D., in care of this paper. While
Dr. Lamb cannot answer individual
letters, he will answer letters of
general interest in future columns.
Price board sticks to ban
WASHINGTON (UPI) —The
Pay Board has voted a second
time to stick by its ban against
retroactive payment of raises
held up by the wage-price
freeze.
But a source close to the
board said there still was a
possibility that some exceptions
to the general ban would be
made —perhaps one covering
the nation’s 2.2 million teach-
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ers.
Aspects of the back pay issue
were on the agenda again for
the board’s meeting today,
after an appearance by officials
of the United Mine Workers
Union and the Bituminous Coal
Operators of America, who
were called in to defend their
new 10 per cent pay hike
contract.
The five labor members of
die 15-member pay board tried
during Wednesday’s four-hour
meeting to get the panel to
reverse its earlier general ban
against back pay that fell due
during the freeze but was not
paid because of it. But the
move lost on a 9 to 5 vote, with
the five labor members voting
for it and 9 of the public and
business sector members voting
against it. Chairman George H.
Page 11
Boldt does not vote except to
break ties.
The source said the retroac
tive pay question still was alive
on a piecemeal basis —such as
the teachers question, and
perhaps the issue of merit pay
raises. Wednesday was the
second day this week, however,
that the board has failed to
reach a decision on exceptions
to its retroactive pay ban.
— Griffin Daily News Thursday, Nov. 18,1971
The Price Commission, mean
while, gave American Motors
Corp, permission to raise its
1972 model prices by an
average 2.5 per cent —a figure
which matched the commis
sion’s year-long price increase
yardstick. The commission also
said AMC has presented figures
which indicated the price
increase would not boost its
profit margin beyond its
average for the best two of its
last three business years, the
test which the commission
requires as a justification for
price hikes.
The price panel also took
under advisement price in
crease requests from Chrysler
Corp. —5.9 per cent —and Ford
Motor Co. —2 per cent.