Multimedia Journalist
https://www.kivitv.com/finding-hope/finding-hope-a-new-way-forward
This is a 30 minute special about Idaho’s use of telehealth. The segment features the expanded use of telehealth and how it will work in the future. I produced and hosted this segment. Thank you for watching.
BOISE — At just eight years old, Julia Porter noticed pain in her abdomen, which seemingly never went away.
“We went to the ER a couple of times cause I just had so many problems,” said the 17-year-old.
Those ER visits led to a total of 7 surgeries, all before turning 18.
“We were kind of hesitant to do surgery because we were told once you take out a portion of the colon you have to keep going back in, and so after he diagnosed it we went to go do the first actual surgery, and he removed my ascending colon,” said Julia.
Surgeons removed her colon and gallbladder. She also needed other related surgeries, including anterior sphincteroplasty and laparoscopic-assisted colostomy.
It led to weeks of hospital time. There was one thing that got Julia through it.https://8e5f75bd6443b316d4b32dfea8e23da1.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-37/html/container.html
“Reading, honestly,” said Porter.
She said it sounds corny, but reading all types of books allowed her a temporary escape from the hospital. One specific genre stands out: medical books.
“I’m reading one right now about Joseph Lister, someone who basically created sanitization for the medical field,” said Porter.
Her surgeon at Saint Alphonsus, Dr. Adrian Curnow, helped kick-start her passion for surgery. Julia is currently shadowing him for her senior project at Idaho Technical Career Academy, which she chose as “surgery.”
“I’ve been doing that the past three weeks, and I’ve already gotten so many details what I’m going to include in my paper,” said Porter.
Soon, she’s heading to Boston as one of the teens chosen for the Congress of Future Medical Leaders. She’ll meet Nobel Prize winners and learn more about medical science.
“They said there will be a surgery to watch, I’m not sure which one, but I’m looking forward to that,” said Porter.
Her success hasn’t been easy to achieve; it’s been both a physical and mental journey.
“A lot of the kids (at a previous school) were like ‘oh she’s probably just faking,’ and that took a toll, not only missing school but also thinking what other people are thinking,” said Porter.
Now happier and healthier, she’s hoping medical school is on the horizon. First, she needs to graduate from high school.
“After the surgeries, I just got to experience it for myself with gave me kind of a new sense that I knew what I wanted to do, and I love it already,” said Porter.
Julia is currently making all A’s at Idaho Technical Career Academy and aspires to get into medical school. If all goes according to plan, Julia hopes to work in Idaho as a surgeon.
https://www.kivitv.com/news/new-dna-technology-leads-to-dna-match-in-daralyn-johnson-murder-case
BOISE — Cutting edge DNA technology led to a match and arrest in the Daralyn Johnson case. Boise State professor and director of the Idaho Innocence Project Greg Hampikian had a critical hand to play in the discovery.
Hampikian knows DNA; he’s been studying samples of it from suspects for years to assist canyon county detectives in the Daralyn Johnson case.
In February 1982, Daralyn went missing after walking to school in Nampa. Days later, 9-year-old Daralyn was found raped, assaulted, and drowned. Charles Fain was initially arrested for the crime and spent 18 years behind bars. The Idaho Innocence project worked to get him exonerated in 2001. Fain was initially pinned to the crime based on hair evidence.
“Hair isn’t the best evidence for DNA,” said Hampikian.
Eventually, Fain’s lawyer was able to show the hairs didn’t match, exonerating Fain, but the case was still unsolved.
“We’re left with this problem, whose hair is it?” said Hampikian.
Greg had been testing various DNA samples related to the case in his lab since 2012.
“The folks at my lab at the time, Michael Davis, did mitochondrial sequencing on DNA of suspects that were eliminated, all of them were eliminated,” said Hampikian.
In 2016 Greg met scientist Ed Green, whose lab at U.C. Santa Cruz looks at old, broken, and degraded DNA.
‘I was hoping they might be able to help out with some cases we had here in Idaho,” said Hampikian, “the Angie Dodge murder that Chris Tapps was wrongfully convicted of, and Charles Fain’s case, were where I thought we might be able to use these techniques.”
He introduced Ed to the detectives, and Green’s new research led to David Allen Dalrymple, a DNA match.
“Ed Green was able to develop for the police, from these hairs, enough DNA information to know first it’s from a male, which his important information, and second of all to get enough information that it could be compared to genealogy information,” said Hampikian.
Hampikian says this is cutting edge stuff. They can look at smaller and smaller pieces to identify a mitochondrial DNA profile.
“Really, the best of the best of the best for old, dead, broken DNA,” said Hampikian.
Dalrymple’s sample was not one Greg had tested in his lab, but he says for the science, this is a satisfying end to a decades’ long search for justice.
“This is forty years, so the lesson is you know kind of tragic that maybe people have to wait a long time, but the lesson for me is no, you never give up,” said Hampikian.
Hampikian says he hopes this leads to another discussion on compensation. Earlier in the year, Governor Little vetoed a bill that would compensate wrongfully convicted people, like Charles Fain.
“Isn’t it time to compensate 73-year-old Charles Fain, who’s a Vietnam veteran whose only compensation was a pair of [shoes] and bus ticket?” said Hampikian.
Police also believe there are more victims, and urge them to come forward.
BOISE — A nurse who’s worked on the frontlines during diphtheria, cholera, and the ebola outbreaks is a nurse you want to have work during the coronavirus pandemic on our home turf.
Luckily, that nurse exists, and her name is Molly Knight.
She is possibly one of the most prepared nurses in the nation when it comes to working during a pandemic. Knight’s first trip abroad with the Samaritan’s First group landed her in Bangladesh to serve in the middle of the diphtheria outbreak. The moment she stepped off the plane, she went to work at the world’s largest refugee camp.
“I don’t know the numbers, but we had people lined up, I mean its 1.5 million people in this refugee camp now, but we saw people nonstop,” said Knight.
She worked for 30 days in the Kutapalong refugee camp at the Diphtheria Treatment Center in Bangladesh. She was simultaneously treating a measles outbreak as well in the area.
“We also saw a lot of moms with measles at the same time because if you can imagine these people are living in terrible, cramped conditions, so highly contagious diseases spread fast,” said Knight.
It was hard but essential work. It wouldn’t be the last time she worked during an outbreak, not even her second to last.
“My second trip was Bangladesh again the same year, 2018 and I was actually sent there for a cholera outbreak,” said Knight,
“cholera [is spread] through water, and it was monsoon season there, so we were expecting it.”
The other outbreak Knight has worked during is the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Now she’s back in Idaho treating the coronavirus pandemic on her home turf. The various outbreaks she’s seen can’t necessarily be compared, though, given those countries don’t have the resources as we do.
“I don’t know about worse or better [outbreak], but we do have a lot more resources in this country to deal with it than going overseas and dealing with the diphtheria outbreak, they don’t have resources,” said Knight,
“here we could say we need ten more ventilators, and we could probably get those whereas in Bangladesh, you don’t have, you can’t get IVs and stuff on the streets.”
BOISE — Face masks have become a part of our daily checklist before leaving the house. However, they create challenges for the deaf and hard of hearing community.
“I think everyone is experiencing that now, even people that can hear,” said Steven Snow, executive director of the Idaho Council for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing,
“People don’t realize how much they depend on expressions when they communicate on individuals, but it definitely is impacting the deaf and hard of hearing community more.”
Beyond the inability to see expressions, masks degrade speech, which further impacts the deaf and hard of hearing community.
“There have actually been studies done, and it affects those high-frequency sounds which are really important for understanding what’s being said,” said Becky Larsen, an audiologist with the Idaho Educational Services for the Deaf and Blind.
There’s no perfect solution, but there are a few options to improve the problem. Snow says the most popular is having pen and paper on hand, but that option also comes with challenges.
“Many people don’t want to touch paper and pen and pass that between people right now because of the pandemic,” said Snow,
“the next popular alternative is using a texting app on your phone, and there are some apps that can actually enlarge texts so an individual who is deaf or hard of hearing could type it out in the app and enlarge it so someone could read it from a few feet away.”
Another option is transparent face masks.
“I’m hoping that with various providers such as doctors who frequently see deaf and hard of hearing patients, I would hope that those providers would be willing to use these clear face masks such as doctors, dentists and so on, that frequently work with deaf and hard of hearing individuals so the patients could understand them,” said Snow,
“Unfortunately, it’s hard to do this for individuals who have shorter interactions or unforeseen interactions with deaf and hard of hearing people such as cashiers at a grocery store or waiters,” said Snow.
It might be something for teachers to wear as well. The Idaho School for the Deaf and Blind plans to reopen in the fall, but it will look different.
“For many of our kids, they rely on some form of hearing they’re maybe hard of hearing, and PPE like masks or face shields often distort sound, so we’ve got to figure out what that looks like,” said IESBD Administrator Brian Darcy.
However, deaf students attend schools across the state, so it will take some fine-tuning to address the frustrations that come with virtual learning if other schools remain virtual.
“If the teacher is presenting material truly verbally, many of our kids can’t hear it, automatic captioning doesn’t necessarily work all the time, and then we have to look at those who use sign language, being able to get them the information in a timely manner so that they can participate in class,” said Darcy.
If masks and virtual education remain a regular part of our society, they hope to see access for the deaf and hard of hearing community become a part of the conversation.
“It really just requires a little bit of effort to go a long way to help deaf and hard of hearing community members,” said Snow.
Darcy says their campus found success with recorded zooms, which could help deaf students across the state if education remains virtual in some capacity. You can check out the Idaho Council for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing here for more resources and education.
https://www.kivitv.com/news/state-provides-framework-for-reopening-school-in-the-fall
BOISE — Idaho will remain in stage 4 for another two weeks. The state did not meet the criteria to advance past the final stage of the rebound plan, and the data show an upward trend in percent positive cases.
That’s the information coming out of Governor Little’s press conference this afternoon, and one of the other big topics also addressed is the state’s reopening plan for schools.
The state released a 34-page outline of recommendations for districts across the state. It’s the most concrete plan so far. Leaders say reopening plans and procedures for school districts will be locally controlled.
“it’s imperative that students return to their classrooms and interact directly with their teachers and classmates at the end of the summer, but we also must make sure this can happen safely,” said Governor Little.
Governor Little and Superintendent Sherri Ybarra say districts across the state will look different.
“There is no one size fits all approach because when schools reopen this fall, communities will be in different stages of the pandemic, that’s why local control here is so important,” said Ybarra.
It’s their goal, and the goal of Idaho State Board of Education President Debbie Critchfield to get students back in the classroom.
“When we compare where we’ve been and where are, the hope and expectation is we can return to school and frankly that mirrors the expectations and desires of families, of students, of educators and administrators,” said Critchfield.
The framework outlines three different scenarios based on the level of community spread.
Category one means no community transmission, and the recommended response is school buildings are open. Category 2 is minimal community transmission, and the recommended response is buildings are open, but with possible limited or staggered use. Category three accounts for substantial spread and recommends remote learning. Those scenarios have recommendations within them for things like family considerations, telework for vulnerable staff and students, food service, and more.
The local public health district will make those determinations.
“They’ll work with the schools so we can take action, we know that we have a lot of disease in the community right now and it wouldn’t surprise me if we’re in the moderate or substantial, certainly not minimal or none, but that really will be the local health district that will make that call,” state epidemiologist Dr. Christine Hahn.
Officials say this framework is not mandatory for the schools to follow. It’s only supposed to help assist in their decision making.
Within the framework, there is nothing about mandating masks within schools for either students or staff. Officials said that would also be a locally made decision by the districts.
https://www.kivitv.com/news/students-could-lose-their-seats-at-schools-of-choice-if-they-go-virtual
EAGLE — West Ada’s virtual school house program offers parents who don’t feel comfortable sending their kids back into school a way to continue their children’s education, but it’s not a one size fits all solution.
“Knowing we’d have to make a choice between sending our daughter to school or our son’s health, we just don’t feel like that a fair place to put parents,” said Lori Wielenga, a parent from the district.
Lori’s family has the option to attend the district’s virtual program next semester. Still, it means her daughter Ella would lose her spot at Galileo STEM Academy, a school of choice they were thrilled to get into via a lottery system.
“If a student leaves a school of choice and they choose to go to the virtual school house, we will fill that seat if there are kids on the waiting list,” said chief communication officer Eric Exline.
Other parents at these schools of choice are in the same position.
“It’s not a decision; I’m not sending him to school,” said Emily Luttman, whose child also attends Galileo STEM Academy,
“Not until there’s a vaccine or the end of the pandemic. We are high risk in my house; we’ve been quarantining since this all this began, and it’s not a choice to me.
“There’s no guarantee they’ll have a spot when school returns but the district is making some accommodations.
“If they are a student with an underlying health condition, that puts them at risk of staying in a regular school, we will reserve them a spot,” said Exline.
A good solution, but it certainly doesn’t account for families like the Wielengas.
“Ella herself does not have any medical conditions on her own, but her brother does, and sending her to a school of between 800-1000 people in the building at any given day, with the skyrocketing numbers, her chance of exposure is off the chart,” said Wielenga.
Parents are hoping to see other possible solutions implemented, so they don’t have to risk their family’s health for their child’s education.
“In a perfect world, I would like to see kids stay in their schools of choice and participate virtually with their classroom,” said Luttmann.
They also want to see their schools put the STEM skills they’re teaching in their classrooms to use.
“We have a national pandemic that’s affecting our state, and skyrocketing numbers, we have an actual real life problem here, so let’s use our stem education to solve that problem,” said Wielenga.
The district says they plan to ask the board to waive a policy that would allow them to put students who don’t go back in person to schools of choice first in next year’s lottery.
It still won’t guarantee a seat for them, but it would put them first on the waiting list.
Jessica Taylor