The day I met Dr. Ignacio Ponseti

I cried in the shower Monday morning when I learned about Dr. Ponseti's death. He passed away Sunday, Oct. 18th, after complications following a stroke he'd suffered while quietly working in his office (pictured above) at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics last week. He was 95.

I've known Dr. Ponseti since 2004 when a friend invited me to accompany her and her 10-year-old son for a consultation on her son's relapsed clubfoot. I watched quietly as Dr. Ponseti examined Gabriel, assisted by Dr. Stuart Weinstein and Dr. Jose Morcuende. During the consultation and initial treatment, Dr. Ponseti gently massaged the affected foot, talking in his soft Mallorcan-accent to Gabe and then to Gabe's mother. He wasn't just massaging the foot, but feeling the pattern of bones, tendons, ligaments, an inner terrain known intimately by Dr. Ponseti.

I returned several times for in-person interviews with Dr. Ponseti, who shared his time, his stories, and his gentle spirit with enormous generosity. I kept in touch via email, and a year later, Gabriel walked down the halls of the University of Iowa's Ponseti Clubfoot Treatment Center located at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in Iowa City--fully cured. Gabriel's case made medical history for being the oldest child treated by the Ponseti team for clubfoot correction, a success story.

But curing clubfeet is not the only legacy Dr. Ponseti leaves us. His example of caring for others extends throughout his life, including an amazing evacuation of 40 injured soldiers and loyalists out of the country during the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936.

The details read like a movie, which I don't doubt posts like mine may encourage: When the commander and ambulance driver abandoned them, Ignacio Ponseti, only in his twenties himself, did not leave these injured; he and another man scavanged up some mules and vehicles to help transport this motley entourage over the Pyrenees Mountains to safety in France.

I plan to write more about Dr. Ponseti, because this modest man deserves to be introduced to people who didn't know him, those who have never heard his name outside the medical community or very far outside of Iowa.

Of course, the impact of his orthopedic work and expertise has attracted the deserved accolades within the worldwide medical community, and without a doubt, his method will continue to make a miraculous difference for children all around the globe.

But the choices he made in each phase of his life inspires--from dangerous risks to save others in Spain, his work in Mexico while he was a refugee, his arrival in Iowa in 1941 and his persistance in working past retirement in 1985 until his death last week--all this illuminates an extraordinary life lived selflessly, with a focus on helping others.

His shining example proves that ONE person (and the quality of one's choices) can, indeed, touch the world. Dr. Ponseti is my hero.

Swine Flu Paranoia Gets Out Of Hand

With all the bad news lately, we needed something a little silly.
Source: Stacy's Random Thoughts, written by my sis, Stacy.

Like to be a fly on the wall? Next teleconference on government regulations...

Future Town Hall Teleconference Meeting Dates - All town hall teleconferences will be held from 1:00pm to 3:00pm EST, unless otherwise noted.

• June 9 - Liability (including Self-Insurance), No-Fault Insurance and Workers' Compensation Policy - Q&A


• July 1 - Liability (including Self-Insurances), No-Fault Insurance and Workers' Compensation Technical Support Q&A


• July 8 - GHP (Group Health Plans) NOTE: This is like the one I covered today, June 4th, 2009. This teleconference will cover questions related to employer-paid health plans.

Visit the CMS site for a complete schedule through the end of 2009.

Worried about privacy? You should be. Update on MMSEA 111 teleconference

I just finished my first live Tweet reporting of a teleconference hosted by Medicare (technically, the "Centers for Medicare and Medicaid," or CMS). It was about the new federal requirement for employers to send quarterly reports of all subscriber personal information. I will create a report of my Tweets and post them where you can read them, or feel free to browse twitter.com/WriterMom08. In the meantime, here are my impressions:

1. CMS representatives sounded supportive, asking participants with questions to send details via email so they could help them after the teleconference.

2. HOWEVER--although CMS representative Bill Decker opened the session with assurances that this new government regulation is for cross-checking Medicare beneficiaries only, questions from attendees came up about getting social security numbers of spouses or employees in other locations who were refusing to provide them, as well as dates of birth. CMS's response: "We ask you to *ask* for the SSN, it doesn't hurt to ask." Sounds like if SSNs can be obtained, then go for it.

3. The new mandatory reporting allows employers to satisfy this requirement in either of two ways:

• By submitting "Active Covered Individuals" [those eligible for Medicare: age 55, handicapped, or on kidney dialysis]
• Or by using the "Finder File" feature [collect ALL employee and dependent personal information, filter list against Medicare's list or hire an outside contractor to do this, then submit to Medicare].

However, in both cases, the employer will be asking employees for spousal and dependent SSNs and dates of birth in order to determine Medicare eligibility--or, like my husband's employer, collect the information and send it to an outside third party to do the filter for submission to CMS.

I reiterate--I DO NOT WANT my husband's employer to have my SSN, or worse, some "outside third party." The SSN was never intended to be used as a de facto identifier anyway, so I object anytime it is used in this manner. Also, giving my SSN to an employer with whom I have no other contact is creepy. Why should they be able to access any information about me (or my children)? I know they're not "supposed to," but the potential for that exists; just think of Joe the Plumber (more details here).

But perhaps most frighteningly, giving up my SSN exposes me to greater potential of identity theft, since the information will be collected and disseminated in a myriad of electronic locations beyond my control, or beyond legitimate uses by the IRS or any of my previous actual employers. All it takes is for someone to lose a hard drive or for someone to steal a laptop for my personal information--and yours--to be compromised.

Tell me what you think.

In the meantime, if your spouse's employer asks for your SSN, use this form instead provided by the same agency requiring the collection of this information.

As for the potential for turning this into a National Healthcare Database, I think you can see how easy it would be to enlarge this system beyond simply "Medicare recipients." To comply, employers are already gathering your personal information for their quarterly reports to the government, including unprecedented collection of information on spouses and children of employees. It could be used as a national database of current healthcare beneficiaries, just a step away from becoming a national healthcare database.

Goodbye, Seattle P-I

Overlooking Elliott Bay in Seattle, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer has been a fixture of Seattle since 1863. I worked at the P-I in the early 1990s. No, not as a reporter, but just before I began my freelance career. I worked on the P-I business staff as the benefits specialist, serving under Dianne Marr, the human resources director. Just the two of us representing the entire human resources department.

For nearly two years, I assisted the publisher and business staff, but my main duties involved assisting our reporters, photographers, and copy desk staff with all their questions and employee needs. I hung out at the copy desk downstairs with Katie and picked up on the newsroom chatter. I marveled at the stacks of new books wrapped in press releases quietly awaiting book reviews. I joked with our technical crew when databases needed backup or printers went on the fritz. These were people I came to care about and who I think of when I think of what makes up a newspaper, from all departments.

Today, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer distributed the last newspaper print issue. The last one.

Publisher Roger Ogelsby (who came on board after I left) says the P-I will be an "online only" newspaper, starting tomorrow. It's an interesting experiment, but I know one thing--it's just not the same. The New York Times says it "will resemble a local Huffington Post more than a traditional newspaper, with a news staff of about 20 people rather than the 165 it had, and a site with mostly commentary, advice and links to other news sites, along with some original reporting."

Of course, that's the nature of change, but this means 160 employees have lost their jobs and the people of Seattle and Washington state have lost one of its two biggest major newspapers. I don't know if the Seattle Times, privately owned, will be far behind.

All I know is this: the Fourth Estate is suffering.

But on this day, I wish to share my memories of the Seattle P-I:

Weekly editorial meetings on the first floor. Art Thiel's laugh and his sports columns, Steve Swearingen's mustache, Katherine White's kindness, Dianne Marr's quiet humor. Sitting with an employee who needed advice on his benefits after learning he was HIV positive. Getting to know one of the Hearst heirs, a young man sent to work at the P-I to "learn the ropes" of one of the family businesses--and I witnessed what happens to a person when there's no need to work for a living. Filing a dozen "thank you" letters for one of our reporters in his personnel file which thanked the P-I for sending a journalist who listened carefully and sorted through facts and fallacies to find the truth. (Some of our editors wanted to fire him because they would send him to an interview to get a quote for a story that was already "decided," but this reporter, a true journalist at heart, wrote the story based on the facts he turned up, not the ones decided before the facts were known. The public showed their appreciation in writing, and these thank you letters that kept coming in helped him keep his job--showing me the power of positive feedback and the power of a simple thank you.)

"Ronnie," my ventriloquial sidekick, also made an appearance at the P-I. I brought him in his suitcase to the building one day because after work, I had a gig--"Ronnie" and I were scheduled to tape a public service announcement at KOMO-TV in Seattle for a county-wide event coming up. One of the business staff found out "Ronnie" was in my office. Eagerly, she asked if "Ronnie" could speak to a group of elementary school students coming to visit the paper that same afternoon. I hesitated, not having anything prepared, but then agreed. Why not? I sat down and whipped off a few one-liners for "Ronnie" and made my way, suitcase in hand, to the large conference room overlooking the water. The kids' eyes opened wide as "Ronnie" joked about the newspaper biz and sang a silly song. "Ronnie" was a hit! He surprised even me.

I remember the year of the reporters' strike and the tense guild negotiations. I also remember discussions and disagreements over the JOA, the Joint Operating Agreement with the Seattle Times. Way back, the Times and the P-I signed this agreement in which the Times published both papers and ran the classifieds and collected the revenue (our staff consisted only of the reporters, photogs, news and business staff). Then the Times sent the P-I's portion of the profits to our business manager. A long-running disagreement existed over the correct amount. Eventually, the tenseness erupted in a legal fight in 2006. It was settled in April 2007. The details of that settlement seem chilling in light of the P-I's demise as a print product today.

And now, it's over. At least, the print product is gone, with all the people needed to produce it. Good-bye, dear Old Friend. Such sad news for all of us who worked there, who read your pages, who loved to see the turning world globe atop the P-I building. For 146 years, you've served the people of the greater Seattle region. I wish you all the best in the new online venture even as I mourn the loss of jobs and a tangible, rustley paper to hold in my hands. Thank you for being part of my experience, because after I left to start a family, I began my freelance writing career.

Thank you, to the hard-working journalists and editors and copy staff who gave me my first education in the news business.

• Hearst Ends Seattle Newspaper's 146-Year Run
• Preserving journalism through tough times
• What led to the Seattle P-I's demise?
• Class final: How to kill an American newspaper

Rosenblat's lie

See my new post about the lie perpetuated by Herman Rosenblat about meeting his wife while in a concentration camp during the Holocaust: Ink-spots.blogspot.com.

The Newseum

Wanna see the new 250,000 square-foot "Newseum" that just opened April 11, 2008 in Washington D.C.? USA Today created an interactive, floor-by-floor model of the place! Take a peek here.

Tragedy in Iowa City

While getting ready for class this morning I received a Hawk Alert from the University of Iowa. The message stated that an "active shooter" was in Iowa City, a male driving a 1998 Toyota Sienna tan minivan, and that if spotted, witnesses should call 9-1-1 from a safe location.

I jumped online to get more information from local news sites. They did a very good job providing details, but I noticed a post by a female visitor in which she complained about the Hawk Alert being used this way. What?!! This is EXACTLY how and when it should be used. Unlike many university campuses across the country which sit isolated on their own property, the University of Iowa campus is integrated with the downtown area of Iowa City--something I appreciate for the vibrant variety and feeling of community. It's charming and eclectic, college kids mixing with residents, bookstores and churches mixing with lecture buildings and class halls.

I appreciated the Hawk Alert so I could proceed to campus with caution. The message was not alarmist but factual. [Note: Read the dispute by some students about the Hawk Alert failing to "tell them what to do".]

And the story is extremely tragic. The suspected shooter is Steven Sueppel (age 42), a man who had been charged with stealing $559,040 from the bank where he worked as a vice president. He apparently shot his wife Sheryl (also 42) and their four young children in their home at 6:31 this morning. Police received a call from a cell phone telling them to get to the residence ASAP, then disconnected. It was probably Steven. He was not at the home when the police arrived and the family's Toyota Sienna minivan was missing.

A short time later, a Toyota Sienna minivan was found smashed into a sign support along I-80 fully engulfed in flames at approximately 7:00am this morning. A lone figure could be seen in the driver's seat, dead. An autopsy will be conducted tomorrow to determine if this is Steven.

Coming home from class this afternoon--eerily, in my 1998 Toyota Sienna minivan, although mine is blue--I turned off my radio and reflected on this man, his family and his choices.

I'm sure when he was a little boy, he never thought he would get into this kind of trouble. I'm sure his wife Sheryl, active on their school's PTA and interviewed once for local radio, didn't imagine how her life would end and that her husband, the man to whom she'd said "I do" and shared dreams for a future together, that this man would fall into the trap of lies and deceit, nor that he would turn on her and their four precious children and kill them.

I'm sure his children, Ethan, 10; Seth, 7; Mira, 5; and Eleanor, 3 (all adopted), had enjoyed a fun Easter weekend with their grandparents and family in the area and had no idea what their daddy was capable of. His choices, each step of the way and concluding this morning, wiped out six people's lives--five of whom were completely innocent.

His choices, what he did in secret, eventually came out and destroyed him and his family.

If we think our choices do not matter, then we must think again.

And choose differently.

Virginia Tech Tragedy

It's been two days since 32 students and faculty members were murdered by Cho Seung-Hui, the 23-year-old loner who once signed a class list of names with only a question mark. He left everyone behind asking a lot of questions.

I have a few of my own:

First, although we're tempted to call Cho names like sicko, insane, psycho, disturbed, freaky, bizarre, twisted (and frankly, we'd be right)--isn't there a danger in doing so? By calling Cho names, we put him in a box, brush our hands with the satisfaction that we're nothing like him, and move on. Calling him names allows us to dismiss him as a freak and close our eyes from examining how he developed into this monster.

DO NOT get me wrong. I am NOT sympathetic toward Cho. From all the reports coming out now it's clear that Cho had serious emotional and psychological problems.

And that brings me to my second question. THAT'S what we need to understand--HOW did he get this way?

As a parent, I took time today to ask my own questions. About my own sons. How are they doing? Am I being the kind of parent they need? Am I too lax? Am I too busy? Do I make time for them and their concerns? Do I really listen?

I'm doing pretty good, but I can do better.

Starting right now.

This post also appeared in The Gazette (Cedar Rapids, IA) on Tuesday, 4/24/07.

Miracle in Missouri

Ben Ownby, the 13-year-old boy who disappeared while walking home from his school bus stop Monday afternoon, was FOUND alive and well yesterday, just four days later in an apartment 60 miles from his home in rural Missouri.

But he was not alone. Miraculously, officials found another boy, Shawn Hornbeck, who had been missing for four years since his abduction while riding his bike to a friend's house in October 2002. He was 11 years old at the time. He is now 15.

Police took 41-year-old Michael Devlin into custody. Multiple charges are pending.

I must admit, by Wednesday my hope had faded that Ben would be found alive. My attention turned to the unknown perpetrator(s), praying for discovery and arrest. No one could predict that finding Ben would lead to the rescue of another missing child! Of course, these boys will need psychological assistance, particularly Shawn due to the amount of time he lived with his abductor. But what a double miracle to find these two boys alive, to give them freedom and reunite them with their families. Although too many abductions do not end with good news, that's all the more reason to rejoice that this one did.

Once again, average citizens helped break this case. Mitchell Hults, a 15-year-old student who got off the same bus as Ben, described for police the white pickup truck he noticed driving erratically and speeding away from the area. At least one neighbor admitted seeing the truck earlier that day driving up and down the rural road raising suspicions, but didn't write down the license plate number nor call to report the suspicious activity to police. If anyone had, Ben could have been rescued that same evening. A girl living in the apartment complex where the boys were found told her mother three months ago she thought she recognized Shawn Hornbeck's face from a flyer, but her mother told her, "This is serious, we're not playing." Another resident, Jeff Hadler, told reporters that police came to the complex on an unrelated case Thursday night and he pointed out the truck parked in the lot, wondering if it was like the one reported in the media. Police got a search warrant and swarmed Devlin's apartment the next day--and found the two boys alive.

Once again, regular citizens armed with information from the media made the difference. Those citizens who didn't take time or assumed that what they saw or heard wasn't important, delayed Ben's (and Shawn's) rescue. Fortunately, both Ben and Shawn are alive and back with their families this weekend because Hults and Hadler observed details they reported to police.

"The key to finding the boys was a beat-up white pickup truck spotted by a schoolmate of Ben's who got off the bus at the same time. The friend saw the pickup speeding away...."
Read the ABC News report.

Watch videos of this story, including an interview with Sheriff Gary Toelke (click "Top Videos" and the headline "Extremely Happy Ending").

Time "Person of the Year 2006" - YOU

Hooray for us! Bloggers and YouTubers became subject of concern in my journalism classes this year, which I suspect is true across the country. Why? Traditional journalist "gatekeepers" can't control the grass root reporter, and in my observations, you broke more stories more accurately more often this year (or at least more meaningfully) than big media.

Time Magazine announced last week: "...for seizing the reins of the global media, for founding and framing the new digital democracy, for working for nothing and beating the pros at their own game, TIME's Person of the Year for 2006 is you."

I'm proud of you, and proud to join the effort.

Keep it accurate, keep it real, keep it up!

James Kim, CNET editor, a hero

James Kim died alone of hypothermia after hiking 15 miles in the wilds of Oregon in a desperate attempt to get help for his wife and two small daughters stranded in their car on a logging road blocked by snow and ice. I feel a bond--I'm from the Pacific Northwest and have traveled a similar route with my husband, trying to get from I-5 to the Oregon Coast. It's not easy. I'm also a parent and can imagine my family getting lost on a dark snowy night with tired children in the backseat.

And yes, I've had to deal with my impatience toward James--why, oh why, didn't he turn the car around sooner? (He drove approximately 15 miles into the wilderness on Bear Camp Road, then approximately another 15 on the fateful logging road spur, before they stopped to rest but got snowed in.)

This story is heartbreaking. I applaud the self-sacrificing efforts of the regular citizens--like the cell phone employees, Eric Fuqua and co-worker Noah Pugsley, and John Rachor, the helicopter owner--who all invested their personal time and resources to help find this family and provided key information. But I shake my head at officials who failed to find James because of assumptions, lack of sustained urgency, and failure to get heat-seeking National Guard helicopters in the air. Read what happened: "Confusion hampered search for Kims: Gaps in communication among agencies and leadership shortcomings proved costly."

It's a difficult read. I've followed many articles related to this story from various news sources, finding some less accurate than others. So I kept reading, looking for the confirmed and verified details.

Now it's tempting to assign blame, which I don't enjoy--but different officials and searchers assumed the Kim family didn't take that spur off the the road to the right and that someone else had checked out that spur. Their assumptions cost James his life.

I hate assumptions.

To read an uplifting piece about James Kim, CNET senior editor of technology, click here.

Don't read this (it might warp you)

When my Honors English professor announced last week that we must watch Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, for discussion in class next week, my heart sank. I posted my response on the class blog, and then decided to share it here, too.

Borat on YouTube was enough for me to "get it." But when the movie became an assignment, I did some research. (If you don't know about this movie, read a conservative review at PluggedInOnline.)

And I chose not to go. So what if it's meant to be funny? Just reading the reviews felt like sliding through sewer sludge. Blech. I have better things to do with my time and money, not to mention my mind. Life is too short.

I think I've hit on a new slogan: "BE BETTER THAN BORAT." How? One of the best ways to influence people's biases isn't to make fun of them, but befriend them (if they'll let you)--or do something kind for someone else to make our world a better place. So what if unselfish acts don't make the news or earn lots of moolah--what a difference it makes for those to whom we are kind or generous or supportive.

As for lawsuits, I just read an article about the villagers used in the opening scene of the movie: "They claim film-makers lied to them about the true nature of the project, which they believed would be a documentary about their hardship, rather than a comedy mocking their poverty and isolation." http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?
in_article_id=415871&in_page_id=1770

Okay, so let's Be Better Than Borat. Who did you help--or befriend, or encourage, or be kind to--today?