Emergency Room

SHE IS Providing medical care to the sick LONG ROAD Wergles, 43, is a nurse practitioner for the Edinger Medical Group's Fountain Valley office. After earning a bachelor's degree from Cal State Long Beach in 1975, she became a registered nurse and soon after, began working in the emergency room at UCI Medical Center. Not unlike many in the medical field, Wergles says that she has always loved working with people. But the journey she chose to take was not necessarily based on finding the quickest means to an ends.

I had the tough experience not too long ago of racing over to the hospital where a dear friend and neighbor had just been rushed. It’s always disorienting to enter an emergency room and not know the status of the situation, where the room is, who the doctor is, etc. Sadly, I quickly learned our friend had passed on. His family and a tight-knit group of friends were together in a waiting room at the hospital, trying to cope with the sudden...

If you're bummed because the TV drama "ER" hasn't been shown the past few Thursday evenings, you could check into it next weekend in Huntington Beach. A live version of "E.R.: Emergency Room" will be presented at the Huntington Beach Art Center on March 22-25, following its opening weekend in Irvine, under the auspices of the Newport Beach Repertory Theater. Just don't look for Abby, Luca, Neela or any of the other characters from the TV show. This "E.R." is a project hatched by the Organic Theater Company of Chicago (where the TV version also is fictionally headquartered)

Ron Davis The stomach pain wasn't particularly severe a week ago Monday night. It was reminiscent of indigestion. And, given that I had just consumed a huge Thanksgiving meal at my mother-in-law's the previous Thursday, indigestion was certainly not out of the question. The following Tuesday and Wednesday, I had just the occasional bout with the same intensity of infrequent pain in the same areas. I'll bet you're wondering if I scheduled an appointment with my doctor.

Falling on concrete rubble is no picnic. It was Valentine?s Day when it happened. I was looking forward to a pleasant dinner with Lou at one of our favorite local restaurants. In the morning she had gone off to Crystal Cove State Park to install native plants with her work crew from the Orange County Conservation Corps. I had made dinner reservations for 6 p.m. About 3 p.m., I got a phone call from Lou. She told me in carefully measured words that she had fallen and hit her head.

Doctors, nurses, employees and even City Council members gathered in front of Huntington Beach Hospital this week to celebrate 40 years caring for patients in the city. At a program Monday that included a mayoral commendation, an anniversary cake and a history presentation, hospital officials outlined the past and future of an institution open since 1967. "This shows we're really committed to the community," said hospital administrator Sofia Abrina at the event. "We value residents, and we're here for them.

Normally, Vic and I write about local environmental happenings. And we try to keep you informed of things that are going on regionally as well. But this is not a normal time, and things are not as usual. My mother, Lucile Wilson, died last Thursday, four weeks after I brought her to the emergency room at Huntington Memorial Hospital. The problem seemed simple. She had a bad rash on one side of her face and had severe facial pain. The problem was not life-threatening.

A Huntington Beach man is expected to recover from a stab wound he received after a fight outside a bar in Newport Beach, police said. Police arrested Jasen Meyn, 24, of Reno, Nev., outside Sejour European Bistro and Lounge on Via Lido in Newport Beach early Saturday on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon for reportedly stabbing a 34-year-old John Meyer of Huntington Beach. Authorities located a folding knife in Meyn's pocket at the time of his arrest, Sgt. Evan Sailor said Tuesday.

A man found floating unconscious in the water at Bolsa Chica State Beach at 7 a.m. Wednesday has been pronounced dead at Huntington Beach Hospital. The victim, Ohio resident Damian Nakamura, 46, may have had a history of asthma and cardiac problems, Lifeguard Kevin Pearsall said. Nakamura was found in the water by his uncle about 5 feet from the shore in normal surf conditions, Pearsall said. When Nakamura's uncle noticed the bodyboard Nakamura had been riding washed up onshore, he pulled him out of the water.

Recent nursing grad and new registered nurse Janay Petruna waited two years to get in the nursing program at Golden West College. She never dreamed of working anywhere other than Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian when she graduated. Her wait is not unique. The nation is experiencing a major nursing shortage, with California ranking at the bottom in the fight for new nurses. "It's embarrassing and … disappointing" that the state is ranked 50th in the number of registered nurses per 100,000 people, said Rick Martin, Hoag's senior vice president of patient care services and chief nursing officer.

Your recent article about forthcoming health-care insurance reform ("Clinic digs in heels for health reform," July 15) pointed out one area of reform not specifically discussed in the article: cost reduction. Under the new reform, over time, medical records will be automated and reduce the need for the duplication of procedures for the same outcome. Through the example of Sonia Munguia's breast cancer treatment, she went to Tijuana for a mammogram, and when she returned to Huntington Beach, she was required to have another mammogram.

Editor's note: This is the second in a three-part series about the effects of the Obama administration's health - care reform on Huntington Beach and Fountain Valley health - care providers and their patients. Dr. Peter Anderson sometimes goes for days in Fountain Valley Regional Hospital and Medical Center's emergency room without treating an emergency. It's not for lack of patients. Anderson, the director of the hospital's emergency department for 35 years, has seen increasing numbers of people check in with ailments that traditionally would be handled by a family doctor.

Thanks for your moving column on Jimmy “The Rev” Sullivan (“How do you write about such a man?,” In the Pipeline, Jan. 14). What timing that I’d read this column about the pain of loss on today of all days. As I ponder the 10th anniversary of my dad’s untimely death from heart failure, I’ll also pay tribute to the Rev in my heart. So many musically talented people have a way of dying too young. I can’t believe that it was 10 years ago today that I stood by the side of my dad’s gurney in the emergency room of a Torrance hospital.

Just before he dove into the pool, Matthew Wong said he took a quick breath and then a quick look at the scoreboard at the Cerritos Olympic Swim Center. He felt confident, he said, but knew what had to be done. “When I saw the time, I thought we were looking pretty good,” he recalled. The “we” Wong was referring to is the Irvine Aquazot Swim Club’s boys’ 11/12-year-old 400-medley relay team. The 12-year-old from Irvine swam the freestyle, the final leg of the race that included swims by teammates Thomas Smith (backstroke)

The room looked like any other. The bed was neatly made with a fuzzy stuffed dog and cat waiting to cuddle on top, family photographs were stuck on a board, and toys were piled in the corner. Near the door hung a shaggy orange Tigger costume from last year brushing up against a metallic astronaut costume that was never worn. Kerrie Roque’s eyes welled up as she pointed to a neatly laid-out outfit in patriotic colors. “He was the happiest kid you could ever have, so we definitely felt lucky to have him,” Roque said.

Caller: Intruders stole watch off my wrist A woman woke up on her couch to find the $5,000 Gucci watch on her wrist missing in the 16900 block of Saybrook Lane at 11 p.m. Sept. 10. The woman?s lights had been turned on and the TV volume turned on high while the woman slept. Six bottles of vitamins and a prescription for Lasix were stolen off the kitchen counter. The intruder also left toothbrushes on her nightstand. The caller said her neighbors break into her house to cook and eat her food and are responsible for this and other thefts.

Luke Gane is a right tackle, a defensive end and an older brother. He’s also a survivor. When the Edison High football team takes the field against Artesia on Friday night at Huntington Beach High, look for No. 55. In the jersey, pads, helmet and cleats, the senior looks similar to the other Chargers. But none of them are more excited for the start of the season than Gane. It’s the light at the end of the long tunnel, one caused by aplastic anemia. A year ago at this time, Gane was nowhere near the football field, instead confined to a hospital bed at Children’s Hospital of Orange County.

At least two human cases of flea-borne typhus in as many months in a section of Huntington Beach have the county urging residents to put their pets on a proven flea-control program. The infections of humans by the disease, also known as endemic or murine typhus, have been confirmed in an area roughly bounded by Garfield Avenue, Adams Avenue, Magnolia Street and Beach Boulevard, Orange County Vector Control spokesperson Michael Hearst said. The Monday after Halloween, Nanci Bartley woke up with what she thought was the flu; she was nauseated, and two of her friends also developed flu symptoms that day. Two days later, her friends were on the road to recovery.