Wellness
Kristen Kusama-Hinte arrived on-Island in early June. A couple of weeks later, her son had a fever. She tended to him, sleeping on the floor by his side. She checked her own and discovered a 100-degree temperature and didn’t pay much attention. She got a stiff neck and again didn’t pay much heed. When a terrible headache hit, she knew something was wrong.
Judith Hannan spent the first couple of decades of her working life floating from one job to another — a clerk, an office temp, a secretary, a fundraiser.
“I’m like a jellyfish. I just drift. I have drifted into everything I’ve ever done,” she said. “But once I became a mother, for the first time I felt so unbelievably engaged.”
A Vineyard doctor will receive a prestigious award for humanism from the Arnold P. Gold Foundation.
The Gold DOC award goes to Dr. Prit Gill for his work as a primary care doctor with a Vineyard patient.
Irene Ziebarth, whose father is the patient, nominated Dr. Gil for the honor after a series of medical issues with her father and the sudden departure of a primary care doctor led the family to his office.
No more waiting for Lyme disease test results; the test can now be done at the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital in about 40 minutes compared with a two-day wait.
About two weeks ago the hospital began testing people for Lyme disease using a piece of equipment recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, called the Biomerieux MiniVIDAS analyzer.
Dr. Lena Prisco, lab director at the hospital, said the instrument detects Lyme antibodies in patient blood samples.
Citing a decline in use and changes to the health insurance industry, the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital is reporting an operating loss for 2011, the first unprofitable year in about a decade, the hospital said.
The hospital reported an operations income loss of $591,855 from April 2011 to April 2012. While total revenue was up from the previous year, expenses also increased at a higher rate.
All teenagers have to do is show up. Everything else is paid for, and it is state-of-the-art quality. The Alexandra Gagnon Teen Center at the YMCA is entering its first summer at its permanent location. The center has been open for six months, and in that time the bright green walls and larger-than-life Spiderman wall decal have witnessed hundreds of Island teenagers dropping by to play guitar, hang out with friends, watch TV or even create full length CD’s at Studio 57, the Teen Center’s recording studio.