The Best and the Worst of the Week
West
Jefferson Medical Centerhas been rated among America's best hospitals in the July 28 issue of U.S. News and World Report. The magazine, which cited West Jeff for the third year in a row, ranked it as No. 40 out of 50 in the rheumatology category, from a possible 6,000 hospitals in the country. West Jefferson is the only Louisiana hospital named in the 2003 rankings of the magazine's annual issue.
Sarah
Tetlow,
the only New Orleanian to compete in the recent 2003 Special Olympics World
Summer Games in Dublin, Ireland, came home with gold and silver medals in swimming.
Tetlow, 27, took the gold in the 200-meter and 100-meter individual medleys,
a silver in the 200-meter freestyle medley, and a ribbon in the 100-meter backstroke.
She was one of 15 Louisiana residents who represented the United States in the
World Summer Games.
Health
experts at Tulane University and Charity Hospital
who worked on the "Community-Based Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Study"
won third place in the national Public Health Foundation's 2003 Linkages Awards.
In the program, staff at the Daughters of Charity Health Center referred high-risk
patients to the "Lead Busters" program run by Tulane's Center for Applied Environmental
Public Health, which provided home screenings, education and other interventions.
Honeywell International
Inc.-Baton Rouge,
the chemical plant already under investigation for a July 20 chlorine leak, experienced
another serious accident last week. The state Department of Environmental Quality
said antimony pentachloride leaked from a container, causing the death of an employee.
The calamity occurred hours after environmental groups released results of air
samples taken after the first leak, which sent eight plant workers and some area
residents to the hospital.
