i
Being so beautiful is tough
The stereotype American
woman. Holly Faison (seated)
is pampered by the beauty at
tendants (1 to r) Ellen Jones,
Monika Wallace, Sharon Baty
and Amy Meyer in this scene
from “The Women.” The show
is part of the MSC Dinner
Theater program. (See review, page
4) Staff photo by Winship
Family begs court
to let daughter die
Associated Press
MORRISTOWN —- As his weeping fam
ily listened, Joseph T. Quinlan testified
Tuesday that “it’s the Lord’s will his
daughter Karen Ann be allowed to die.
“Take her from the machine and the
tubes connected to her and let her pass into
the hands of the Lord, Quinlan told a
crowded courtroom.
Quinlan was the first relative to testify at
a trial on the family’s request that the 21-
year-old Miss Quinlan, who has been in a
coma for six months, be allowed to “die
with dignity.
Julia Quinlan, wife of Joseph and the
mother of the couple’s adopted daughter,
was to testify Wednesday when the trial
resumed.
Mrs. Quinlan sobbed as her husband
told how he came to the decision that his
daughter’s life is over.
Quinlan, a supervisor for a New Jersey
drug firm, said that he decided in August
that there was no hope for his daughter’s
recovery.
He said he made up his mind to file a suit
to seek permission to disconnect Karen’s
respirator while driving home from St.
Clare’s Hospital in Denville after a meeting
with her doctors.
“We had done everything possible to
help her and now we had no hope, the
grey-haired, 50-year-old father said.
Quinlan, a Roman Catholic, said his
parish priest agreed and told him he was
morally right in “putting her in the Lord’s
hands.
He said his daughter’s doctors originally
agreed to remove her from the respirator
that allows her to breathe but said they
changed their minds for legal reasons.
Quinlan said that if the court grants him
his request, “I would not take out the plug
myself but would let medical men do it.
Both Miss Quinlan’s doctors have testified
they would refuse to disconnect the re
spirator, saying it is against medical tradi
tion.
However, Quinlan said he would allow
the continued use of antibiotics and in
travenous feeding. “To take the intraven
ous tube from her body would be
euthanasia mercy killing, Quinlan said.
“I wouldn’t ask the court to pursue this
matter if I thought there was a trace of
hope, he said. “We re not terminating her
life — this is the way the Lord works.
He said he had received numerous let
ters. Most supported his views, he said,
adding that thoSe who disagreed were
"good people but they haven’t gone
through this agony.
Before he took the stand, a New York
neurologist testified Miss Quinlan’s condi
tion was irreparable and said extraordinary
measures should be used only for patients
who have a reasonable chance of recovery.
“I and many of my colleagues do not
believe in saving the life that will lie as a
vegetable for 10 years, said Dr. Julius Ko-
rein, an expert called by Paul W.
Armstrong, attorney for Quinlan.
Korein, a neurologist at Bellevue Hospi
tal in new York City who has done exten
sive research on comas and brain damage,
described his findings when he examined
Miss Quinlan at St. Clare’s Hospital in De
nville last week and after studying her med
ical records.
He said her brain was damaged, proba
bly in two areas that control conscious and
reflex reactions, by a lack of oxygen for her
brain on the night she suddenly stopped
breathing and slipped into a coma.
He said her symptoms from the time she
was rushed from her apartment to the
emergency ward of Newton Memorial
Hospital on April 15 indicated brain dam
age. He estimated her brain had little or no
oxygen for up to 30 minutes before being
connected to the respirator.
A doctor testified at the first day of trial
Monday that he could not determine what
brought on the comatose state. He said
traces of some drugs were found but not
necessarily enough to induce coma.
Che Battalion
Vol. 69 No. 30
Copyright© 1975, The Battahon
College Station, Texas
Wednesday, Oct. 22, 1975
arrow Approval Near
n New York Aid bill
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Associated Press
ASHINGTON —Two panels in Con-
s indicated Tuesday that they are close
Iv/ng narrow approval to legislation that
il/kl aid financially stricken New York
i a preliminary vote, the Senate Bank
ing Committee decided 7 to 6 to take up a
proposal that would give the city $6 billion
in federal loan guarantees under strict gov
ernment control.
In the House, Rep. Thomas Ashley,
D-Ohio, chairman of the economic stabili
zation subcommittee, said he expects the
Park ordinance
to be considered
The College Station City Council is
scheduled to consider an ordinance
changing the park land dedication re
quirements for builders within the city
at their Thursday night meeting.
Recommendations will be made by
the subcommittee that has been study
ing the problem for the past several
weeks.
The meeting begins at 7 p.m. in
City Hall.
A public hearing on a proposed or
dinance rezoning a tract of land lo
cated on Texas Avenue between
U-Rent-M and Hardy Gardens and ex
tending to the east bypass is also on the
agenda. The ordinance would change
the tract from a single-family resi
dence district to an apartment build
ing district.
Also before the council for consider
ation will be a contract with Sherrill
Ambulance Co. of Bryan giving
guidelines under which the company
may operate the city’s new modular
ambulance.
15-member panel to send some kind of
legislation to the full Banking Committee
by two votes next week.
President Ford has adamantly refused to
give New York any help.
Senate Banking Committee Chairman
Sen. William Proxmire, D-Wis., said he
expects any vote on New York City aid
legislation to be close, but Sen. Joseph Bi-
den, D-Del., who is considered pivotal on
the issue, said he woidd vote for a bill just to
get it on the floor for debate. Biden voted
with the majority Tuesday.
The Senate panel recessed until today,
and Proxmire said he would hold hearings
into the weekend if necessary to finish work
on a bill.
Meanwhile, House Banking Committee
chairman Rep. Henry Reuss, D-Wis., in
troduced a bill that he said would avert a
financial collapse of New York City without
bailing out the banks.
The bill woidd provide up to $7 billion in
loans or guarantees to the state of New York
for five years, with first priority on the re
venue going to maintain essential city ser
vices while the city budget is being ba
lanced.
Campus
A student was listed in good condition at
the Beutel Health Center after a Tuesday
morning car-bicycle accident.
Sharon Sprague, 21, was struck by a car
driven by another student, Vera Kamer-
beek, 20, in parking lot seven behind the
Reed McDonald Building, campus police
reported.
She was admitted to the health center
with abrasions and bruises to the left leg
where she remained Tuesday for observa
tion.
Distribution of Arkansas football tickets
will be a major topic at tonight’s Student
Senate meeting.
The Senate will meet in Room 224 of the
Harrington Center at 7:30 p.m.
Other discussion will center around a
revised Senate Budget, a Refrigerator
Manager’s contract. Campus Chest
guidelines and support of student-faculty
input committees.
How much power police should have
and how much anarchy citizens should tol
erate are questions Vincent L. Broderick
Service complaints frequent
Ambulance service
in Brazos County
A four-part series
by Rod Speer, Alan
Killingsworth and
Steve Goble.
If only the ambulance had been here
minutes earlier ...”
m ambulance service, by its very na-
5, is controversial. People become emo-
nal when someone in their family gets
It.
herrill’s Ambulance Co. of Bryan has
the only ambulance service in Brazos
ntyfor the last 19 months. During that
e, a controversy has enveloped the
npany.
n the light of numerous complaints
tit the service, a Texas A&M graduate
s in health planning last August sur-
ed community attitudes toward the ser-
Sased on the study, the class submitted a
ement of concern to the Bryan and Col-
i Station City CtTuncils and the county,
biong the complaints noted in the stu-
it study were: a slow response time to
ergencies, inadequate training of per-
nel, poor equipment, inadequate com-
nications, lack of complete records, no
adard procedure for filing complaints
I lack of overall coordination in the
ergency medical system,
he statement called for an open evalua-
Hof the existing system, examination of
alternatives and a public disclosure of
results of the study,
die class was taught by Don Sweeney,
o has a great interest in the ambulance
Vice as the chairman of a health advisory
committee for the Brazos Valley Develop
ment Council (BVDC).
Sweeney received many letters from
area officials supporting the class s study.
Among the officials were Mrs. Lee Watson,
executive secretary of the local chapter of
the American Red Cross; David G. Laird,
administrator of Bryan Hospital; and Mrs.
G. Eiland, former head nurse at St. Joseph
Hospital.
“What we discovered was a deep-seated
dissatisfaction with the present service by
health care consumers and providers
alike, Sweeney wrote in a letter to the
College Station City Council.
Ed Sherrill refused to be interviewed
concerning his operation. He said he had
decided no one at Texas A&M should write
a story about the service.
“I want my name left out of any story, or
I’ll come looking for someone,’’ he said.
Sherrill said the city councils had plenty
of time to find someone to take over the
ambulance service after the funeral homes
backed out.
“No one else had the (expletive deleted)
guts to take over the job,” he said.
Sherrill is operating under separate an
nual permits from Bryan and College Sta
tion.
A county ambulance committee, com
posed of city and county officials, loosely
monitors the local ambulance situation.
A sub-committee, composed of the two
city managers and the county judge, inves
tigates specific charges made against Sher
rill’s service.
College Station City Manager North
Bardell said most of the charges were found
to be either exaggerated or unjustified. Of
ten, he said, the ambulance crew had a
legitimate excuse, such as having a rash of
calls at one time.
One of the main reasons the local funeral
homes got out of the ambulance business in
March, 1974, was a poor collection rate —
less than two-thirds.
Since Sherrill took over the ambulance
job, both College Station and Bryan have
passed ordinances making failure to pay
ambulance fees a misdemeanor.
Although his fees are $10 to $15 higher
than those charged previously by the fun
eral homes, Sherrill is generally considered
to have a better collection rate.
“A lot of the complaints really have to do
with the manner in which Mr. Sherrill col
lects and attempts to collect fees,” Lou
The College Station City Council Thurs
day will consider a contract that will
regulate the conditions under which
Sherrill Ambulance Co. of Bryan may
operate the city’s new modular ambu
lance. The meeting begins at 7 p.m. in
City Hall.
Odle, Bryan city manager, said. People re
sent the charge — $30 or $35 — and the
collection tactics, he said.
“The complaints about response time are
frequently filed by people who haven’t paid
their bills,” Odle said. “Mr. Sherrill has a
problem with public relations — he’s still
got a few barbs on him.
Complaints include:
• While traveling down South College
Avenue last year, Robert Bellomy, a Texas
A&M student, lost control of his motorcy
cle when avoiding a car. He fractured his
leg.
Ambulance attendants splinted his leg
for transfer to the hospital. Bellomy recal
led that the splint was a little longer than
needed and when the attendants shut the
door, the splint was driven forward, jarring
his leg.
• In early summer an airplane trying to
land at Coulter Field, outside of Bryan, hit
a scaffold and crashed near Highway 21.
William Howard of Bryan happened upon
the accident moments later.
“The ambulance had to be called three
times,” Howard said. “Thirty minutes is a
conservative estimate of how long it took
them to get there.”
The police arrived before the ambulance
and the two victims, one dead, had been
removed and were lying on the grass.
• In early August, Mark Kishbaugh, a
Midwest Video technician, fell 60 feet from
a tower. A passing youth noticed the in
jured man and called an ambulance at 8:30
p.m. The ambulance arrived at 9:40, an
hour and 10 minutes later.
• A report that a pickup truck had over
turned at the intersection of OSR (Old San
Antonio Road) and Sandy Point sent two
ambulances to the scene. Not knowing the
area well enough to take the shortest route,
the drivers went several miles out of their
way, a Department of Public Safety (DPS)
spokesman said. The response time was
more than 30 minutes. (See photo, )
There have been other instances in
which Sherrill’s attendants were slow to
reach an emergency because they either
were unfamiliar with the area or failed to
get the name or phone number of a caller to
check the location, according to DPS com
munications supervisor Joe Trowbridge.
Communications with Sherrill’s ambu
lances is generally poor, he said. There are
no mobile phone units in each ambulance,
he said, and once one of those ambulances
has left for the scene, communication is
lost. (The cities are expecting to receive
radios for the ambulances and hospitals
(continued on page 3)
will answer in a speech Oct. 28 in the Rud
der Center Theater. Broderick is spon
sored by the Great Issues Committee. He
is a lawyer and a former Police Commis
sioner of the City of New York.
“A conservative view of politics’ is the
topic of a speech by Howard Phillips. Phil
lips is National Director of the Conserva
tive Caucus.
He will speak tonight at 8 p.m. in Room
201 in the MSC. Admission is 25 cents for
students, $1 for non-students.
Free University Chairman applications
will be taken until Oct. 30 in the Students
Programs Office of the MSC. Applicants
must have a 2.4 GPR and anyone interested
should call John Nelson, 845-1515.
U. S. Magistrate Ronald Blask
scheduled a hearing today in Houston for a
man charged with attempting to influence
or intimidate a juror after he told his fiance
— the juror — the federal government’s
treatment of her as a juror was "worse than
prison camp.”
Darold L. McClendon, 25, was charged
after a deputy U.S. marshal said he over
heard McClendon make the remark to his
fiance, Cynthia Marsalia, 22, who was on a
sequestered jury staying at a Houston
motel.
National
Texas
Attorney General John Hill said yester
day in Galveston that he has appointed a
task force to end what he called illegal
obstruction to the public’s right to use
Texas beaches.
A federal court judge in Sacramento,
Calif., yesterday ordered President Ford to
give a video-taped deposition as a defense
witness for Lynette Fromme, who is
charged with attempting to assassinate the
President.
White House spokesman Ron Nessen
said that Ford would have no comment
about the judge’s order because the matter
is being handled by the Justice Depart
ment.
Accident victim
Sherrill’s Ambulance Co.
picks up a victim of a pick-up
truck roll-over last July at the
intersection of OSR (Old San
Antonio Road) and Sandy Point
Photo by Alan Killingsworth
Road. The ambulance drivers
got lost and took more than 30
minutes to arrive at the scene
of the wreck. The victim was
later treated and released.