The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, August 05, 2003, Image 6

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Tuesday, August 5, 2003
THE BATTALI01
Small plane crashes, two dead
By Noreen Gillespie
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
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and
WE'R
GROTON, Conn. — A small business jet
crashed into three houses Monday, setting
two of them on fire, then cartwheeled into a
river less than a mile short of an airport.
Both people aboard the plane were killed,
authorities said.
Nobody on the ground was seriously
hurt, although one woman was treated for
minor injuries after she jumped out a win
dow of her home, Poquonnock Bridge Fire
Marshal Michael Richards said. Thirteen
people were either left homeless or told they
could not return to nearby homes Monday.
The Learjet was approaching the airport
when it slammed into the homes in the
Poquonnock River Bridge section of
Groton.
“People were running down the street,
and all I could see was blazing fire and
smoke and people running up and down the
street,” said Pauleatha Glover, 55. “It was an
explosion, you know, I thought somebody
had blown up the Poquonnock River
Bridge.”
Richards said the plane clipped a vacant
home before cutting through two others and
setting them on fire. The plane broke apart
30 mi MASS.
^Hartford
73
CONNECTICUT
Groton
island
Sound.
■4
A Learjet crashed,
killing two on board
SOURCES: Associated Press; ESRI AP
and the pieces landed in the river, he said.
Ross Finlayson, 17, said he saw the plane
hit the houses and a riverside walkway in the
residential area.
“It did a cartwheel,” Finlayson said. “It
exploded. It clipped over the top of that
house and went right through the next
house.”
Police did not immediately release the
names of those on board.
Gloria Aldana leaped from her burning
home when the plane hit her one-story
house, her husband said. She was treated at
a local hospital.
"She got panicked and jumped out t
window,” Edwin Aldana said. “She’sdoi
OK.”
The Learjet went down about a half-m
from the runway at Groton-New Loud
Airport, Federal Aviation Administraiii
spokesman Jim Peters said. He said ill
taken off from Farmingdale Repi
Airport on New York’s Long Island.
Catherine Young, the Groton aip
manager, said the plane was on its seco
approach when it went down. The crashliap
pened 20 minutes before the tower opetiei
and airport officials were using recording
of air-to-ground communication to pi
together what happened, she said.
“The pilots announced something at
coming to the airport, but it was garbli
she said.
The FAA and state Department
Environmental Protection were on
scene.
The plane is registered to Jetpro LLC,
corporation based at New Hyde Park, NT
The plane was believed to be camii
about l,2(X) gallons of jet fuel, saidNt
Torres, who works for the Department
Environmental Protection’s oil andchemn
spill unit.
eforei
uriexpanded
sters-
Doctors struggling over best
candidates for obesity surgery
Impasse
Continued from page l
special session or Dewhm
restores a Senate tradition of
requiring two-thirds of senator:
By Lauran Neergaard
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON —Amy Topel had tried exer
cise, weight-loss pills and every diet, real or fad,
around. But at age 15, she’d reached 260 pounds
and a difficult decision: It was time to try surgery.
Operating was scary, but her mother had
undergone it and lost 100 pounds — and Amy
was tired of classmates’ taunts. So in June, a sur
geon shrank Amy’s stomach. She’s dropped 30
pounds and counting.
Gastric bypass surgery has long been a dra
matic solution for obese adults, but more doctors
are operating on teenagers, too. Now, the first
pediatric guidelines are due out soon, and they’ll
urge doctors to put more limits on teen surgery
than on adults — because nobody yet knows the
long-term outcomes of such a radical operation
on a still-developing body.
The main recommendations:
—To qualify, teens should have obesity-
caused problems, either physical or, like Amy,
from the stigma of being fat — and a starting
weight at least 30 pounds higher than adult can
didates.
—Don’t operate before teens nearly reach
their full height potential — usually around age
13 for girls and 15 for boys — because the sur
gery limits nutrient absorption.
—Hospitals should establish a panel of
experts in adolescent obesity, psychology and
nutrition to evaluate teens’ physical and psycho
logical well-being and pick the best candidates.
Surgery clearly will help some teens, but “it
made sense to all of us to set the bar a bit high
er,” says Dr. Thomas Inge of the Cincinnati
Children’s Hospital Medical Center, who co
authored the guidelines with fellow specialists in
pediatric surgery and obesity.
The guidelines have been submitted to a med
ical journal for publication later this year, and
promise to be somewhat controversial. Some
surgeons say there’s no reason to be more cau
tious with teens. After all, heart disease, diabetes
and other obesity-related illnesses can take root
in childhood — and teens will have longer to
reap the benefits of being slimmer.
“There’s no doubt surgery is a drastic meas
ure. It is a risk to life. But at times, living with a
condition like this obesity — it is a risk to life by
itself,” says Dr. Constantine Frantzides of Rush-
Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Medical Center in
Chicago, who operated on Amy.
There are no statistics on how many teens get
gastric bypass; the number is believed very
small but growing.
The operation entails stapling closed part of
the stomach, forming a small pouch that’s con
nected to one end of the small intestine. That
limits how much food it’s possible to consume,
and how much is absorbed. Typically, patients
lose 70 to 80 percent of their excess body weight
in about a year.
But the surgery itself comes with risks, such as
wound infections, the possibility of stomach leaks,
and occasionally, life-threatening blood clots.
Once patients recover, they must follow strin
gent rules: They eat small servings, carefully
counting to get enough protein. They take vita
mins and calcium to counter nutrient deficien
cies, including bone loss.
Gorging causes vomiting. The body no longer
processes sugar properly, so too much causes
dizziness and diarrhea. Regularly breaking the
rules can bring back the weight.
Such changes are hard enough for adults. So
the pending pediatric guidelines stress having
experts evaluate if a teen is mature enough, and
has stable family support, to follow the rules
before surgery is offered.
As for size, obesity is measured with a
height-to-weight ratio called the body mass
index. A BMI of 30 is obese — for someone 5-
feet-8 like Amy, 197 pounds. For teen surgery
candidates, the new guidelines will recommend
a BMI of 40 — an additional 60 pounds — plus
serious obesity-caused illnesses; or a BMI of 50
if they have less serious obesity-related prob
lems, such as being maliciously teased.
Adults, in contrast, qualify with a BMI of 35
plus obesity-caused illness.
Amy is the youngest of the 19 teenagers
Chicago’s Frantzides has operated on. His top
criteria is that the teen’s family be overweight,
under the theory that people genetically predis
posed to obesity are less likely to benefit from
diet and exercise alone.
to agree to take up a
Senate floor. Under that tradition,
the Democratic senators bloc
redistricting in the last spe
session.
Dewhurst said he would
change his mind about the»
called “two-thirds rule,” saying
it is a tradition for the Senatenol
to have it in place when lawmak
ers tackle redistricting.
“I don’t think our 11 col
leagues are in a position to ask
for anything,” Dewhurst
“They have broken the Texas
Constitution. They need to come
back. They were elected todoa
job.”
Democrats said that is nol
going to happen without move
ment from Perry or Dewhurst
“If I were a betting man con
sidering a wager on how
we’ll continue, if we’
we’ll fold. I’d place my chipson
the Texas 11,” said West, invok
ing the name the Senate
Democrats have been calling
themselves.
The Texas Senate met briefly
Monday afternoon and then
broke for the day because of a
lack of quorum with the
Democrats gone.
The Democrats, meanwhile,
held their daily meeting, reading
aloud letters of support from
constituents as photographers
took their pictures.
Austin folk singer Steven
Brooks, who said he was touring
in New Mexico, stopped by the
hotel briefly and entertained the
senators with a song he wrote
called the “Killer Ds of Texas.”
An often-repeated line in the
song goes: “The killer Ds of
Texas put the sting on Tom
DeLay.”
Volume II
A&
By Jc
THE E
More gree
offered to mol
from football
Bush Drive, U
Texas Avenue,
reduction plan
Green,” Unive
officials said.
June Brouj
tions coordinat
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