Tuesday, March 28, 2017

A Shocking Surprise!

Toward the end of the selectmen meeting last night, shocking news was delivered regarding the budget for FY 18.

The estimated increase for the NRSD budget for FY 18 was projected at $380,000. The figure of $380,000 was factored into the preliminary budget figure for the town.

BTW, the increase in local revenue (2.5 %) for FY 18 is $330,000- kiss that goodbye!

The NRSD school committee will have a budget hearing on Wednesday to increase the $380,000 figure for Templeton to $575,000 an increase of 9.21% to Templeton's portion of the NRSD budget.

Anyone else see a problem here? The Town can only raise taxes by 2.5% each year. The NRSD traditionally, over many years, - look in the annual reports -has increased Templeton's assessment by 6%, 7% 8%, 9% or more. EVERY YEAR!

Give credit where credit is due. Chairman John Caplis stated:

"This is not good news at all." "Services will have to be cut."

In other news -

the Templeton BOS held an executive session last night. The interim Town Administrator's contract has been extended until June 30, 2017 with an increase in pay.

To Your Health

A Norfolk doctor found a treatment for sepsis. Now he's trying to get the ICU world to listen.

By Elizabeth Simpson
The Virginian-Pilot
Mar 23, 2017
The patient was dying.

Valerie Hobbs, 53, was in the throes of sepsis – an infection coursing through her veins that was causing her blood pressure to tank, her organs to fail and her breathing to flag.

“When you have a person that young who’s going to die, you start thinking, ‘What else can we pull out of the bag?’ ” said Dr. Paul Marik, who was on duty that day in the intensive care unit of Sentara Norfolk General Hospital.

In this case, he reached for Vitamin C.

Marik, chief of pulmonary and critical care at Eastern Virginia Medical School, had recently read medical journal articles involving the vitamin, and decided to order IV infusions of it, along with hydrocortisone, a steroid, to reduce inflammation.

Then, he went home.

The next morning, Hobbs had improved so much she was removed from four different medications used to boost her blood pressure. Her kidney function was better. Her breathing eased.

Three days later, she left the ICU.

That was in January 2016. Today, Hobbs is back at her home in Norfolk.

“At first we thought it was a coincidence, that maybe the stars aligned just right and she got lucky,” Marik said.

Ten days later, another patient, a paraplegic, arrived in the ICU with sepsis, and Marik prescribed the same thing. That patient improved as well.

A third patient, a man so sick with pneumonia he was on a ventilator, also received the treatment. The results were the same.

Marik’s response: “What just happened?”

He suggested changing the protocol for patients who arrived with sepsis. He also added another ingredient to the concoction: thiamine, which is Vitamin B.