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Long delay
The obviously grieving mother wrote a letter to the editor complaining about the actions of the coroners of Washington and Greene counties. Her complaint was based upon misinformation and what would appear to be an obvious failure of responsibility, hidden from the mother, by the funeral home that attended to the final disposition of the infant.
The letter states that the child's cremated remains could not be delivered to the mother because the coroners of Washington and Greene counties failed to sign the necessary paperwork for the cremation to proceed.
As stated in the letter, the child died in Greene County but was taken by the family to Washington Hospital. Since the remains were in Washington County, but the death occurred in Greene County, there was a discussion between the coroners on May 22, the date that the coroner of Washington County was notified of the request for cremation authorization. When it was determined that Washington County should execute the cremation authorization, it was done immediately by Coroner Tim Warco. The authorization was to be faxed to the funeral home. Upon attempting to fax the information on May 22, the coroner's office was informed by the funeral that there was a general power outage in the area, and that the funeral personnel would be away until May 26. On May 26, the cremation authorization was forwarded to the funeral home. What happened after that is between the funeral home and the family.
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S. Timothy Warco
Washington County coroner
Gregory P. Rohanna
Greene County coroner
Don't ruin care
for the insured
Uniform health-care coverage for all is being left to Congress. This supposedly will be paid for by cutting $313 billion from current health-care costs in 10 years and a $635 billion down payment covered by tax increases. The plan will be shaped by the glorious epitome of cost savings and thrift, our Congress, the same group that shaped the trillion-dollar bailouts that did not prevent bankruptcies. How can anyone believe the same group will design any health-care system that is cost-efficient?
Obama suggests trimming payments to hospitals by $200 billion over the next 10 years. With the government printing press running overtime, this cut is a gross underestimate, because of future inflation. This is not reducing costs; it is cutting service. It is easy to place chosen arbitrary numbers on a plan to justify a proposal. Forced cost cuts and price controls do not work. President Carter tried and failed miserably to use price controls during his term. Price controls resulted in the rationing of items and services with many of these being taken off the market. Congress is entering a political mine field if implementing a plan that will reduce health-care service to those currently insured.
Health care for the uninsured is an admirable goal. It should not be achieved through rationing or reducing services to those already covered. Let the political experts tinker with health care for the uninsured without damaging the current system. Don't hold your breath!
John Holt
North Franklin Township
Two great races,
no great choice
With the recent announcement that Mine That Bird, winner of the Kentucky Derby, is planning to be entered in the West Virginia Derby on Aug. 1 as a prep race for the Travers Stake at Saratoga later this summer, we fans have a decision to make.
There is another local attraction for horse race fans in our area in that the 43rd Adios Pace for the Orchids is also to be held on Aug. 1. We live in close proximity to each track, and it is possible to attend both race cards if both tracks would be willing to talk about scheduling their races so that there is a gap between cards long enough for us to travel between tracks.
Well, that was only in theory as they are going with a post time of 12:15 p.m. for the Adios Day card at The Meadows and a 2 p.m. post time for Mountaineer's Derby. These businesses desire our attendance but fail to work out a plan in which they both can meet the needs of their fan base.
If both racing entities wanted to serve their fans, they would have staggered their post times so that the local fans could attend both events. Many of us attend both thoroughbred and harness racing. The fans of harness and thoroughbreds are not mutually exclusive.
My suggestion is that because they overlapped their post times, we should all can go to the dog races in Wheeling and bet both horse venues from their simulcast areas. In addition, I bet Wheeling Downs will not be overcrowded or understaffed. See you at the puppies!
Robert Zanakis
Canonsburg
Long delay : 6/16/2009
upon learning of the power failure you sir (or one of your flunkys) should have hopped in your car and made the 22 mile trip down I 79 and hand delivered the document. That would have been 1 hour out of your day and the grieving family would have been so grateful of your actions. Im sure that before the creation of the fax machine thats the way they would have handled it. A little compassion on your part would have been an uplifting article for the paper to run instead of the one we ended up with.
Long delay : 6/16/2009
On the other hand, the funeral home could have sent someone to the coroner's office to pick up the document.
pass the buck : 6/16/2009
as long as the both of you have been handling death its sad you had to have a discusson on which one of you should do your job,,,,stay off the golf course for awhile,,,,and have some compassion,,,the fact your defending yourselfs speaks for itself
Sounds like miscommunication all around : 6/16/2009
From what I read, the coroner was told no one would be in the funeral home until May 26. So where would the coroners take the paperwork? The funeral home dropped the ball by not having a constingency plan to handle incoming inquiries. I'm sure Mr. Warco and Mr. Rohanna would have been happy to have made arrangements with the funeral home to deliver the paperwork if they had been given the opportunity.
Jealous... : 6/16/2009
With everything going on in the world & in my own life, wish all I had to write about was my frustration over the scheduling of different gambling events. Oh well, maybe one day, when I have no other cares or responsibilities...
John Holt : 6/16/2009
The current system is already damaged beyond repair, and is getting worse. The insurance companies don't serve patients--they serve their shareholders. Countries around the world are doing medical care right. When Taiwan decided to get national health care, they said "we will adopt the American system." They looked at our system and said said that is not a health care system, it is an uncontrolled, non-competitive market." Taiwan went with a modified Canadian system, and they love it. People like Holt are spreading insurance industry propaganda. They are dupes of that industry.
Blame? : 6/17/2009
"Upon attempting to fax the information on May 22, the coroner's office was informed by the funeral that there was a general power outage in the area, and that the funeral personnel would be away until May 26." If there was no one there, then who exactly would Mr. Warco's "flunkies" have given the document to? It is a shame that the family went through this, but it does not seem like the coroner's office caused the delay. Perhaps if the funeral home would have been honest and explained the reason for the delay, there might have been a little less frustration and hurt for the family. I have never been a supporter of the current coroner, but I don't believe in badmouthing someone just because I don't like them. And defending yourself does not neccessarily mean you are at fault. If you were accused of something that wasn't true, I'm sure you would state the facts and "defend" yourself. Why is it that everyone seems to want to see the worst in others today. It seems that everybody is so quick to criticize others and in most cases it is done in a mean spirited, vindictive manner. There are two things I try to remember in life: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you, and Before you judge a man, walk a mile in his shoes.
pretty clear to me : 6/17/2009
I am guessing the reason they didn't drive to the funeral home to deliver the paper would be (as stated in the letter) that the personnel would not be there until the 26th. So dropping it off would really have not served much purpose. And do you people REALLY think it's out of line for the two county officials involved to have a quick and efficient discussion about the legality of who should sign the authorization? I'm sure if you have a job, there are many times you have a question about your job, why is this any different? Not to mention the "sue happy" world we live in, where any innocent mistake/oversight is open to a totally insane lawsuit for "pain and suffering". I dunno, sometimes I think you all just like to jump on the sympathy bandwagon rather than just see that something unfortunate happened, it sucked, but life sucks and it really wasn't anyone fault. Why isn't anyone badmouthing the funeral home for not having personnel there until the 26th?? I mean people die every day, they should be there 24/7 right? ugh..
the point is : 6/17/2009
To term limits- it wasn't a matter of doing their jobs it was a matter of jurisdiction. Why shouldn't they defend themselves when lies were printed in the paper??
