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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (April 26, 1999)
- for those who helped with the First Annual NU Earth Fest (an educational program for at-risk youth) SWAT Team Volunteers Laura Andersen Dale Ekart Lynn Anderson Ray McCalla Calandra Hersrud Diane Podolske Jennifer Mackrill Mike Rude Amy Martin Lindsey Smith Eryn McConnell Jeannine Vanhaningham Dena Wangberg Nick Whitney Ann Wieser F St Recreation Center Air Park Recreation Ctr * Special thanks to the Nebraska Consortium forService Leaming in Higher Education for major finding of this event and the Campbell's Nurseryand Garden Centers for donated materials. ^a g T^j D E ^ T in TNVCSLVEMENT _ rj JLu»lYT»ttT of H»bmli« Health workers recovering from post-shooting trauma LITTLETON, Colo. (AP) - The usually chatty paramedic spoke to no one as he entered St. Anthony’s Central Hospital, still dazed and white-faced two days after the Columbine High School massacre. He hadn’t slept more than two hours at a stretch. “It’s time for me to make a career change,” the veteran crisis worker, hands in his pockets,^old emergency room nurse Jane Cole. He’s already got a lead on a new career. Death comes with the job, but the police, surgeons and other emergency workers who tended the dead and wounded are enduring trauma unlike anything they’ve ever experienced. For many, it was the sheer numbers - 15 dead, 23 wounded - and the tender ages of the victims. “This is the hardest thing that I’ve Before you step out into the ft It’s tough to be caught in between: No longer covered by your family’s health insurance plan, and not yet covered by an employer’s group health plan. 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Nebraska residents under age 65 are eligible to apply for this product 4U statistics (accurate as qf 3/1/99) available from Blue Cross and Blue Shield qf Nebraska, an Independent Licensee qf the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association. Call toll-free, 1-800-622-2763 24 hours a day, or fill out and send in the coupon below to receive a free information package. I i Please send me a FREE information i package on the ValuePlan j NAME__ ; ADDRESS_ i CITY__ ! STATE ■ - | ZIP_ ! DATE OF BIRTH i ! SEX: □ M □ F PHONE NUMBER i . - Mail to: Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Nebraska, 7261 Mercy Road, Omaha, NE 68180, Attn: Individual Marketing or call 1-800-622-2763 toll-free, 24 hoars a day ! 1 I S had to deal with since being a nurse,” said Cheryl English, a charge nurse at University of Colorado Health Sciences Center who has tended hun dreds of patients disfigured by bums and gunfights over seven years. “These kids were helpless. They were innocent. They were not involved in any gang. They weren’t in a shootout. They were in a library.” For many Jefferson County sher iff’s deputies, Sunday was their first day off since the rampage. Most had n’t had time to seek the counseling the department offers. They were tired and shaken by the scene of a library and cafeteria littered with slain students. “It was so difficult for me, walk ing into the library,” Sheriff John Stone said. “It was devastating.” One officer from a county juve nile diversion program bears an espe cially heavy burden, District Attorney Dave Thomas said. When gunmen Eric ’Harris and Dylan Klebold finished a program for trou bled teens in February after being caught breaking into a van, the unidentified officer said their trouble appeared over. In a report recommending early release from the program, the officer wrote that Klebold was a “bright young man who has a great deal of potential” and Harris was “likely to succeed in life.” Those words have haunted him since Tuesday. “I’m very concerned about him,” Thomas said of the officer. “He did the best he could, I believe.” For health care workers, the trau ma often came after the patients were stabilized or declared lost. Surgeon William Pfeifer didn’t have time when the patients started coming in. After 30 years of surgery, the stress was still with him. “I hope that never goes away,” he said. “I don’t want to get casual about this.” Grief counselors call the experi ence “compassion fatigue.” It can be made worse when the victims are children, said Dr. Mark Stebnicki, an Arkansas State University psycholo gist who counseled workers and vic tims in Jonesboro. The flowers and faxes sent by Oklahoma City and Arkansas nurses marked the kinship of grief that workers feel. But they are also a con stant reminder, as is die talk amid, the din of clinking plates and coffee cups in the staff lounge. “I don’t know that anyone’s ever been involved with anything like this before,” said Cole, an ER nurse for 19 years. “It’s just been such a sensory overload.” . / GOOD LUCK ON FINALS!! . Derick Albefs' ' ’ . Reza Arbah* . ^ >','j !i>! "VQBf" ',i i'JjlL>{i33 L'r'-V Sltj SfjliJ i»ftj v'C ' 4S*Sgff... - - Jeff Harris y Ryan Johnson* ~ Doug Jones* ^ Dacia Knudson*' Dana Rasmussen ^ Laurie Robinson* Chris Sundquist Staci Zitek. *Congratulations to our graduating interns!! We wish yoitthe best!! Missed out on a coarse? With . ;; 3? summer lemming, it’s no time to cry over spilled milk. There’s still a chance to get your degree on schedule. Take a course this summer from UNL’s College Independent Study Program. You can enroll NOW. Work at your pace, anyplace. Even at the beach. Call UNL’s College Independent Study at 472-4321 to avoid the agony of defeat. mt ■ * '. V Division of Continuing Studies • Department of Distance Education www.unt.edu/contedAlfsted UNl’s most popular courses in: Accounting AgEOON Art History Broadcasting Classics Ecology Economics English Finance Geography History Human Development Management Marketing Mathematics Nursing Nutrition Philosophy Physics Political Science Psychology Sociology The University ot Nebraska is an affirmative action/equal opportunity institution