Thursday, April 23, 1998
The University Daily Kansan
Section A·Page 7
Local woman rides for life, lungs
By Tamara Miller
miller@kansan.com
Kansas staff writer
Hao Nguyen wants everyone to hold their breath.
Nguyen's picture can be seen pasted on yellow donation cans in downtown Lawrence businesses. Next to the can is usually a coffee stirrer and a flier.
Nga Ngyuen sits next to a bike outside of The Orient, 1003 Massachusetts St. Ngyuen will bike 2,000 miles in 45 days for charity. She needs to raise $6,000 before she leaves. Photo by Colie Waters/KANSAN
"Hold your breath for sixty seconds," it reads. "Now, try to breath from the attached coffee stirrer."
Nguyen uses the stirrer to show what breathing is like for people with respiratory problems.
The 28-year-old Lawrence resident is trying to raise $6,000 for the 1998 GTE Big Ride, which is sponsored by the American Lung Association. The ride begins June 15 in Seattle and ends August 1 in Washington, D.C. The ride will span 3,000 miles across the United States
Ngueny said the fund-raising was the hardest part of the ride.
Nguyen said she was inspired to do the ride because it combines two of her passions: mountain biking and helping people. The bike ride is motivating Nguyen to challenge herself physically, but in more ways that one. She recently quit smoking for the race.
"You can always push yourself physically so much more than you can mentally," she said.
"This ride is a kind of a break-me thing," she said. "I knew if I was going to be serious about this, I would have to quit."
Nguyen rides about 200 miles a week and wants to work up to 400
miles before the ride begins.
Although the fund-raising has generated $3.000 so far, there has been a complication. Nguyen said her bicycle was stolen two weeks ago.
"After my bike was stolen, I wanted to quit," she said. "But people have been really supportive of me and have even offered to lend their bikes to me to train."
Nguyen started training and fund-raising in January. She said one aspect that encouraged her to do the ride was that most of the money she raised would be returned to local ALA chapters.
"Fifty to sixty cents of every dollar goes to the local chapter," she said. "Typically, charities only return about twenty cents on the dollar."
Nguyen is working three jobs to raise enough money for the ride. She also is asking for donations from local residents and businesses. She said several downtown businesses had donated to the benefit and have even come up with innovative ways to raise funds.
"I asked for a donation from Milton's, and they threw out the idea to do a benefit dinner," she said.
Jean Lewis, co-owner of Milton's Coffee and Wine, 920 Massachusetts St., said the restaurant wanted to help Nguyen. They decided to hold a benefit dinner April 13 to raise money for the event.
"The turnout was great," Lewis said. "We raised several hundred dollars for the ride."
senior, knows Nguyen from her mother's restaurant, the Orient, 1003 Massachusetts St.,
Benjamin Tuttle, Moraga, Calif.
"I think it's great for her," he said. "We have information on what she's doing here and a place for the donation can. We're trying to help her out in that way."
Tuttle is the assistant manager at Let It Ride, 15 W. Ninth St.
Nguyen said the experience had been a challenge.
"it's been up and down, but the thing that has kept me going is the network of friends and people I have befriended."
WASHINGTON — One of five Americans do not know or are not sure Jews were killed in the Holocaust or that it happened in World War II, according to a survey commissioned by a museum dedicated to telling the story of Holocaust victims.
But the Holocaust Memorial Museum took heart yesterday in findings that showed a large majority of Americans wanted to learn more about Nazi Germany's murderous campaign in hopes of preventing future genocide.
Eighty percent picked the Holocaust as one of history's most important lessons, behind the American Revolution and ahead of Native Americans' struggles, the civil rights movement, the Vietnam War, slavery and the Cold War. And 66 percent wanted to know more about the Holocaust.
Holocaust Museum tests Americans
The Associated Press
"This history is still not over. It's still unfolding," said acting museum director Sara Bloomfield. "I think that makes the Holocaust very relevant to Americans, especially when there's present-day genocide in Bosnia and Rwanda."
Bloomfield said, "Most Americans recognized that the Holocaust is not just a tale about what the Nazis did
to Jews, but it is about what some human beings did to other human beings. There is a lesson for everyone in that."
According to the Holocaust poll: Twenty-one percent did not know or were not sure whether Jews were murdered in gas chambers, although the Nazis exterminated 6 million.
—Nineteen percent answered false when asked whether the Holocaust took place during World War II; another 19 percent were not sure.
—Asked why it is important to
—Seventy-one percent were under the false impression that the United States granted refuge to all European Jews who asked for refuge.
study the Holocaust, answers included to prevent another Holocaust, to understand the dangers of persecution and hatred and to learn potential consequences of abuse of power.
The national telephone survey of 1,641 adults was conducted Nov. 10-15 by Peter D. Hart Research Associates. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.
The museum commissioned the survey as it marks its five-year anniversary this month. So far, it has received 10 million visitors.
Counselors can help in crisis situations
Lisa Stevens John
john@kansas.com
Kansas staff writer
Pollster Debbie Klingender said the museum wanted to test people's knowledge and interest.
A University of Kansas service that many students know little about is the Counseling and Psychological Service stress intervention program.
when tragedy strikes, program counselors help students deal with grief, both on an individual and group basis.
Last month, third-floor residents of McCollum Hall returned from spring break to learn that Heather Norris, Ballin, Mo., freshman and a resident of their floor, was fatally injured in a vehicle accident March 24.
Kate McGee, Loveland, Colo., junior and a resident assistant on the third floor, said a meeting was called March 29 to talk about what had happened.
"It was really tough," McGee said. "No one really said a whole lot at the meeting. Everyone was in shock."
Frank DeSalvo, psychologist and program director, spoke to the group in Collom.
"Frank told us what to expect in the grieving process," McGee said. "It was very helpful for the resident assistants to have him come and talk to everyone. We have a tough enough time dealing with this as friends who have lost a friend, let alone as resident assistants."
In any crisis, the people who are involved directly often have friends who cluster around, said Jim Kreider, a program counselor.
"But many other people are touched, too, whether they observed the crisis situation or whether they just knew somebody who was involved, or even if they just read about it in the newspaper." Kreider said.
These people, too, may need help in dealing with grief, he said.
"It's troubling to hear about tragedies that happen in life — the type of thing where you feel it only happens to other people
— not to people you know, "Kreider said. "But then here it is, right in your neighborhood, a
How to help others cope with traumatic events
Listen carefully to what some-
Listen carefully to what some one is saying. This is more important than solving the problem.
Spend extra time with the traumatized person but do not force it.
Create opportunities for talking about the event but do not overdo it.
everyday tasks and activities Help the person return to as
Offer to help the person with supervision,trains and activities
*Help the person return to as normal a routine as possible.*
*Do not tell people they are*
lucky that things are not worse.
Remember it is normal to feel
Remember it is normal to feel bad during and after a crisis.
Do not try to rescue people from their own emotions.
roommate or somebody on your floor. It's unexpected."
Research has shown it is important for crisis intervention to begin within 24 to 48 hours after the event. Kreider said.
Both long-term and short-term psychological and physiological effects of grief are reduced when people have an outlet for talking about it. Kreider said.
Program counselors also responded when Lisa Rosel, Overland Park freshman, was fatally injured March 31 after being struck by a vehicle.
Jennifer Wamelink, complex director for Gertrude Sellars Pearson-Corbin Hall, said program counselors came to the residence hall twice, first during the evening after Rosel died and again four days later. Both times they spent about two hours talking to the residents.
"I think it just helped for people to be able to communicate their feelings with others who are feeling the same way and to be able to vent and to get some of the emotions out," Wamelink said. "In talking to the counselors, the residents learned that what they were feeling was normal and that everyone goes through the grieving process in their own way."
New ThinPrep Pap Test more expensive but more reliable
Procedure offers better sensitivity in finding cancer
By Lisa Stevens John
John@kansas.com
Kansan staff writer
A woman can have cervical cancer and not even know it, said a University of Kansas Medical Center physician.
The traditional Pap test is the leading tool for detecting cervical cancer, but the new ThinPrep Pap Test, is even better, said Patricia Thomas, physician and pathologist.
"If they don't have Pap smears and regular gynecological examinations, cancer of the cervix might not be detected until it's too late." Thomas said. "You can imagine—if a baby can fit through the cervix.
something can grow really quite big before you notice it."
Since the invention of the Pap test 50 years ago, the number of deaths from cervical cancer in the United States has dropped from 35,000 a year to less than 5,000 a year.
"I think the conventional Pap test is an excellent test," Thomas said. "But the ThinPrep Pap Test seems to have an increased sensitivity in picking up abnormalities."
"But rather than smearing a small portion of the cells onto a slide, the collection device is rinsed in a vial of preservative solution and then sent to a lab where an instrument filters the specimen to remove blood, mucous and inflammation and applies a thin layer of cells to a microscope slide." Thomas said.
With the ThinPrep test, the physician collects the cervical cells in the usual manner. Thomas said.
The result is that that abnormal
"If they don't have Pap smears and regular gynecological examinations, cancer of the cervix might not be detected until it's too late."
Patricia Thomas Physician and pathologist
cells are easier to spot, said Marilee Means, Ph.D., a cytotechnologist and the director of the Med Center's cytotechnology program. The program trains technicians to detect early signs of cancer and other disease.
"So the ThinPrep makes a big difference for us when we look through the microscope," Means said. "With this test, because you
Four technicians at the Med Center's lab read about 15,000 Pap tests a year. Means said.
can see all of the cells, the abnormal cells, even if they are few in number, seem to pop right up at you."
The FDA approved the ThinPrep test in 1996, replacing the traditional Pap test. The Med Center will begin using the test May 1.
Randall Rock, physician and chief of staff at Watkins Memorial Health Center, said at this time, the clinic was using the traditional Pentest.
Thomas said the cost of the Thin-
Prep test at the Med Center would be about $40, at least twice as high as a traditional Pap test.
Means agreed the cost would be greater.
"But it's well worth the extra cost. Generally speaking, you don't go to sleep one day with perfectly normal cells and wake up the next day with cancer," Means said. "Your cells go through stages of precursor lesions. If we can catch and treat those lesions, nobody ever has to get cervical cancer."
Patricia Thomas, a physician and pathologist at the University of Kansas Medical Center, examines a ThinPap Pap Test slide under a microscope at the Med Center's cytotechnology lab. Thomas said the Med Center would begin using the new test May 1. Photo by Lisa Stevens John/KANSAN
JAYHAWKER YEARBOOK
The 1998 Jayhawker Yearbook will be distributed in the main lobby of the Kansas Union April 28-May 1.
Those who have pre-ordered must show KUID. The Jayhawker will also be available for purchase at $30. 10-5 Tues.-Fri.