First responders fill gaps in service

You are driving on a grid road 30 kilometres from home and come across an accident. Is it better to do what you can for the injured before driving home and calling 911, or put the person in your truck and rush him to the nearest hospital? Two people trained in emergency response say it […] Read more

No rural hospitals to close

Rural Saskatchewan residents are relieved their hospitals are not being closed and that emergency care will improve under a Dec. 5 announcement by the provincial government. Most residents covered by the Southwest Health District were concerned that facilities would be eradicated, said board chair Delores Tumbach of Leader. “Most important to them are emergency service […] Read more



Treatment for rotator cuff injury – Health Clinic

Q: My 15-year-old son injured his shoulder playing baseball. The doctor said he had a rotator cuff injury. He told him to rest the shoulder for two weeks and then resume his normal activities. After four weeks it is still painful for him to lift his arm or carry heavy things. Is there anything else […] Read more

Schools plan amalgamation

A go-slow approach is the best way for school divisions to amalgamate, says the chair of a Saskatchewan school board. Donnett Elder, of the Weyburn Central division, said she favours this province’s voluntary mergers, rather than the forced ones happening in neighbouring Manitoba. In an interview at the Sask. School Trustees Association meeting Nov. 20, […] Read more


Couple comes home to farm

HARRIS, Sask. – Craig Hanson returned to the family farm four years ago because he was frustrated working for other people “hitting their home runs.” He was in Argentina working for the Prairie Agricultural Machinery Institute when his wife Karen Timoshuk, six months pregnant and with a toddler daughter, moved the household 200 kilometres west […] Read more

Dying towns told to look at home for solutions

Saskatchewan’s population would almost double if everybody who was born in the province returned home. Al Scholz, executive director of Saskatchewan Agri-Vision Corp., says 800,000 Saskatchewan-born people live somewhere else. But he told a Nov. 23 meeting of the Community Development Society of Saskatchewan that successful economic development is the only way to increase the […] Read more

Farmer suicide rate low

EDMONTON – Canadian farmers have been less likely to commit suicide than the general population, says a medical researcher. That good news was contained in one of the largest studies of the national farm population and reported at the annual Canadian Farm Safety and Rural Health conference Nov. 4-6. Queen’s University professor Dr. William Pickett […] Read more


Life altered by electrocution

Dory Isaac was alone with her husband when he was electrocuted while moving an auger that touched a power line on their Shellbrook, Sask., farm. “Helmut was lying on the auger,” she said, remembering the April 2, 1998 accident that changed life for her family. “There was fire coming from his rubber boots. I knew […] Read more

Spouse said to suffer from flu vaccination – Health Clinic

Q: In regard to your column about flu vaccination for the elderly, you should clarify that a flu shot to the wrong person can ruin her health. My wife had rheumatoid arthritis and within 24 hours of a flu shot she became an invalid who needed constant personal care. She was so sick we thought […] Read more