Lawsuit: Agency s failure led to New Mexico boy s death
COLLEEN HEILD , Albuquerque Journal
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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) At age 17, Krista Cruz was still in foster care when her second son, James Dunklee Cruz, was born.
The New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department knew Krista well she had been a ward of the state for seven years after experiencing physical abuse, neglect, excessive discipline and educational neglect at home.
Yet over the next four years, her young son James lived in danger, himself a victim of abuse and neglect before he was beaten to death in late 2019, allegedly by one of his mother’s male friends, according to a wrongful death lawsuit filed Tuesday by a personal representative for the boy’s estate.
Daily Press case against hospital moves forward Written by Geoffrey Plant on May 12, 2021
A judge on Tuesday tossed out a motion by Gila Regional Medical Center’s attorneys to dismiss the lawsuit filed last year by the Daily Press against the county-owned hospital over its denial of an Inspection of Public Records Act request concerning COVID-19 patient statistics.
Sixth Judicial District Court Judge Jim Foy said the case can move forward, but he encouraged the hospital and the newspaper to consider settling the matter out of court or through a mediator. Barring such a development, the hospital must now respond within 30 days to a motion to compel discovery to produce evidence that Daily Press attorney Will Perkins filed last month.
UNMH TOWERING OVER TRAFFIC:
Sandra F. Penn emails, “I am in the North Campus Community. We are watching a lot of UNMH construction but there has been no communication to us of what is being built and what streets are being changed. Is it possible that the Journal might do a story on the hospital’s current grand plan? It would be greatly appreciated.”
Mark Rudi at University of New Mexico Health Sciences has the scoop.
“We are very excited about this project, which will help us continue to provide high quality care to New Mexicans,” he says, “The University of New Mexico Hospital Tower is an important and necessary initiative that will add much-needed capacity. The new tower will add 96 intensive care inpatient beds, 18 operating rooms and a new adult emergency department. Construction of the tower is scheduled to begin in June and is scheduled to be completed by fall of 2024.
Wish-iversary: Wish Kid, groups thank local medical workers
Cancer survivor and Make-A-Wish New Mexico “wish kid” Sam Neale, right, serves doughnuts to Presbyterian Rust Medical Center health-care workers Thursday morning outside the hospital’s main entrance. Make-A-Wish, the Jennifer Riordan Foundation and the Neale family provided coffee and doughnuts at three area hospitals to thank medical workers and celebrate World Wish Day. Argen Marie Duncan photo.
A year ago, an area teenager received his wish to give back to health-care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic, and he gave back again last week.
Thursday, on the anniversary of that wish granted by Make-A-Wish New Mexico, Albuquerque cancer survivor Sam Neale, now 18, served coffee and doughnuts to 250 employees at each of the three hospitals where he dropped off decontamination kits last year. Presbyterian Rust Medical Center was one of those facilities, along with the University of New Mexico Hospital and Lovelace Hosp
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A mobile device built by Albuquerque startup RingIR Inc. could soon provide mass screening capability for coronavirus at highly congested settings like airports, with results in seconds.
The National Institutes of Health already financed initial testing on people at the University of New Mexico Hospital and at Emory University in Georgia with promising results. And follow-on funding through NIH’s Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics, or RADx, initiative is in the works to expand testing to more institutions across the country, said RingIR founder, President and CEO Charles Harb.
“The UNMH trial showed we had something potentially groundbreaking,” Harb told the Journal. “So RADx decided to extend its involvement.”