’Kona deserves better health care’
In 2023, the Association of American Medical Colleges reported sepsis as the third-leading cause of death in U.S. hospitals.
The U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention ranks the state of Hawaii 12th for deaths related to sepsis. My husband could have been one of those statistics. Sepsis happens when an existing infection overwhelms the body’s immune system which, untreated, results in multiple organ failure and death.
My husband and I have visited Hawaii every year for over 30 years. I am a retired registered nurse with over 30 years of nursing experience, most as a tenured nursing professor, educator and researcher at one of the nationally top-ranked colleges of nursing. I have taught nursing at all levels at community colleges and both private and public colleges. I’ve been a hospital nurse and a family nurse practitioner in a school-based clinic and Planned Parenthood.
My husband fell at home and suffered three lacerations, one of which required stitches, and a sprained back. Kona Community Hospital Acute Care Clinic providers performed wound irrigation and stitches and spinal diagnostic imaging.
Two days later, his oral temperature was 102 degrees. Thankfully, he has since recovered.
Sterile techniques are essential when performing procedures such as wound irrigation and laceration stitches, because they provide direct access to the bloodstream, which can lead to sepsis.
Kona hospital care providers were kind, courteous, attentive and friendly, but none of them washed their hands in my presence. I also witnessed multiple breaks in sterile techniques, such as using nonsterile gloves during wound irrigation and stitching.
Kona deserves better health care.
Sepsis can be prevented. I implore Kona residents to learn more about sepsis, who is most at risk, and how to prevent sepsis. Please visit the CDC sepsis website at: https://www.cdc.gov/sepsis/.
Constance Dallas
Kailua-Kona
Thoughts on how to generate power
Decades ago, around 1969, when I first arrived on the Big Island, sugar plantations were just starting to shut down. A few years later, I was traveling down the Hamakua Coast and saw the big gear statue that was there representing the last of the sugar plantations holdouts, just before sugar was closed down in the islands.
They used to use the unwanted parts of sugarcane, called bagasse, to power the turbines of the electric company.
Why did we ever close this self-sustaining industry? Sure, sugar was cheaper to produce in the Philippines, but we still could have the bagasse to power and generate electricity for all of Hawaii.
Now, we have a company on the Hamakua Coast that wants to burn the eucalyptus, Honua Ola.
Here’s an idea: Use the opala from these trees to power our electric turbines that generate power for thousands of homes here in Hawaii.
As it is now, we get fuel from the U.S mainland and import it to these islands. We could be saving lots of money.
Stanley Tadashi Aoki
Hilo