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Community paramedics don’t wait for an emergency to visit rural patients at home
GILLETTE, Wyo. — Sandra Lane said she has been to the emergency room about eight times this year. The 62-year-old has had multiple falls, struggled with balance and tremors, and experienced severe swelling in her legs. A paramedic recently arrived at her doorstep again, but this time it wasn’t for an emergency. Jason Frye was […]
Telehealth brings expert sexual assault exams to rural patients
Amanda Shelley was sitting in her dentist’s waiting room when she received a call from the police. A local teenage girl had been sexually assaulted and needed an exam. Shelley, a nurse in rural Eagle County, Colorado, went to her car and called a telehealth company to arrange an appointment with a sexual assault nurse […]
Mental health crisis teams aren’t just for cities anymore
NEWTON, Iowa — Jeff White knows what can happen when 911 dispatchers receive a call about someone who feels despondent or agitated. He experienced it repeatedly: The 911 operators dispatched police, who often took him to a hospital or jail. “They don’t know how to handle people like me,” said White, who struggles with depression […]
Tribe embraces recreational marijuana sales on reservation where alcohol is banned
PINE RIDGE, S.D. — In a growing number of U.S. states, people can both drink alcohol and legally smoke recreational marijuana. In others, they can use alcohol but not pot. But on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, the opposite is true: Marijuana is legal, but booze is banned. Citizens of the Oglala […]
The push for abortion lawmaking after ‘Dobbs’ is unique, legal experts say
The end of nationwide abortion protections has been met with a wave of calls from lawmakers and governors in at least a dozen states for special legislative sessions that would reshape the state-by-state patchwork of laws that now govern abortion in the U.S. “I haven’t seen so many states focusing their attention so quickly on […]
Police suspect arson at Wyoming site of clinic that would provide abortions
Police suspect arson was behind a fire that damaged a clinic under construction in Casper that would become Wyoming’s sole site for procedural abortions. A caller phoned 911 shortly before dawn Wednesday to report seeing someone with a gas can running away from the building near downtown Casper. Smoke billowed from the building’s windows by […]