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We take care of one another. When someone needs help, we help. That’s part of being human.

Even when some people deserve help more than others do.

When we rescue people who need to be rescued, do we assess the value of each life? Does it matter if they’re young or old, contributing members of society or retired after a lifetime of work?

No, it doesn’t, as two recent rescues illustrate.

The first was the rescue of a 20-something man in Lynn Canyon. Signs warn people not to cross into the danger area, but every year, some people decide that the signs don’t apply to them, cross the line, and get hurt. Or sometimes killed.

This particular young man was lying on the rocks below a cliff. It took several members of the search and rescue team about two hours to get to him and carry him on a stretcher up to where the ambulance was waiting. Although he wasn’t injured, he was unable to walk — because he was drunk. As the paramedics were loading him into the ambulance and TV cameras were pointed at him, he showed his appreciation for the rescue efforts by giving the finger.

A TV news crew interviewed one of the search and rescue team members. "How do you feel about rescuing people who disregard the warning signs?"

"We don’t like it, but…" he paused. "It’s what we do."

The second rescue involved a suburban search for an 80-year-old woman with Alzheimer’s. The evening before, she’d walked away from the care home where she lived. Searchers were combing the area by foot, and a helicopter was used to search for her from the air.

A police officer interviewed the afternoon after she disappeared was cautiously optimistic. With the warm weather conditions, he said, there was a much better chance for a positive outcome than if the weather had been cold and rainy. Her neice talked about how the woman had been certain that she needed to go somewhere.

Hours later, she was found, several kilometres from where she lived. Her worst injury was a sunburn.

I can guess which search and rescue team felt better about their efforts.

They were asleep in their beds, and a few minutes later, they were packed in lifeboats, without warm clothes and some without even shoes, in the rain.

Those few minutes started at 12:25 AM today. A ferry was on its overnight route from Port Hardy on Vancouver Island to Prince Rupert on BC’s northern coast, and it had moved off-course from the rough waves. It hit a rock.

A distress call went out. Residents of an isolated fishing village heard it and rushed out to the sinking ferry with their boats. They, along with people on the Coast Guard boat that happened to be in the area, pulled people from the lifeboats and into their boats. They took them to Hartley Bay, the nearby village of about 200.

Like the Titanic, the ferry tilted until its nose was pointing up, and then it sunk into the water. Unlike the Titanic, it took less than one hour rather than several hours to sink. Those who were there described the sound of the cars on the ferry crashing into each other as the ferry disappeared into the ocean.

The village community hall became the emergency shelter. In the middle of the night, just about everyone in Hartley Bay was awake and helping. They provided food, coffee, blankets, clothing, and comfort.

Except for possibly two passengers who are unaccounted for, all the passengers of Queen of the North are safe. But the coastal communities are now without ferry transportation. People are stranded at both ends of the route. Tourism will also suffer until another ferry can be put on the coastal route.

The “what to do now” discussions will start soon. But with 99+ people rescued in a short time, the overall feeling now is relief.

More information is in these articles:

• B.C. Ferry sinks; two unaccounted for
• Small community cares for survivors
• Passengers stranded on lifeboats in stormy seas

Imagine that your name is Jim Green and you’re running for mayor of your city. You’ve spent 20 years helping the least fortunate — the poor, the homeless, the drug addicts. You’ve run for mayor before and come in a close second.

Your chief competitor in this mayoral race has been on city council for years too. He also has some good ideas for the city, but one of his campaign tactics is to slam the competition — you. More than slamming, in fact. He publicly stated that one of his goals was to run you off council, or something along those lines.

We don’t have to like our politicians. We often don’t, and we have plenty to complain about with our national and provincial leaders. But civic politicians are more like us. They’re our neighbours and people we can interact with.

A local newspaper ran a profile of some of the candidates, giving their answers to each of six questions. The last question was what they’d change if they had complete power in the city for one day. When you’re Jim Green, you describe how you’ll eliminate poverty. And you mean it. The competition, however, answered: “city council.”

You can tell when it’s about power.

Imagine that among the relatively unknown independents also running for mayor is a candidate named James Green. The other independents each get only a few hundred votes in the election. James Green, however, gets over 4000 votes, more than the margin of votes between you and your chief competitor. Almost nobody had heard of James Green before the election, and there was his name, right above yours on the ballot.

Imagine finding out that James Green’s campaign office is in the same building as your competitor’s. The competitor who almost certainly would’ve come in second to you if James Green’s name hadn’t appeared on the ballot above yours and confused a few thousand voters.

Conspiracy theories are tossed about and denied. An investigation may take place. Most likely, though, we’ll spend the next term with a mayor other than the one that the majority of people intended to vote for.

Jim, I voted for you. Life sometimes isn’t fair, but I thank you for all the work you’ve done for our city and especially for those who need the most help. Keep in your heart the good that you’ve done and the people you did it for. You’ve made a difference in this city, and no one can take that away from you.

On November 8, the New York Times published the article For Thyroid Hormones, How Low Is Too Low? It addresses one of the main problems that people with hypothyroidism face. Most doctors rely on the results of a blood test with (among other shortcomings) inaccurate lab ranges, the TSH test. In fact, the medical establishment teaches doctors to use this number above any evidence presented in front of them, including more accurate blood tests. TSH level rather than assessment and thinking typically determines if a patient will be treated for hypothyroidism, and if so, how much medication that patient is allowed to have.

It’s bad enough that the usual lab reference range for TSH goes up to 5.5 mU/L when a high of 3 or 2 is recommended. Some doctors quoted in this article choose to ignore even that too-wide range and refuse to treat patients until their TSH level reaches 10. They are uninformed, apparently unthinking, and unable to help thyroid patients.

Letters to the editor are supposed to be a maximum of 150 words, which doesn’t allow for much background information. Since my letter wasn’t published in the newspaper, I’ll publish it here.

Dear Editor:

People with hypothyroidism are tired of being dismissed by doctors who want more “compelling evidence” than lab results and symptoms.

Taking thyroid hormones unnecessarily can cause health problems. But not taking them when they’re needed results in other health problems and risks.

Contrary to Dr. Martin Surks’ claim (”For Thyroid Hormones, How Low Is Too Low?”), plenty of evidence indicates that thyroid treatment is effective for people with hypothyroidism symptoms and a TSH under 10. As a thyroid site webmaster, I’ve seen hundreds of such people return to health after getting the necessary hormones. It’s rare for thyroid treatment under these conditions not to be effective.

If the placebo effect worked, we’d experience results from the anti-depressants and other drugs that doctors willingly prescribe for us without lab results.

What more evidence does he need?

Dr. David Cooper states in the article that patients who believe they have hypothyroidism “want to blame something.” No — we just want effective treatment.

This link was posted in a forum discussion recently: In coma for 2 years, patient says he heard all.

Excerpt:

“The doctors said that I wasn’t conscious, but I understood everything and I cried in desperation,” Crisafulli was quoted as saying in Italian media on Wednesday.

I’m trying to imagine the pain of only being able to lie motionless and listen for two years. To hear people around you talk about you instead of to you. To hear doctors say that your situation is hopeless. To realize that you might die like that, or — even worse? — to live like that for many years.

I’m trying to imagine the untellable relief of waking up from that.

Years ago, a life-long friend of mine was in a coma for several days before he died. Eddie had been in his 60s when I got to know him as a child. He owned the horse farm where I spent as much of my childhood as possible, and I stayed in touch with him as an adult. He died on his 90th birthday.

I visited him twice in the hospital when he was in a coma. We sat there and talked about him, about good memories, and about other things, wondering if he could hear us. When we left, Margaret (his long-time companion) said, “Good night, Eddie,” and I did the same.

He might have heard us.