Life Support

MARTINSBURG - Delegate Larry V. Faircloth, R-Berkeley, is considering three ideas to help emergency medical services, including a statewide beer tax. He said the tax would be a way to get alcohol consumers to help pay for rescue crews that often respond to alcohol-related crashes. Specifics of the proposal are still being worked out. Between 1 and 3 cents would probably be added to each can and bottle of beer sold in the state. Wine may be included, too, Faircloth said Monday.

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. -- After days of watching doctors test her son for signs of life, Angela Lanciano Moreno buried him in a private ceremony Tuesday in Pendleton County, W.Va. Christian Lanciano, 22, was hospitalized at WVU Hospitals-East in Martinsburg in late August after doctors resuscitated him from a heroin overdose. He died Monday. "Losing Christian has put such an emptiness in all of us," Moreno said Wednesday. "He was an awesome person. " Moreno, a resident of Gerrardstown, W.Va.

TOWSON, Md. (AP) -- Loved ones mourned the passing of a Mount St. Mary's University student during a funeral service Monday in Towson. Twenty-two-year-old Dustin Bauer of Lutherville would have graduated in May, but died last week after an accidental fall from a first-floor landing inside a residence hall. He suffered head injuries and died after he was taken off life support. His family donated his organs. The service was held at the Church of the Immaculate Conception. Friends said Bauer was a young man with a big smile and a generous nature, who excelled at long distance running and at making friends.

WAYNESBORO, Pa. - A 9-month-old girl who almost drowned Thursday was listed in critical condition Saturday night at Johns Hopkins Children's Center in Baltimore. A hospital official confirmed her identity as Amelia Burke. Hans Bader, chief of the Waynesboro Ambulance Squad, said crews responded to a call from 213 S. Potomac St. around 1 p.m. Thursday. He said the child was not breathing and showed no pulse. A paramedic performed advanced life support on Amelia in the ambulance while it was en route to the hospital.

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. - An 85-year-old Martinsburg woman was killed Friday when she was hit by a car in front of Wal-Mart, Martinsburg Police said. Nellie Zabat was hit by a 1999 Ford Escort while walking across the road near the garden center entrance of the store, which is at the Martinsburg Mall, police said. Zabat was knocked down and pinned under the car shortly after noon. Paramedics from the Martinsburg Fire Department started life support and took her to Martinsburg City Hospital.

Editor's note: This story was corrected at 11:45 p.m. on Friday to change erroneous information provided about the condition of Hope Goins, a 3-year-old girl injured in a fire in Hagerstown Wednesday. Two of three people who were injured earlier this week in an apartment fire that claimed the life of a Hagerstown woman remained hospitalized Friday in Baltimore. Hope E. Goins, 3, and Quintin H. Coldsmith, 64, were listed in critical condition at R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Medical Center in Baltimore, a hospital spokeswoman said.

WASHINGTON COUNTY -- The Washington County Commissioners on Tuesday approved a revamped plan for addressing emergency medical services staffing shortages that involves spending as much as $1.7 million a year on staffing subsidies to EMS companies. The plan also involves making EMS salaries more competitive, instituting annual audit reviews and other accountability measures, and establishing a second advanced life support (ALS) chase car that would supplement ambulance responses in the South County area.

chambersburg@herald-mail.com CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. - With its agreement with West Shore Emergency Medical Services due to expire at the end of the year, the Chambersburg Borough Council must decide whether to stay with the advanced life support provider, establish its own service or consider other options. West Shore has provided the advanced life support, or ALS, ambulance service to the borough and surrounding townships since 2003. Monday night a consultant outlined four alternatives for the council to consider.

Berkeley Co. OKs transport rate hikes MARTINSBURG, W.Va. -The Berkeley County Commission on Thursday unanimously approved an increase in transport rates charged by the county's ambulance authority for certain services. The increase does not apply to the $50 household fee residents are charged for the county's emergency ambulance service. Authority board President Charles R. Hall said the proposal was an attempt to shift the cost burden to the people who use it, and also to increase the amount of reimbursement from federal programs.

andrews@herald-mail.com SMITHSBURG - A Smithsburg woman's seizure in March was dispatched as a high-priority call, two Washington County emergency services officials said this week, countering an allegation that dispatchers did not convey the situation's severity. Danny Gibson called 911 on March 5 when his pregnant fiancé, Christina Hess, was seizing at their home on Maple Avenue in Smithsburg. Hess, 20, and her unborn son died at Washington County Hospital that day. Last month, through the Maryland Public Information Act, The Herald-Mail obtained a tape and transcript of emergency calls connected to the incident and published stories about what happened.