Life Support

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.

EMMITSBURG, Md. (AP) -- Mount St. Mary's University officials say a senior there has been placed on life support after injuring his head in a fall from the first-floor landing of a residence hall at the Catholic school in Emmitsburg. Twenty-two-year old Dustin Bauer of Lutherville, Md., has been at the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore since the accident early Sunday morning. Monsignor Stuart Swetland says Bauer is being kept alive pending final farewells from family members who are having his organs harvested for transplant.

EMMITSBURG, Md. (AP) -- Relatives say a Mount St. Mary's University senior has died of head injuries he suffered in a fall from the first-floor landing of a residence hall at the campus in Emmitsburg. An aunt, Michelle Distler, says Dustin Bauer, 22, of Lutherville, Md., died Wednesday night when he was taken off life support at the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore. Bauer was injured early Sunday morning and underwent surgery Monday. He was placed on life support so that family members could say goodbye before this organs were harvested for transplant.

BOONSBORO - A Funkstown woman, who was four months pregnant, was being kept alive as medical staff worked to remove her organs for donation Monday evening, more than two days after she was injured in an accident in Boonsboro, the woman's mother said. Kelsy Lynn Thomas, 20, of 102 W. Green St., was critically injured Saturday when the 1995 Honda in which she was riding struck an unoccupied parked car at a high rate of speed on Main Street near Mousetown Road and came to rest in the westbound lane at 1:57 a.m., according a Washington County Sheriff's Department press release.

CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. - The Chambersburg Borough Council Monday night voted 6-4 to end further discussion on starting its own advanced life support ambulance service after discussing a study that pegged the cost at more than $600,000. The borough and Greene, Guilford, Hamilton and Letterkenny townships, along with Franklin County, have a contract with West Shore Emergency Medical Services of Camp Hill, Pa., to provide advanced life support (ALS) ambulance service for those municipalities and county facilities.

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.

Ryan Physical Therapy Associates Stephen D. Ryan, MPT, president of Ryan Physical Therapy Associates of Hagerstown, participated in the Federation of State Boards of Physical Therapy conference held July 21-23 in Alexandria, Va. The conference brought together 24 state board members from 20 states to discuss current legal and regulatory issues that affect the practice of physical therapy. City Hospital MARTINSBURG, W.Va. - Stacey A. Anderson, M.D., obstetrician/gynecologist, has joined the Martinsburg-based practice of James Brown, M.D., and the medical staff at City Hospital.

CHAMBERSBURG, PA. A consulting firm and a retired fire chief will help the Chambersburg Borough Council in its search for a new emergency services chief, while debate continues on whether the department should have its own advanced life support ambulance service. The council hired Municipal Resources of Pennsylvania to assist in developing an "ideal candidate profile" and other services for the selection process at a cost of $11,850 and expenses not to exceed $1,800. Steven Darcangelo, the retired fire chief of Mount Lebanon, Pa., was hired to help in the process at a cost not to exceed $2,500.

chambersburg@herald-mail.com CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. - Ambulance fees in Chambersburg are going up for the first time since 2003, with basic life support services increasing $75 to $450. "Each year, the ambulance service for Chambersburg becomes more expensive to run," Assistant Borough Manager David Finch said. As an example, he cited the $35 oxygen fee which is no longer reimbursed by Medicare. The increases will bring the borough's fees in line with those charged by ambulance services outside the borough, Finch said.

bonnieb@herald-mail.com CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. - A recent $100,000 grant to Chambersburg Advanced Life Support (ALS) enabled the service to enhance its fleet and to build a garage to house it. U.S. Rep. Bill Shuster presented the money to officials from ALS, a division of West Shore EMS, on Friday morning at the construction site. "We will use the funding to purchase an ambulance, a paramedic unit and other equipment that Chambersburg needs to better serve the community," said Larry Roberts, vice president and COO of West Shore EMS. The money frees up capital previously allotted for those purchases, and will be used to build a garage to house the 10-vehicle fleet, Roberts said.