The St. Catharines Standard ran a story on Jul.30, 2009, "City property manager remembered as personable and kind", regarding the sudden passing of St. Catharines, Ontario city staffer Helen Harris. Marlene Bergsma reported that Harris was returned from Millard Fillmore Hospital in Buffalo, and that Harris' organs were donated through the Trillium Network:
"St. Catharines city hall employees are reeling from the sudden death of the city’s property manager. Helen Harris, 52, died Sunday after suffering a stroke at a city property meeting Thursday night.
Harris was feeling unwell and left the meeting early, and was rushed to hospital that night, said her sister, Robin Begolo Goddard.
Once it became clear she would not survive, her family knew that she would want to donate her organs, Begolo Goddard said, and the decision was made to return her to St. Catharines from Millard Fillmore Hospital in Buffalo.
Her heart, lungs, kidneys, liver and eyes were donated through the Trillium Gift of Life Network, said Begolo Goddard, because Harris had made it clear she wanted to be an organ donor. “We all knew that about Helen. They got a lot from her, and we are so glad about that.”
Everybody who worked at city hall knew Harris because she was “so personable and such a generous and kind person,” said city treasurer Shelley Chemnitz, who was Harris’s boss.
Chemnitz said Harris’s death is hard on city hall workers “because it’s so shocking. I can’t recall the last time we had someone pass away who was working,” she said. “To come into work the next day and someone is no longer there is difficult.”
Chemnitz said Harris, who worked for the city for 16 years, managed hundreds of lease, sale and purchase deals on taxpayers’ behalf. “She had a busy and pressurized job but she was always so kind and thoughtful,” she said. “She was a professional in everything she did, but there was also a personal touch in everything she did.”
Her work in progress is being handled by staff in the legal and finance departments at city hall, including the acquisition of seven downtown properties which will become the location of the new Brock University school of fine and performing arts and the new performing arts centre.
“She was a consummate professional,” said Kerry Leask, a St. Catharines realtor who worked in the same office as Harris many years ago and became her friend. “She was very intelligent and very concerned about doing the job right, because she realized she was safeguarding the assets of the city. She really cared about what she was doing.”
Begolo Goddard said Harris met the Begolo family about 30 years ago when Kim Begolo and Harris were in a wedding party together. The women became such good friends they considered themselves sisters, and the entire Begolo family soon considered Harris their daughter and sister as well.
They sent and received birthday cards printed with “Sister” greetings, she hosted family gatherings, and was called “Aunt Helen” by all the children of the Begolo siblings, said Begolo Goddard. “She was my sister.”
Harris was passionate about gardening, cooking and entertaining, Begolo Goddard said, and she also had many good friends.
A memorial service for Harris will be held at 11a.m. today at First Grantham United Church on Linwell Road in St. Catharines."
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Why was this Canadian, Helen Harris, in an American hospital in Buffalo?
Can St. Catharines Liberal MPP (and single-payer-pushing monopolist hack) Jim Bradley answer that question?
If Jim Bradley is afraid or too smug to bother answering, then why don't other Ontario Liberals, such as David Caplan, or Dalton McGuinty, explain?
Were there not any facilities in Ontario's Liberal -enforced health care monopoly available for this patient, when the patient needed them?
Once again, Ontario's Liberals export another patient to the United States - but will local monopolist Jim Bradley explain the details of why patients are regularly sent from Ontario to the States by his Liberal government?
Is this just another incident that Liberals want us to ignore, to downplay, to forget about; or, was this another so-called "Smitherman anecdote" in a Liberal monopoly riddled with similar systemic "anecdotes"? Shona Holmes was an anecdote, Suzanne Aucoin was an anecdote, the Coote twins were an anecdote, Lindsay McCreith was an anecdote, Charlie Godden was an anecdote... these were all downplayed and dismissed by smug Liberals as "anecdotes" - but, these patients actually were victims of Liberal single-payer health-care monopolism.
Mike Dukakis, down in the States, believes it's a myth that Canadian patients (such as Harris) are being exported to the U.S. - he thinks this is a "fairy tale", that it's NOT happening!!
Rabid single-payer-pushing fanatics on both sides of the border are dumping all over patient Shona Holmes - another Ontario victim of McGuinty's Liberal health despotism (but, at least she managed to fight back).
Was Ms. Harris' situation different?
Why won't the Liberal monopolists now controlling Ontario's health care, answer?
Why is Buffalo's health-care - delivered, by the way, in hospitals that would be illegal in Liberal-run Ontario - the answer, time and again, for failed Liberal health monopolism? (see: Liberal Healthcare Duplicity)
I'm still waiting for MPP Jim Bradley (or his Liberal government) to respond to my request to provide me with figures regarding how many Ontario patients McGuinty's Liberals have exported to the United States for health care unavailable to them in Ontario, from 2003-04 to 2009. (On CFRB July 30, 2009, Toronto Star writer Tanya Talaga was interviewed regarding health care issues, and Talaga mentioned this very topic, about patients having to go to the States for treatment, because care was not available in Ontario; but she also wasn't sure how many patients were rendered to the States for care. Maybe MPP Jim Bradley, seeing as he arrogantly avoids answering me, can clarify this information to others. Come on Jim - stop hiding. At least, McGuinty's Liberals have finally bothered to issue their paltry defense in the Shona Holmes case. About time. Their defense consists of the same talking points which were given - and refuted - in Quebec's Chaoulli case.)
Will Jim Bradley's secretive Liberals be adding Helen Harris to their list of Ontarians who have been exported to the States for treatment - treatment that wasn't available in their health monopoly?
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