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10 - Orono Weekly Times 1937 - 2012 · Celebrating 75 Years Wednesday, October 3, 2012 BRIDGE Continued from pg 9 -ing to worry about." Chief Weir stated "The services will be the exact same as always, yes it could mean that the trucks might get to the call a bit slower, but we will strive to get there in the same time." Weir said that "We are looking at the Master Fire Plan, and we will ensure that any construction on any street in Clarington is noted and our routes are prepared for any situation." In the middle of September the MTO issued press releases announcing the Transportation Environmental Study Report (TESR), for both underpasses. The news release stated that you could pick up the TESR at the Clarington Public Library, at branches in Bowmanville and Newcastle, and also review a copy at the Wilmot Creek Community Center in Wilmot Creek between Thursday September 20th and Friday The 52-year old bridge onEast Townline Road, that straddles the Port Hope boundary with Clarington will be placed in the new year. October 19th. Numerous attempts to look at the TESR at the Newcastle Branch, were unsuccessful at presstime. No reason from the MTO was given as to why it was not on the shelves. One librarian at the Newcastle Branch said that they were not sure why the report wasn't there. Construction on both bridges is expected to take place in the beginning of 2013, and will likely last until early spring. From The House At The Centre Of The Universe by: Tracy Tonkinson Maybe it's a function of advancing age, but my mind has been somewhat preoccupied of late with matters medical. A while ago I had occasion to visit a place that offered consultation with a `doctor'. When the consult was pretty First do no harm much over I was a little surprised at the turn in the conversation. The octogenarian doctor leaned back in his chair and asked if I was a natural blonde. Had I been a nubile young lovely I might have taken this as a sexist remark, but being into my middle years, I laughed and answered that I used to be. The doctor paused then asked if I ever had any rheumatics. Again I admitted that in my advanced decrepitude I did occasionally experience some knee twinges, at which point the doctor leaned forward and squeezed my knee. There are knee squeezes' that are diagnostic; this was not one of those. I drew the conversation to a close as politely as possible and left the consulting room pondering on how much medicine and society have changed. My regular doctor is a young man. He is personable, efficient, well trained and practices in a climate where even the most intimate of examinations never ends in personal remarks or inappropriate touching. He is a modern doctor born into the modern age. And that makes all the difference. But while the incident of an old doctor being socially out of touch might be amusing, in terms of the real changes in the practise of medicine things are getting a lot less funny. In the last few days I have read newspaper accounts of dying long term care patients outliving the time limited OHIP support they rely on, a toddler brought back to life who needs wildly expensive treatment, in order to survive, that OHIP does not cover, and a man who had a benign brain tumour removed, only to contract meningitis, leaving his family embroiled in a legal battle with doctors at Toronto's Sunnybrook Hospital, who say he is in an unrecoverable vegetative state and so should have life support removed. So what is going on? Are the OHIP gate keepers and their medical colleagues' just heartless bean counters? Is it a conspiracy to force Ontarians into private healthcare options? Thirty years ago the likelihood that a palliative care patient would live long enough to lose a long term care place was about as likely as a man with any kind of brain tumour surviving the operation. But today we have the technology to give what would have been fatal medical conditions totally different outcomes. The result is that there are considerably more acute and long term care patients needing vastly more expensive medical interventions to keep them alive. All this brings me to the crux of what I think will become a very difficult conundrum for our children and grandchildren; at what point should life be let go of? Do we keep in perpetuity a loved one who cannot breathe, eat, or function in any way independently just because we have the technology to do so? My sister-in-law found UNIVERSE see page 11