Houston Chronicle Reports
A felony suspect who tipped the scale at more than 500 pounds carried an unloaded 9mm pistol into city and county jails beneath flabs of his skin even though law enforcement officers repeatedly searched him, authorities said Thursday.
George Vera, 25, was released on $10,000 bail after being charged with possessing or selling unlabeled recordings and possession of a firearm in a correctional facility. Harris County District Attorney's spokeswoman Donna Hawkins said both charges are third-degree felonies, punishable by two to 10 years in prison upon conviction.
Police arrested Vera on Sunday after he was spotted selling apparently bootlegged compact discs out of the back of a sport utility vehicle parked at Hollister and Pitner, Hawkins said.
Police spokesman Victor Senties said Vera was searched three times by police personnel: once at the scene, again, more thoroughly, when he arrived at the city jail, and a final time before he was transferred to the Harris County Jail.
Vera was subjected to an additional search at the county lockup.
City and county law enforcement spokespeople said inmates at both the city and county jails are not required to pass through a metal detector or undergo wand searches.
Vera's possession of the firearm came to light Monday when he approached a county guard during a shower break and admitted having smuggled the weapon, authorities said.
The incident came just days after the county lockup at 1200 Baker passed a surprise inspection by the Texas Commission on Jail Standards. The review found that deficiencies cited after an April inspection — malfunctioning intercoms, broken toilets and crowded holding cells — had been successfully addressed.
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If you weigh more than 350 pounds or are a critical care patient, prepare to pay an especially hefty price for a ride in an American Medical Response ambulance.
The Shawnee County Commission on Monday agreed to allow AMR to raise ambulance costs for critical and bariatric, or overweight, patients from $629 to $1,172.
The higher price for critical care patients will pay for an additional care technician and medical equipment, including vents, medical pumps, I.V. and cardiac monitors during their rides, said Ken Keller, AMR Topeka director.
Critical care patients, Keller said, are the more unstable patients that AMR transports from more limited or “lower care” facilities to “higher care” hospitals. The technicians who transport them must complete a 240-hour course taught by doctors and nurses.
“These are severely traumatized patients — cardiac, stroke or severe trauma — that may be on ventilators, heart monitors or drip medications,” Keller said. “The hospital takes six people to take care of these patients, and we’re trying to do it with one or two.”
Keller said AMR needed to increase its charge for bariatric patients to pay for more manpower and transportation equipment. The bariatric equipment includes extra large and reinforced cots, as well as a winch to help technicians load the patients into the back of the ambulance.
“These people have special needs during transport,” Keller said of the bariatric patients. “Many of these people don’t fit our standard cots. Our normal cots will hold over 500 pounds, but when you max out the ability of the cot, you put the patients at risk. Having these resources means a little less manpower and a much safer way to lift the patients.”
Keller said as a general rule, AMR will begin charging patients the increased bariatric fee if they weigh more than 350 pounds. He said the technicians, however, would use their discretion and consider the overall size of the patient in determining if they are bariatric. “We look at the length and width,” Keller said. “A patient could be 325 or 275. We will look at the qualifiers of the patient and the special needs, and then we submit them to the insurance and see if we agree.”
Keller said 60 percent of the bariatric patients AMR transports in Topeka wouldn’t need to pay the higher rate because they receive either Medicare or Medicaid coverage. Only the price for patients with private insurance will increase, he said.
He also said the new rate that AMR will charge bariatric patients with private insurance is comparable to other emergency medical services with bariatric equipment.
Kansas was ranked the 23rd-most obese state in the U.S., according to a 2008 report from the Trust for America’s Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Cindy Samuelson, Kansas Hospital Association vice president, said the level of obesity in Kansas has almost reached a third of the population.
“Sixty-four percent of adult Kansans are overweight or obese,” Samuelson said. “It’s more than half of our population in Kansas.”
Keller said the Topeka and Shawnee County area is no exception, even if people don’t always notice.
“I don’t think a lot of people are aware about the number of bariatric patients we see,” Keller said. “We have a number of people in this town between 500 and 600 pounds that the general public never sees.”
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