Eileen and Robert Korjenek wish Santa Clara County voters could understand what they now know all too well: that critical care is something you never know you need until you’re waiting desperately outside emergency-room doors.
The Gilroy couple, whose 22-year-old son suffered a traumatic brain injury in a 1995 car accident, are among the fiercest supporters of Measure A on the county ballot this November.
If approved by two-thirds of voters, the Read the rest of this entry »

As part of a criminal justice review unprecedented in county history, the Santa Clara County public defender’s has launched a massive project to revisit 1,500 or more sexual assault convictions dating back two decades to determine whether innocent people may have been put behind bars.
A Mercury News report disclosed late last year that members of Valley Medical Center’s Sexual Assault Response Team have been videotaping examinations of patients Read the rest of this entry »

Dr. Todd Mitchell was awakened by a phone call at 8 a.m. on the Tuesday after Christmas.
A woman and her twin 11-year-old grandsons had eaten soup made from deadly mushrooms they picked in the woods. Dr. Kent Olson of California Poison Control was asking for the phone number of the German company that makes a drug used to treat death cap mushroom cases in Europe.
The call gave Mitchell chills.
He knew mortality from death caps is higher for Read the rest of this entry »

As part of a criminal justice review unprecedented in county history, the Santa Clara County Public Defender has launched a massive project to revisit 1,500 or more sexual assault convictions dating back two decades to determine whether innocent people may have been put behind bars.
A Mercury News report disclosed late last year that members of Valley Medical Center’s Sexual Assault Response Team have been videotaping examinations of patients since Read the rest of this entry »

SANTA CRUZ, Calif.—A teenager has been stabbed on a Santa Cruz high school campus and a fellow student is in juvenile hall for the attack.
The 18-year-old victim was taken to Dominican Hospital, then flown to Valley Medical Center in San Jose, for treatment of a knife wound in the back. He’s expected to recover.
Santa Cruz police spokesman Zach Friend says a 17-year-old student at the Costanoa High School alternative school was arrested Read the rest of this entry »

Droves of power walkers and joggers take to the steep wooden or concrete stairs that descend to Santa Monica Canyon, reveling in the superb canyon and ocean views. Nearby, the grassy medians along 4th Street are viewed as ideal al fresco gyms for personal trainers and clients wanting to buff up as ocean breezes caress their sweaty biceps.
Even the stair climbers have been known to lay mats on the sidewalks in front of multimillion-dollar Adelaide Read the rest of this entry »

Faced with defense concerns that she is not responding aggressively to a scandal that threatens hundreds of child sex-abuse convictions, District Attorney Dolores Carr has vowed to make sure anyone convicted of such crimes dating back to 1991 is belatedly provided a videotape of the victim’s medical examination.
In a Feb. 13 letter to a group of defense attorneys who urged Carr to make public the review process, Carr stated her intention to broadly Read the rest of this entry »

Initially, the call to Santa Clara County dispatch seemed routine enough — a man was in need of medical attention at the Cupertino City Center Apartments on Stevens Creek Boulevard.
When county firefighters and the American Medical Response ambulance crew arrived, they found the man lying unconscious in the locker room of the complex’s pool house.
They began trying to revive the man when suddenly the three firefighters, the three paramedics Read the rest of this entry »

Miguel Flores already works out four to five times a week, eats healthily and abstains from alcohol.
His motivation to stay fit and healthy is renewed, however, by the sea of new faces he has seen lately at the gym he exercises at, Family Health and Fitness in Santa Maria.
“I’m going to try to lose another 15 pounds,” said Flores, of Santa Maria, as he took a brief breather from his workout with weight equipment Saturday at Family Health and Fitness.
Read the rest of this entry »

Even as controversy rages over a series of incidents in which local prosecutors appear to have withheld evidence, Santa Clara County District Attorney Dolores Carr has adopted a combative response that appears to strain her campaign vow to end a “win at all costs” office culture.
Carr responded to outside criticisms of prosecutors’ conduct, including state disciplinary attention, by assuring a gathering of county prosecutors last week that none Read the rest of this entry »