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Show B6 Wednesday, January 23, 2008 Vernal Express 'Voice o 9 asm FO i trie Umtoh B wsi battling skin y i ' .... - 4 L -1 ' 4 -1 I -.4 V M ..,,,...,...l .' J By Inm E. Whiting Dawn Brown said that while she and her husband Fred appreciate well-wishers, he has to guard against the chance of infection and colds as he awaits more surgery and radiation to combat the skin cancer on his lip. She asks that people please call before coming to the house. Uintah Basin News Service When you routinely invite someone into your home or office each morning, or welcome them to ride along with you during your daily drive to work, you notice their absence when they don't show up. If you are among the thousands thou-sands of Uintah Basin residents who tune into KNEU or KIFX radio, you've no doubt noticed that morning show personality Fred Brown of Montwell hasn't been on the air for the past few days. Brown, who has co-hosted the popular weekday broadcast with Earl "Hawkeye" Hawkins for the last 21 years, underwent surgery last week at Uintah Basin Ba-sin Medical Center to remove of a cancerous growth on his lip. The 73-year-old "Voice of the Uintah Basin" has been absent from the air for extended periods before. His most avid listeners know he's had foot and heart sur gery in the past few years. Each time, he's come back to work, ready to trade stories and jokes with Hawkeye each morning before and after anchoring the 7:30 a.m. and 8:30 a.m. newscasts on the two radio stations. This time, however, Fred's situation is much more serious, said his wife Dawn. Squamous cell carcinoma had spread rapidly to cover nearly 2 inches of his lower lip, she said. The growth was surgically removed Wednesday by Dr. John Blake. The removal of lymph nodes, along with reconstructive surgery on Brown's lip was performed per-formed immediately afterward by Dr. Mike Catten. Both doctors saw Brown for the first time in early December and began making mak-ing preparations for surgery, pending the outcome of stress tests to determine his heart strength and overall health. "They had to take two-thirds of his bottom lip and had to use skin from his top lip for the repair," re-pair," Dawn Brown said. After surgery, she said the SMT EJ tj La ii L3 Li LJ3U k, L3 k-3 U ha . rr ( - - The States Only GMC 3 Consecutive Year GM Mark of Excellence Award Winner Highest Customer Satisfaction Rating Top Positive Impact Rating in Customer Purchase & Delivery Satisfaction in Our Zone Nearly 10 acres of commercial and retail GMCs I A : 'A . " h X - X ' : CSN1C2 j GMK 7 ( , v. ' cuh, ' .. ! ,1 :; - S . .' i i -! .; i -t . 1' . -A I. I .. :f ' f 3 r i" I l i' i i . - j '. . ... "" , f . ; . . . . -' - , . 4; .i,..., ,, , , , i , j "IT; rW(j i R!llWi!!HtJiT . n r i ) fmm EW SSEeJl MEW SIERHA 1500 & 2500. IID 3500ND, DURAElAX Reg., Ext. A Grew Cabs i , as low as is.sa 100,000 5 yrs. transferable power train warranty, roadside assistance & courtesy transportation. JEW YUKON the ALL PJEW -- ' wV AG401 A 1 "It wactive fuel management 1 if task J La Nearly 100 used cars, trucks, vans and GMC certified vehicles. r V7 1 We are Professional Grade 725 W. 3300 S. 1-877-257-9265 doctors delivered both bad news and good news. "They also found the cancer in his lymph nodes and they will do surgery again in a few weeks, " she said. "The cancer has not spread to his lungs so that is the good news in all of this. They say it goes to the lymph nodes and then to the lungs and liver." After his final surgery to remove the cancerous lymph nodes, Brown will go to the new Intermountain Medical Center in Murray for six weeks of radiation. radia-tion. "It's going to be a long, old process," his wife said."There will be radiation five days a week for six weeks." Brown was released from UBMC Thursday evening and is doing well at home. "The lips are a tissue that there is no other place you can get skin, except for the lip - so his mouth is a lot smaller, " Dawn Brown said. "He can talk. He was talking as soon as he came out of surgery." Brown's long-time sidekick Earl Hawkins, paid a visit to the couple on Saturday and said his friend is in good spirits. "He was quite understandable understand-able - he talks remarkably well for what he has been through," said Hawkins, who isn't ready to resume the morning show with anyone except Brown. "I am holding the door open for him. We have not made any move to replace him... let's put it this way, Fred is irreplaceable - he has such a quick wit about him and such a good sense of humor." Brown, who will celebrate his 74th birthday on Sunday, has been spinning the tunes on local airwaves for well over three decades. He worked in Vernal when KVEL went on the air, and was there for 13 years, his wife said. Brown also signed KNEU on the air just over 30 years ago, on Jan. 6, 1977. He retired from being a full-time disc jockey nine years ago, but remained a popular popu-lar fixture on the radio, anchoring anchor-ing the morning newscasts and hosting his "oldies show" each weekday at 10 a.m. on KNEU. Dawn Brown said that while they appreciate well-wishers, her husband has to guard against the chance of infection and colds as he awaits more surgery and radiation. She asks that people please call before coming to the house. What to Look For Squamous cell carcinoma is the second most common form of skin cancer, with over 250,000 new cases per year estimated in the United States. It arises in the squamous cells that compose most of the upper layer of the skin. Squamous cell tumors are thick, rough, horn-like and shallow when they develop. Occasionally, they will ulcerate, which means that the skin above the cancer is not intact. There will be a raised border and a crusted surface over a raised, pebbly, granular base. "The precursor is like a little thick, rough sandpaper spot, or lump in your lip," explained Dr. John Blake, a dermatologist based, at Uintah Basin Medical Center in Roosevelt. "But you just don't get them on your lip you can get them anywhere the sun shines - ears, forearms, nose; lips are just the most common area - especially in men." Any bump or open sore in areas of chronic inflammatory skin lesions indicate the possibility of squamous cell carcinoma. A doctor should be consulted immediately if this is the case. "Typically when it is caught in time the (squamous cell) cancer can be removed by freezing," Blake said. "These are not that aggressive for the most part, but on the lip they can be more aggressive and have a little higher incidence of metastasizing." UDOT releases 2007 fatal crash report on highways The Utah departments of Transportation and Public Safety, Safe-ty, and Zero Fatalities released their report Thursday on fatal crash statistics for 2007. The report identifies the major ma-jor causes of Utah's traffic fatalities, fatali-ties, what ages have the highest number of fatalities, and where the fatal crashes happened. An analysis of the traffic fatalities fa-talities shows that the number of fatalities since 2000 dropped by 24 percent to 285 fatalities in 2007. However, in recent years, that number has remained relatively rela-tively steady. "The good news is that fewer people are dying on our roads," said UDOT Executive Director John Njord. "While 285 fatalities fatali-ties on our roads isn't something to celebrate; it does show great progress, especially if you consider how many more people are on our roads and how many more miles they are driving every day." According to the state Division Divi-sion of Motor Vehicles, vehicle registrations grew by more than 141,000 between 2004 and 2006. In addition to releasing the fatal crash statistics, UDOT, DPS, and Zero Fatalities honored emergency responders for their efforts to save people who have either made careless choices behind the wheel, or have been victims of someone driving carelessly. care-lessly. "These emergency responders are doing their best to help us get to our ultimate goal of zero fatalities," Njord said. "But they are a last resort. We need to take preventive measures to make sure we don't need to rely on their services." UDOT, DPS and Zero Fatalities Fatali-ties representatives say that the top five behaviors that are killing kill-ing people on Utah's roads are drowsy driving, distracted driving, driv-ing, aggressive driving, impaired driving, and not buckling up. More than 114 people died by either not buckling up, or not buckling properly. Drowsy driving driv-ing also turned out to be just as deadly as drunk driving in 2007, with 37 fatalities attributed to each behavior. To view the complete 2007 traffic fatalities report, visit www.zerofatalities.com. State, businesses seek to stop climate change Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. announced an-nounced last week that five Utah businesses and two government entities have joined the state to be among the first to sign up for The Climate Registry, a multi-state initiative that tracks greenhouse gas emissions. Kennecott Land, Kennecott Utah Copper, SWCA, ETC Group, USANA, Salt Lake City Corp., Salt Lake County, and the state of Utah's executive branch have become "founding reporters" report-ers" for The Climate Registry (TCR). TCR is a non-profit organization organiza-tion established to measure and publicly report greenhouse gas emissions. It provides businesses an opportunity to get recognition recogni-tion for early reductions of greenhouse gases and is national registry. Participation for Utah businesses and other entities is voluntary. Here's how it works, according ac-cording to a state-issued press release: As business and government govern-ment seek recognition for pollution pollu-tion reductions, TCR facilitates economic development and "business certainty" by providing provid-ing an efficient state-based, nationally-recognized registry. In many cases, reductions in greenhouse gas emissions are the result of improvements in energy efficiency and cost-saving operations. "Utah is proud to be among the first reporters to The Climate Registry," Huntsman said. "I applaud Utah businesses and local lo-cal governments for voluntarily committing to measure and report re-port their GHG emissions. This shows tremendous leadership in addressing the challenge of climate change." The tracking and reporting of greenhouse gas emissions compliments the state's policy to improve energy efficiency, since those efficiency measures also result in reduced greenhouse gas emissions. Efficiency also benefits the bottom line through reduced energy costs, according accord-ing to the state-issued press release. The Governor's Blue Ribbon Advisory Council listed participation partici-pation in The Climate Registry as one of its high-priority recommendations. recom-mendations. For more information on TCR, visit www.deq.utah.gov climatechange. |