Hennepin County Medical Center

A burglary suspect was killed and two police officers shot in a fast-paced string of events in Minnesota on Friday that also involved the death of a motorcyclist. The episode began about 2 p.m. when someone called Minneapolis police to say they had seen a man they thought had burglarized their home last week. When officers arrived, they spotted the suspect, who began to drive off. He struck a police car and almost hit an officer who was on foot, Minneapolis Police Chief Janee Harteau told reporters at a news conference Friday night.

A burglary suspect was killed and two police officers shot in a fast-paced string of events in Minnesota on Friday that also involved the death of a motorcyclist. The episode began about 2 p.m. when someone called Minneapolis police to say they had seen a man they thought had burglarized their home last week. When officers arrived, they spotted the suspect, who began to drive off. He struck a police car and almost hit an officer who was on foot, Minneapolis Police Chief Janee Harteau told reporters at a news conference Friday night.

A judge on Monday turned down doctors who wanted to unplug the respirator of an elderly, severely brain-damaged woman despite the wishes of her husband. "I think she'd be proud of me," Oliver Wanglie said when a judge granted him power to make medical decisions for his wife of 54 years, Helga. Doctors at Hennepin County Medical Center had asked District Judge Patricia Belois to appoint an independent conservator to decide the fate of the 86-year-old woman.

A judge on Monday turned down doctors who wanted to unplug the respirator of an elderly, severely brain-damaged woman despite the wishes of her husband. "I think she'd be proud of me," Oliver Wanglie said when a judge granted him power to make medical decisions for his wife of 54 years, Helga. Doctors at Hennepin County Medical Center had asked District Judge Patricia Belois to appoint an independent conservator to decide the fate of the 86-year-old woman.

The "right to die" debate reached another milestone Tuesday in a courtroom in Hennepin County, where the public hospital is seeking permission to remove an 87-year-old woman from life-support equipment over the objections of her husband and children. The case is believed to be the first contested court proceeding in which a government agency--the hospital--has implicitly sought to end the life of someone not accused of a crime.

Since May, 87-year-old Helen Wanglie has lain unconscious and motionless at the Hennepin County Medical Center here. Although there is no hope for recovery, she is kept alive by a breathing machine, feedings through a stomach tube, and round-the-clock care. In most such cases, physicians and family agree that further care is futile and quietly let the patient die. Not in the Wanglie case.

Thomas R. Mattison, a health systems specialist from Minneapolis, has been named deputy director and chief operating officer of the UCI Medical Center, the university announced. Mattison, 46, will have responsibility for day-to-day medical operations at the center in Orange and will report to Hospital Director Leon Schwartz. Mattison, before assuming his new position at the medical center this month, was executive vice president and chief executive officer of Mercy Medical Center in Minneapolis.

The sixth victim of a disgruntled worker who opened fire   in a Minneapolis sign company has died of his wounds, his family announced on Thursday. Eric Rivers, 42, died at Hennepin County Medical Center on Wednesday night, his family said in a statement posted on the hospital's website. Rivers was the production manager at Accent Signage Systems when Andrew Engeldinger, who had just been fired, walked in and began shooting on Sept. 27. In all, seven people have died from the attack, including Engeldinger, who killed himself.

An 86-year-old woman whose husband won a court battle to keep her on life support has died, a hospital spokeswoman said Friday. Helga Wanglie, a retired schoolteacher from Minneapolis, died Thursday from a massive infection after being kept alive by artificial means for more than 18 months at the Hennepin County Medical Center. She never regained consciousness after she suffered respiratory arrest Jan. 1, 1990.

Nutritional supplements containing the industrial solvent 1,4-butanediol are both addictive and deadly, according to Minnesota researchers. The chemical is currently viewed as a "safe" alternative to gamma-hydroxybutyrate, a purported aid to muscle building and weight loss that has been banned because of its dangers.

The "right to die" debate reached another milestone Tuesday in a courtroom in Hennepin County, where the public hospital is seeking permission to remove an 87-year-old woman from life-support equipment over the objections of her husband and children. The case is believed to be the first contested court proceeding in which a government agency--the hospital--has implicitly sought to end the life of someone not accused of a crime.

Since May, 87-year-old Helen Wanglie has lain unconscious and motionless at the Hennepin County Medical Center here. Although there is no hope for recovery, she is kept alive by a breathing machine, feedings through a stomach tube, and round-the-clock care. In most such cases, physicians and family agree that further care is futile and quietly let the patient die. Not in the Wanglie case.

People who use a dietary supplement found in some body-building products are risking serious harm to their health, researchers reported in the New England Journal of Medicine last week. A team of researchers led by Deborah L. Zvosec, a research associate at the Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis, identified eight patients who became ill after consuming products containing the supplement called BD, formally known as 1,4-butanediol. Two of those patients died.

"Cheers" it's not. A homeless man with grave tuberculosis who hung out at a bar in Minneapolis was responsible for a third of the city's newly documented TB cases in 1992, researchers say in the New England Journal of Medicine. Once physicians at the Hennepin County Medical Center diagnosed the 48-year-old man's TB, they tested 97 people who had come into contact with him, including the bartenders. The man infected 42 of the contacts examined, or nearly half.