Los Robles Hospital

A local medical center is seeking energetic volunteers who want to work directly with patients. In an effort to increase participation in its volunteer program, Los Robles Regional Medical Center in Thousand Oaks will host an orientation program on Friday from 2 to 4 p.m. Volunteers are needed to assist in the emergency room, intensive care unit waiting room, surgical floors, women and children's services, and the surgical information desk.

When a gunman stormed a Simi Valley dental office last summer and shot Lydia Carranza in the chest, salvation may have come in the shape of her size-D breast implant. That's the theory at least of a Beverly Hills cosmetic surgeon who hopes to drum up support to defray the costs of Carranza's reconstructive surgery. "She's just one lucky woman," said Dr. Ashkan Ghavami, who says he will perform the surgery for next to nothing but has urged Carranza to tell her story in hopes of getting implant companies to donate the supplies.

An 8,400-square-foot emergency room addition has been completed at Los Robles Regional Medical Center, but hospital officials are still waiting for approval from the state Department of Health Services before it can open. Once finished, the $6.5-million upgrade will end the sometimes three-hour waits that have plagued the emergency room, officials said. "It'll allow us to see more patients," said hospital spokeswoman Kris Carraway-Bowman. "We'll have more staff.

It's wrong to say that Bob Iritano is fighting for his life; he knows he's lost that battle. What he's fighting for is time. You wouldn't know it to look at him, but Iritano, 50, has terminal cancer. It's not a question of whether he's going to die. The only question is when, and how much longer he'll be with his family. Iritano, understandably, wants all the time he can get -- many years, if possible. His health insurer, he believes, has a different time frame in mind. "My best guess is that they want me dead as soon as possible," he said matter-of-factly as we spoke at the dining room table of his Westlake Village home.

Addressing both the concerns of the city and residents, the chief operating officer for Columbia Los Robles Hospital on Tuesday outlined the facility's plans to serve the medical needs of the Conejo Valley. At a meeting of the Thousand Oaks Mayor's Business Roundtable, Gary Maier, said the closure of Westlake Hospital last year leaves Columbia Los Robles Hospital as the east county's only comprehensive medical center.

Three years after Los Robles Regional Medical Center changed its name, an abrupt reversal of corporate marketing strategy means the Conejo Valley institution will get its old moniker back. Los Robles became Columbia Los Robles Hospital/Medical Center in 1995, but is reverting to its former name, retroactive to Jan. 1, officials with owner Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corp announced Tuesday. "It's what we've been since 1972," said spokesman Kris Carraway.

Dr. Art Ulene, whose health reports appear nationally on NBC-TV's Today Show, will be on hand to kick off the American Medical Assn.'s Campaign Against Cholesterol at HCA Los Robles Regional Medical Center in Thousand Oaks at 7 p.m. Monday. The classes will run from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Mondays through May 8. Cost is $75 per person, $100 per couple. For information call (805) 379-5464.

Flanked by a large brown teddy bear that was given to her as a gift, young Sara Maria Sanchez gazed through the sun-lit window of her hospital room Wednesday and pondered the future. Hours before, the petite, bedridden 16-year-old girl was with her family in a small, impoverished village outside of Rivas, Nicaragua.

Columbia Los Robles Hospital has tapped an executive from its parent company as its new chief executive officer, a man with 20 years' experience in medical services and hospital management. Robert C. Shaw, who begins his new post Sept. 29, was most recently chief operational officer for Columbia/HCA's Pacific Division, overseeing the operational strategies of 17 hospitals in California. "We're really excited to have him," Los Robles Hospital spokeswoman Kris Carraway said.

Dr. Irving Loh is a most unusual physician. He is an aggressive advocate of staying well and a highly skilled healer. Los Robles Hospital is to be commended for providing support for Ventura Heart Institute, a tremendous program for the community. I was astounded to read that some physicians at Los Robles Hospital regard his efforts to help reform this country's health care system as self-serving and have chosen to shun Dr. Loh. Talk about self-serving--those who criticize obviously have not paid any medical bills in a long, long time.

Vytautas Cekanauskas, a former Hughes Aircraft electrical engineer who served as honorary consul general of Lithuania in Los Angeles for more than 30 years, has died. He was 80. Cekanauskas died of cancer Nov. 30 at Los Robles Hospital & Medical Center in Thousand Oaks, said his daughter, Vida Bruozis. The Lithuanian-born Cekanauskas was appointed by the chief of the Lithuanian Diplomatic Service in 1977 and served in the uncompensated position until his death. In 1990, during his tenure, the Baltic republic's legislature declared its independence from the Soviet Union.

Guy Graham Babylon, 52, a Grammy Award-winning musician who played keyboards with Elton John's band for more than 20 years, died of arrhythmia Sept. 2 at Los Robles Hospital and Medical Center in Thousand Oaks. Babylon, an Agoura Hills resident who swam competitively during his youth in Baltimore, was stricken while swimming and later pronounced dead at the hospital. "I am devastated and heartbroken at the death of Guy Babylon," John wrote in a tribute on his website. "He was one of the most brilliant musicians I ever knew, a true genius, a gentle angel -- and I loved him so much."

A 46-year-old jogger was killed when she was hit by a suspected drunk driver near the border of Thousand Oaks and Oak Park, authorities said Wednesday. Karey Marsh of Thousand Oaks was jogging in a bicycle lane shortly before 6:30 a.m. Tuesday when a car struck her, throwing her body more than 30 feet, said Ventura County Sheriff's Det. Eric Buschow. The incident took place on the south shoulder of six-lane Lindero Canyon Road near Bowfield Street. The car that struck Marsh also hit a tree, planter, water line and utility boxes, Buschow said.

Los Robles Regional Medical Center has averted a strike by agreeing to give its 450 registered nurses significant raises as part of a labor pact that the unionized employees have overwhelmingly approved. Salaries will increase by at least 14.5% during the next three years for the hospital's registered nurses, under a union contract ratified earlier this week. Longtime nurses, whose salaries had been lagging according to the union, will get an additional 8% pay increase.

Re "The Money Talks," Ventura County editorial, Aug. 6, and "Tobacco Initiative," Ventura County Letters, Aug. 13. This is not about people groveling for a few bucks lying in the street. It is about a brand of medical care available in this county for the next half a century. The former Ventura County General Hospital, a taxpayer-supported instrument of the county government, has transmogrified itself into Ventura County Medical Center, the better to compete with the private institutions in the county.

An 8,400-square-foot emergency room addition has been completed at Los Robles Regional Medical Center, but hospital officials are still waiting for approval from the state Department of Health Services before it can open. Once finished, the $6.5-million upgrade will end the sometimes three-hour waits that have plagued the emergency room, officials said. "It'll allow us to see more patients," said hospital spokeswoman Kris Carraway-Bowman. "We'll have more staff.

When a gunman stormed a Simi Valley dental office last summer and shot Lydia Carranza in the chest, salvation may have come in the shape of her size-D breast implant. That's the theory at least of a Beverly Hills cosmetic surgeon who hopes to drum up support to defray the costs of Carranza's reconstructive surgery. "She's just one lucky woman," said Dr. Ashkan Ghavami, who says he will perform the surgery for next to nothing but has urged Carranza to tell her story in hopes of getting implant companies to donate the supplies.

Bucking a statewide trend toward consolidation and downsizing, Los Robles Regional Medical Center is rapidly expanding instead. As hospitals struggle to survive throughout California, the medical center in this affluent community is opening new specialty buildings and hoping to add another wing at its main Janss Road campus. It has set aside $6.

A local medical center is seeking energetic volunteers who want to work directly with patients. In an effort to increase participation in its volunteer program, Los Robles Regional Medical Center in Thousand Oaks will host an orientation program on Friday from 2 to 4 p.m. Volunteers are needed to assist in the emergency room, intensive care unit waiting room, surgical floors, women and children's services, and the surgical information desk.