My work is important to me because I can still do it. And I love all kinds of sports. Glenn Boyer

Music and art. My family was full of musicians. Liliana Schechter

Believe it or not it’s the sunrise I get to watch every morning. Gwyn Walters

The fact I have a washer and dryer in my apartment. I’m easy to please. Sandy Dolan

Can I Inherit My Parent’s Debt?

Dear Savvy Senior,

What happens to a person’s debt after they die? My mother has taken on a lot of medical and credit card over the past few years and I’m worried that my brother and I will be responsible for it when she dies. What can you tell me?

Worried Daughter

Dear Worried,
In most cases when a person with debt dies, it’s their estate, not their kids, that is legally responsible. Here’s how it works.
When your mom dies, her estate – which consists of the stuff she owns while she’s alive (home, car, cash, etc.) – will be responsible for paying her debts. If she doesn’t have enough cash to pay her debts, you’ll have to sell her assets and pay off her creditors with the proceeds.
Whatever is left over is passed along to her heirs as dictated by the terms of her will, if she has one. If she doesn’t have a will, the intestacy laws of the state she resides in will determine how her estate will be distributed.
If, however, she dies broke, or there isn’t enough money left over to pay her “unsecured debts” – credit cards, medical bills, personal loans – then her estate is declared insolvent, and her creditors will have to eat the loss.
“Secured debts” – loans attached to an asset such as a house or a car – are a different story. If she has a mortgage or car loan when she dies, those monthly payments will need to be made by her estate or heirs, or the lender can seize the property.
There are, however, a couple of exceptions that would make you legally responsible for her debt after she passes away. One is if you are a joint holder on a credit card account that she owes on. And the other is if you co-signed a loan with her.
NOTE TO SPOUSES: These same debt inheritance rules apply to surviving spouses too, unless you live in a community property state – Arizona, California, Idaho, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Washington or Wisconsin. In these states, any debts that one spouse acquires after the start of a marriage belongs to the other spouse too. Therefore, spouses in community property states are usually responsible for their deceased spouses debts.
Protected Assets
If your mom has any IRAs, 401(k)s, brokerage accounts, life insurance policies or employer-based pension plans, these are assets that creditors usually cannot get access to. That’s because these accounts typically have designated beneficiaries, and the money goes directly to those people without passing through the estate.
Settling Her Estate
You also need to be aware that if your mom dies with debt, and she has no assets, settling her estate should be fairly simple. Her executor will need to send out letters to her creditors explaining the situation, including a copy of her death certificate, and that will probably take care of it. But, you and your brother may still have to deal with aggressive debt collectors who try to guilt you into paying.
If your mom has some assets, but not enough to pay all her debts, her state’s probate court has a distinct list of what bills get priority. The details vary by state, but generally estate administrating fees, funeral expenses, taxes and last illness medical bills get paid first, followed by secured debts and lastly, credit card debts.
Need Help?
If you have questions regarding your situation, you should consult with a consumer law attorney or probate attorney. Or, if you just need a question or two answered, call your state’s legal hotline if available (see LegalHotlines.org), or legal services provider.

By Darlene Franklin

When I’m asked to name my heroes, I readily name a handful: Rosa Parks, Corrie Ten Boom, Eleanor Roosevelt, alongside Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, and others.
What makes a hero? Dwayne Johnson asked that question in his 2013 television series, The Hero.
In addition to my addiction to reality TV, I was interested in the answer. I was facing my own hero’s challenge. I had to battle back from a month-long hospitalization. I had never fully recovered from crippling weakness and arthritis which had left me unable to walk or do most of my daily activities, and led to my moving to a nursing home.
On my first day of therapy, I was wheeled down the hall to the gym. My physical therapist worked with my lower extremities, core strength, standing, endurance-walking? The occupational therapist focused on “activities of daily living,” more upper body. Could I raise my arms enough to brush my hair? Dress myself?
We had a long way to go, and a hundred days (according to government mandated guidelines) to accomplish the task.
Weakness and pain nibbled at the edges of my motivation. In one of my first sessions, my physical therapist gave me a simple task: stand up.
I called on all my strength and pushed myself to my feet. I remained there, tottering, for a few seconds.
“Sit down-gently. Don’t plop.”
I reached back for the wheelchair arm with one hand, then the other, then as slowly, as carefully as I could, lowered myself into the chair. I was spent.
“That was good,” she said cheerfully. “Now do it four more times.”
Every muscle trembled, and most of them screamed with pain. I adapted the mantra of the winner of The Rock’s competition as my own: “I will not let pain or fear defeat me. I will only fail if I cannot, physically, complete the task.”
I stood four more times that day. I learned an essential lesson in facing an overwhelming task: success has more to do with my willingness to do the hard thing than with physical facts.
My health continues to fluctuate. I’ve been to the hospital three times since Christmas and have just completed another hundred days of therapy.
I will not let pain and fear defeat me.
The lesson served me well. I began with enthusiasm, drive, and a definite goal: to walk around the nursing home.
More lessons headed my way.
· Accept a different normal.
My third hospitalization reminded me of a fact I had conveniently forgotten. Congestive heart failure-which leaves my heart pumping fine, sometimes high, more often low-creates problems for my other organs. They pick and choose when to work.
I decided to stop waiting for things to get better, because they probably won’t. That decision led to the next lesson.
· Do it anyway.
So what if I’m sore from this afternoon’s therapy and tired from last night’s battle with sleeplessness? Go ahead and write. Sing. Visit with friends. Attend church. Live life in the now, because that’s all I have.
And sometimes. . .
· Miracles happen.
For four years, I have worked to improve range of motion in my arms; I can’t clasp my hands together behind my head. We’ve worked on it as much as we’ve worked on walking, standing and everything else. Nothing had changed.
Until one day this session, something popped in my arms and they moved a few more inches. I still can’t rest the back of my head on my hands-but I can wash my hair and tie on a chin strap.
· The miracle you receive may not be the one you wanted or expected.
I ran into a foe that defeated my dreams of walking freely through the halls, at least until I can obtain appropriate equipment: I can’t go without oxygen. My legs will take me further than my lungs will.
“A hero is a person who is admired for. . .courage.” A lifetime has taught me courage is not the absence of fear, but acting in spite of fear.
In that case, maybe I am a hero. Maybe you are too.

AllianceHealth outcomes change lives

by Bobby Anderson,
Staff Writer

The message sent to the Midwest City community a few months back was resounding.
More than two years of work and planning by multiple AllianceHealth Midwest departments culminated in a prestigious accolade that will benefit patients throughout the metro.
For the first time, the hospital received full Chest Pain Center with PCI (Percutaneous Coronary Intervention) Accreditation from the Society of Cardiovascular Patient Care.
“Essentially what it did was validated to our community we were serious about our cardiology program and our treatment and our evaluation of chest pain patients,” said Mark Macklin, RN, BSN, cardiology director and chest pain coordinator. “This has always been a community-based hospital and it was important for us to relay that to the community that we had committed ourselves to improving in those particular areas.”
To receive accreditation, AllianceHealth Midwest demonstrated its expertise and commitment to quality patient care by meeting or exceeding a wide set of stringent criteria and completing on-site evaluation by a SCPC review team.
AllianceHealth Midwest is the only hospital in the state of Oklahoma to receive this level of accreditation.
“This accreditation is another large step in our commitment to providing superior emergency and cardiac care to the residents of Midwest City and Eastern Oklahoma County” said Damon Brown, CEO, AllianceHealth Midwest. “This accreditation was made possible because of the dedicated work and commitment of a multi-disciplinary team that included employees, physicians and paramedics.”
Macklin has spent the last 12 of 22 years in nursing in cardiac care after an emergency medicine and trauma background.
And he’s seen cardiac care come to the forefront.
TREMENDOUS NEED
“Any community in Oklahoma, cardiovascular disease is going to be a primary focus,” Macklin said. “Particularly for the process of chest pain accreditation it was important for us because of our volume throughputs, lengths of stay and those issues that we standardized the process so patients are treated not exactly the same but at least within the same guidelines and standards … so we don’t miss small things along the way.”
Macklin stressed that the purpose of obtaining chest pain accreditation wasn’t to just put the emblem on the paperwork. The process was one the entire AllianceHealth system has committed to in order to improve its processes and insure better outcomes.
“What it tells (the community) is that along with the accreditation process is the process of ongoing performance improvement and what might be standard of care today is fluid and those standards change annually, even more often than not based on evidence-based practice and clinical research.
“We have cardiologists that embrace the recommendations that come out of the American College of Cardiology and published literature.”
Macklin likes to use the phrase “parking lot to parking lot” to describe the program.
The program simply doesn’t work if all departments don’t work together.
“It’s not just an emergency process, it’s not just a cath lab process and it’s not just an inpatient observation process,” Macklin said.
That became obvious during the entire accreditation process.
“What we identified early on in the process was we were already pretty good at the acute MI,” Macklin said. “What we identified through the process and our surveyor’s neutral eyes was that our biggest opportunity was our EMS arrivals and starting to take those EMS patients who were acutely myocardial infarcting … straight to the cath labs, shaving 20 sometimes 30-times off our perfusion times.
“That’s been our biggest improvement you can see on a daily basis. We’ve empowered EMS … that if it walks like a duck, and it quacks like a duck call it a duck and we’ll take them to the lab.”
The process is ongoing.
Macklin knows time is muscle and staff are always up against the clock.
The pride comes through the continual refinement of the process.
Representatives from every department met regularly through the accreditation process and still are called back in to maintain improvement.
“This is a group of people who aren’t afraid to call s omebody out and it’s a group that isn’t afraid to tell you what they need,” Macklin said. “This is a team sport.”
Certification lasts for two years but statistics are monitored monthly by the accreditation agency.
Ongoing employee education and community education are tenets of maintaining certifications.
And the process for recertification has already begun.
And everyone is involved.

The seventh annual Cross Family Benefit for the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation will be held on May 7 in Kingfisher. Cowboys from across the country will saddle up to raise money for cancer research and also to honor the life of Floyd Cross.
Cross battled – and defeated – recurring bouts of colon and liver cancer for 12 years before passing away in 2016. The Cross family continues to fight the disease in his honor by raising funds to support cancer research at OMRF.
“The Cross family is a great example of how Oklahomans can do something meaningful to help combat diseases like cancer,” said OMRF Vice President of Development Penny Voss. “Grassroots efforts like this one make a big difference in giving momentum to the world-class research happening right here in Oklahoma City.” In addition to the steer wrestling competition and t-shirt sales, raffle tickets will be sold for $1 or six for $5 for a wide variety of prizes. A weekend getaway to Red River, New Mexico, will be up for auction. The event will be held at 1 p.m. at the Kingfisher Rodeo Roundup Club Arena. To enter or for more information, call Sherrie Cross at (405) 375-4872 or (405) 313-1776. The books are open from 10 a.m. until noon on May 7. Admission is free.

By John D. Doak, Oklahoma Insurance Commissioner

Retirement can be a new beginning for us, but planning for your golden years can be daunting. This week is National Retirement Planning Week© (NRPW). The goal of NRPW is to promote the importance of comprehensive retirement planning.
While retirement planning was once thought of as an issue for older people, the truth is that you must start preparing for a secure future as soon as you enter the work force.
Check out this retirement checklist to help you plan for a comfortable and secure retirement.
Review Your Finances
If your workplace offers a 401(k), 403(b), ESOP, profit sharing plan, IRA or Roth IRA, you should take advantage of their plan. Many employers will match contributions up to a certain amount. The sooner you start saving, the more money you’ll have for retirement. Consider at least contributing the amount needed to obtain the employer match.
Review your finances to see how financially prepared you are for retirement. Track down and value your assets including cash, investments and anything else you can exchange for cash such as your house, savings bonds and even fine jewelry. Find the retirement accounts you have put money into throughout your career. You might want to think about consolidating some accounts so your money is easier to manage. If you decide to consolidate retirement accounts, seek advice on how to implement a rollover to avoid immediate taxation of your funds.
Assess Your Life Situation
Life insurance, like retirement, is something to consider at the beginning of your working years. Life insurance policies can provide benefits throughout life including whole life policies that build cash value. Whole life policies also allow you to take a loan, or borrow from them, but doing so does reduce the amount your beneficiaries will receive if you haven’t repaid the loan. Please note: you will pay interest on the amount you borrow. Do your research carefully to determine if such a policy is right for you at your current life stage.
Also, review your specific needs for health insurance and long-term care insurance. Your need for various coverages will change throughout your life. Insurance can help provide financial security in your retirement years if a catastrophe happens.
Annuities
An annuity is a contract or policy between you, the policyholder, and an insurance company. An annuity pays a periodic (monthly, quarterly, semiannual or annual) income benefit for the life of a person (known as the annuitant). Annuities can also be purchased for a specified time period. Annuities can play an integral role in a financially secure retirement. There are four main types of annuities:
*Variable annuities with guaranteed lifetime withdrawal benefits: Long-term, tax-deferred insurance products that contain investment and insurance components with optional guaranteed withdrawal benefits.
*Fixed and fixed-indexed annuities: Long-term, tax-deferred insurance vehicles which offer a guaranteed minimum interest rate.
*Single premium immediate annuities products: Provide a guaranteed income for life or a specified period in exchange for a one-time lump sum payment.
*Deferred income annuities: Provide for guaranteed income but don’t begin until a specified age, such as 80 or 85.
Please note that annuities are not for everyone. Research your options thoroughly before purchasing one. Also, consider the costs associated with the annuity, such as the broker commissions.
Grow Your Nest Egg
Having a clear financial plan is important. A rule of thumb: 80 percent of your current annual income is a good amount to save up for retirement. Consider if you’ll receive a pension and Social Security and subtract that amount from your annual income. Use that number to calculate a financial plan running out to age 100 for how much you’ll need every year based on the year you retire.
Learn about investing and consider paying a certified financial planner for help. You might be keeping your money in accounts that have low rates of return and could earn more simply by moving the money.
A professional can help you invest your money for the best rate of return.
It is possible to retire on your own terms if comprehensive retirement plans are properly developed and managed. Visit www.RetireOnYourTerms.org for retirement resources such as a retirement calculator, basics on investing and information on how to find the right financial advisor.
For insurance information, contact the Oklahoma Insurance Department at 1-800-522-0071 or visit our website at www.oid.ok.gov.

Q. I am a health care provider and I am very concerned with all the pharmaceutical drugs being advertised on TV. I worry that people will believe everything they see and hear in the commercial and dump more money into this industry that is failing us in so many ways. These are some of my concerns.  —-  Rhonda

A. I don’t know how many readers have paid close attention to these frequently run drug commercials. It is crazy to think that drugs are being advertised on TV…..really?
It is highly unlikely that any of these drugs will make you sing, dance or ace a game of volleyball but you would never know it if you fell for the message in the commercial. Notice how the speaker enunciates very clearly until he gets to the side affects of the drug. Then suddenly he has a manic episode, his speech is pressured and barely audible. The last thing you think you heard is something about coma and possible death. But with those butterflies and beautiful surroundings who focuses on being in a coma.
So ok, you think one of these drugs might help you. You talk to your doctor, who also thinks this drug might help your symptoms and he writes a prescription. Now the scary part. You pull into the pharmacy parking lot with your prescription in hand. The pharmacy tech takes over while you wait. Your name is called and you are told you owe $475.00 after insurance has paid their part. Now you have symptoms related to finding out the pharmaceutical industry is raping you.
So what has happened? You watch a commercial for a new drug with people who are smiling big, some are singing, dancing, growing beautiful flowers and don’t forget the butterflies and maybe the ocean. These are happy people taking their new drug. Who wouldn’t want to smile big and grow beautiful flowers.
So now your hooked. Your doctor writes the prescription. The pharmacist tells you the price. You announce he can keep the drug because there is no way you can pay for it unless you stop eating.
Or another issue………Maybe your doctor gives you samples of the new drug and you find it does help your symptoms. But when you are told it will cost $475 after your samples are gone, what is the point.
I was personally given a prescription for a skin cream, with a coupon because the doctor told me it might be expensive. When I went to pick up the prescription the pharmacy tech had a strange look on his face when he told me the small tube of cream was $1042 after the coupon!!
Be cautious. Pay attention to the side affects listed for these drugs. If you can make behavioral or life changes, try that first. Your health and your money are at risk.

Vicki L Mayfield, M.Ed., R.N., LMFT Marriage and Family Therapy Oklahoma City

If you would like to send a question to Vicki, email us at news@okcnursingtimes.com

Seniors needed in vaccine debate

story and photos by Bobby Anderson, Staff Writer

Whooping cough, polio, measles and rubella.
Anyone over the age of 50 remembers hearing horror stories about the diseases that plagued previous generations.
For the much of the current generation the above are simply footnotes in history with no real meaning.
But that may be changing.
From January 1 to March 25, 2017, 28 people from 10 states (California, Colorado, Florida, Michigan, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Utah, and Washington) were reported to have measles.
Those numbers are alarming for Norman Pediatrician Dr. Thomas Kuhls, so alarming that for the first time in his life he’s entered politics.
“I’ve never done anything political in my life. I don’t think I even ran for student council in middle school,” Kuhls laughed.
Then two things happened. Kuhls read that an immunization bill by Sen. Ervin Yen would not be heard in the 2016 session.
“Senator Yen’s bill would strengthen immunizations because rates are dropping,” Kuhls said. “More importantly, at the end of the legislative year when the anti-vaccine bill was passed by an overwhelming majority and went to the Governor.” Thank God Gov. Fallin vetoed it but what scared me was when the Republicans tried to override their own governor and came just 13 votes short.
“It was clear the majority of those legislators … even with my ignorance I knew there weren’t that many people that didn’t have their kids vaccinated. It had to do more with misinformation and misunderstanding and not really truly understanding vaccines.”
That’s why Kuhls is supporting the non-profit political action group Vaccinate Oklahoma.
Kuhls taught vaccines at the University of Oklahoma for years. His background is in immunology and pediatric infectious diseases.
Kuhls still has his smallpox scar.
“In my generation and in my parents’ they all knew the importance of vaccines because many of those era have seen polio,” Kuhls said. “Back in my era vaccines were always important.”
WHAT’S AT STAKE
“I think people don’t realize what’s at stake,” Kuhls said. “Our personal exemption rate is increasing yearly in this state. Other states when their rates go up have had outbreaks of diseases like in California.”
“When the population isn’t immunized it sets us up for a disaster, an outbreak.”
Before the middle of the last century, diseases like whooping cough, polio, measles, Haemophilus influenzae, and rubella struck hundreds of thousands of infants, children and adults in the U.S.. Thousands died every year from them. As vaccines were developed and became widely used, rates of these diseases declined until today most of them are nearly gone from our country.
Statistics from the CDC paint an interesting picture.
*Nearly everyone in the U.S. got measles before there was a vaccine, and hundreds died from it each year. Today, most doctors have never seen a case of measles.
*More than 15,000 Americans died from diphtheria in 1921, before there was a vaccine. Only two cases of diphtheria have been reported to CDC between 2004 and 2014.
*An epidemic of rubella (German measles) in 1964-65 infected 12½ million Americans, killed 2,000 babies, and caused 11,000 miscarriages. Since 2012, 15 cases of rubella were reported to CDC.
Kuhls says the United States has very low rates of vaccine-preventable diseases, but this isn’t true everywhere in the world.
Only one disease — smallpox — has been totally erased from the planet. Polio is close to being eliminated, but still exists in several countries.
More than 350,000 cases of measles were reported from around the world in 2011, with outbreaks in the Pacific, Asia, Africa, and Europe.
In that same year, 90% of measles cases in the U.S. were associated with cases imported from another country. Only the fact that most Americans are vaccinated against measles prevented these clusters of cases from becoming epidemics.
Kuhls said one of the major drivers of non-compliance is public schools making it easier for parents to sign exemption forms rather than instructing parents to have their children vaccinated.
“I think anybody my age understands the importance of vaccines and have watched diseases go away,” Kuhls said. “Your readers need to tell their grandkids these diseases are real and they’ve lived through them and they are the vaccines that made them go away.”
“It’s the grandparents that have seen that and have been through that.”

Outpouring of Care and Support Brings Endangered Porpoise Closer to Safe Waters

When just 30 animals of a specific species are left in the world, the zoo and aquarium communities accredited through the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) are compelled to act. The Oklahoma City Zoo and Botanical Garden has partnered with over 100 other AZA-accredited institutions to help save the vaquita (Vah-KEE-tah) porpoise from extinction. Vaquitas, or “little cows” in Spanish, are the smallest and most endangered cetacean in the world.
To date, AZA organizations have contributed over $1 million toward the emergency rescue of the Vaquita. AZA and its members are joining the Mexican government, which today announced that it is pledging up to $3 million to support the VaquitaCPR emergency rescue plan. VaquitaCPR (Conservation, Protection and Recovery) is an emergency action plan led by the Mexican government, with the input of an expert group of conservation scientists and marine mammal veterinarians. The Zoo has pledged $5,000 from its Round Up for Conservation emergency intervention funds, collected from Zoo guests who volunteer to “round up” to the next dollar amount on purchases made at the Zoo.
“Without these combined rescue efforts, the vaquita will soon be extinct,” said Dr. Rebecca Snyder, Zoo curator of conservation and science. “We are fortunate to have these funds from our home-base conservation fundraising effort for emergencies such as the VaquitaCPR emergency rescue plan.”
Vaquita can easily become entangled and subsequently drown in gill nets used to illegally catch other species, including the endangered totoaba fish, found off the coasts of the northwestern corner of the Gulf of California, Mexico. The fish’s swim bladder is used in traditional Chinese medicine. In addition to securing funds, AZA is teaming up with other conservation organizations to capture the remaining vaquita and place them in sea pens to try to establish a protected assurance colony.
The Zoo is a founding member of the AZA’s Saving Animals From Extinction (SAFE) program and the vaquita is one of the 10 signature SAFE species. AZA institutions have played a key role in bringing back other species from the verge of extinction by establishing protective housing and breeding programs, such as for the California condor, Arabian oryx, golden lion tamarin and American bison. This expertise provided by AZA members is very valuable to the Vaquita Rescue Effort. The Zoo has other SAFE species in its animal collection, including the Asian elephant, gorilla, cheetah and shark.
Donations to the VaquitaCPR emergency rescue plan can be made through the Zoo by calling the ZOOfriends’ office at (405) 425-0611 or can be made online at www.VaquitaCPR.org.. A complete list of the AZA-accredited facilities that have contributed to the AZA SAFE Vaquita Rescue Plan can be found online at https://www.aza.org/donors-to-the-aza-safe-vaquita-rescue-project. To review the AZA SAFE Vaquita Conservation Action Plan, visit https://www.aza.org/safe-vaquita-conservation-projects.
Show your support for all the little and large animals of the world. Round Up for Conservation with every purchase at the Zoo!