Babies

As a mother and as a physician, I understand there are many unknowns right now for moms as they prepare to deliver their babies. Despite the challenges we face with the COVID-19 pandemic, Barton Health continues to provide compassionate care that puts mothers and babies first. Barton’s practices in place honor the needs of mother and child while upholding everyone’s health and safety.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - Barton Memorial Hospital has been designated as a Blue Distinction® Center for Knee & Hip Replacement. Solidifying a legacy of orthopedic care in the Lake Tahoe region, this national certification marks Barton’s expertise in delivering high-quality medical services and better patient outcomes with knee and hip replacement surgeries.

Today is Census Day, the day that determines who is counted in the 2020 Census and where they are counted.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - It took almost a full week of the new year to welcome in the first baby born at Barton Memorial Hospital. Everett James Haen came into the world at 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday, January 7.

Everett was born at the hospital's Family Birthing Center to Robert Haen and Shaina Willen, MD. He weighed six pounds 15 ounces and measured 19.5 inches long.

A holiday tradition on the South Shore for the past ten years returns to help children and adults of all ages ring in the holiday season. The Festival of Trees and Lights moves to a new home this year at Harrah's Lake Tahoe starting on Friday, December 6 and going through Sunday, December 8.

The seasonal celebration features events and entertainment including the Senior Stroll, Family Night, the Gala, and Teddy Bear Brunch.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. – The 2nd annual Reef’s Run for Hydrocephalus Awareness will be held at Round Hill Pines Resort on Sunday, September 8 at 8:30 a.m.

The run is in support of Reef Woldt, a three-year-old South Lake Tahoe boy with hydrocephalus, and all others will the condition that affects more than one million Americans.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - And then there were four. Blaze, Yreka, Paradise, and Pioneer are now making a temporary home at Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care (LTWC).

On Tuesday, March 12, 2019, Tom and Cheryl Millham, founders of LTWC, drove to Rancho Cordova to pick up Blaze and Yreka, two very young cubs from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife's Investigation Lab.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - The first baby of the new year has arrived in South Lake Tahoe at Barton Health's Family Birthing Center. On January 2, 2019 at 5:38 p.m., a baby boy weighing in at 7 lbs. 8 oz. and 21" long was born to local residents Mordey and Shaina Richler.

This is the fourth child for the Richlers, who run Chabad Jewish Center. As customary with his parent's faith, Baby Richler will be named when he is eight days old.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - Nature is healing, and a new partnership between the U.S. Forest Service and Barton Health is bringing the benefits of 154,000 acres of wellness around Lake Tahoe to the public.

"Nature is medicine, nutrition is medicine and you don't have to pop pills for health," said Nancy Laurenson of Barton Health during a recent wellness outing on the Rainbow Trail at the Taylor Creek Visitor Center.

This has been National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week, so what better time to sit down with the women who answer 911 calls in South Lake Tahoe who are the first step in protecting homes, property and people and the unsung heroes of the community.

With an average of 300 to 400 calls going into dispatch each month, staff has to be ready to handle an emergency at every moment through their shift, which in South Lake Tahoe is normally 10 hours long, though they can be up to 12 hours.

Soroptimist International of South Lake Tahoe honored three local women as winners of their annual Violet Richardson, Live Your Dream and Ruby Awards.

Barton Health welcomed the first baby born in the New Year, Jessana Joyce Walker, on Tuesday, January 2 at 8:03 a.m. at Barton Memorial Hospital’s Family Birthing Center. She weighed 7 pounds, 11 ounces and measured 19.5 inches long and was born to Julia Gomez and Javier Walker of Markleeville, Calif. The couple named their daughter Jessana as a blend of their mothers’ names.

As we watched the horrific images out of the islands of the Caribbean after the one-two punch of Hurricanes Irma and Maria, we saw people wading through waist-deep water to get to safety, with no homes or belongings to go back to.

Two of those residents who lost their home in St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands are on a road trip and currently in Lake Tahoe. "We needed to get to nature," Lissa Ress explained about how they ended up in the Sierra.

In the 35 years that Western Nevada College has been offering an associate degree in nursing program, there hasn’t been a graduate as young as Morgan Tingle.
Tingle will graduate with her Associate of Applied Science degree in nursing at the age of 19 on Monday, May 22. She was also the youngest admitted into the program as a 17-year-old two years ago.

There has been an increase of positive pertussis, which is commonly known as whooping cough, in the Carson City and Douglas County areas of Nevada.

The Disease Control and Prevention Division at Carson City Health & Human Services (CCHHS) oversees disease surveillance and investigations in Carson City and Douglas County and is currently investigating the increase.

At this time, CCHHS is reporting the outbreak as an isolated event; however, the Health Department is encouraging families in the community to take preventive measures.

The first baby born in South Lake Tahoe in 2017 has arrived.

Bodie James Briggs was born in the Barton Hospital Birthing Center on Wednesday, January 4 at 5:08 p.m., weighing in at 7 pounds, 1 ounce and measuring 19 inches long.

Mom and dad are Jessica and Steve Briggs of Meyers. Bodie is named after the historic California gold-mining ghost town where they said they had enjoyed one of their most memorable days in 2015.

"It was a sign that I need to retire," said Dr. Kelly Shanahan.

Shanahan sat down with me recently, to reflect on her 22 years in South Lake Tahoe, and the almost 10,000 babies she's delivered in her career.

The sign?

Without putting her office up for sale she received a phone call from a local realtor, asking if she'd like to sell the building that houses her Emerald Bay Center for Women's Health.

The potential buyer came to look at the property, and shortly after, a vacationing doctor called to see if she'd like to sell her practice.

Pepper is a super sweet 18-month-old who loves children and babies. She walks nicely on leash and loves to play with other dogs. She also does well keeping the cats and squirrels out of the yard so she does need to be in a cat free home.

Please come visit sweet little Pepper at The El Dorado County Animal Services, 530-573-7925.

When the clock struck midnight on New Year’s Day, Rogelio Castañeda and a very pregnant Margarita García gave a New Year’s toast with a glass of champagne and a glass of apple cider, respectively. Three hours later, after a brief slumber, Margarita woke up in labor.

The couple headed to Barton Family Birthing Center and at 6:36 p.m. on January 1, Jeremy Nicolas Castañeda García was born. Jeremy weighed seven pounds, eleven ounces and was 20.5 inches long. He was named after Margarita’s mother Geremia, who passed away when Margarita was young.

A baby’s brain is like a flower, if it’s stressed, it wilts; If the flower is nourished, it blooms.

Those are the telling words used to open the film, Effects of Domestic Violence on Children. As our brains grow, they create a blueprint for every new experience we have, the sounds, the touches and the sights. We may not remember what happens to us as a baby but our experiences are forever etched in our brains and create the building blocks of our lives.

In 1981, Dr. Gregory Bergner opened Tahoe Family Physicians along with Dr. Brooks Martin and Dr. Paul Rork. The popular physicians delivered hundreds of South Lake Tahoe babies and kept many in the community healthy in a family friendly atmosphere.

Bergner is set to retire on April 14 after 34 years of helping the South Shore, not only as a doctor but as someone who actively sponsored, volunteered, and participated in many local organizations.

Many of us have driven on Highway 395 between South Lake Tahoe and Southern California. I’ve done that route many times myself on the way to and from San Diego and Disneyland. As heading South, the Owens Valley opens up after leaving the town of Bishop, just over 200 miles from Tahoe. You’ll pass through the town of Independence, and six miles later you’ll find yourself at the Manzanar National Historic Site (the town has an ironic name as you’re about to find out).

Whooping cough has made an alarming resurgence across the county this year, prompting health officials to call for booster shots for children and adults over the age of 11 as well as up to date immunizations for infants.

Local health officials have seen more than double the normal number of pertussis (whooping cough) cases this year. There have been six reported cases in South Lake Tahoe and four on the west slope of El Dorado County. Statewide there have been 3,458 cases since January 1.

Joshua Tapia-Hernandez arrived a day late, giving him the honors of being the first baby born in 2014 at Barton Hospital in South Lake Tahoe.

His parents are Adriana and Abraham Tapia of South Lake Tahoe and came into the world at six pounds, fourteen ounces and measured eighteen inches long.

Joshua was born at 5:24pm on Thursday. When mother Adriana arrived at the hospital in the early afternoon, she was very calm. She said her calmness even amazed her physician, Dr. Spielvogel, who was surprised how quickly the baby was born.