US officials declare end to outbreak from romaine lettuce

Concordia doctor denies responsibility for Calgary man’s permanent disability

A Concordia Hospital doctor accused in a negligence lawsuit after a Calgary man was left permanently disabled when he was given a massive overdose of a powerful sedative has denied she ordered he be given the drug.

Zachary Hoogerdyk’s father, Edward Hoogerdyk, and the Alberta government filed their statement of claim earlier this year in Court of King’s Bench naming the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority, provincial health agency Shared Health, Concordia Hospital, Dr. Anna Ziomek and two other hospital staff as defendants.

Hoogerdyk, who was 23 at the time, went to Concordia’s urgent-care centre with flu-like symptoms and worsening breathing difficulties on March 25, 2024 while he was in Winnipeg on business and to visit family, the lawsuit says.

The claim alleges Ziomek diagnosed Hoogerdyk with low levels of oxygen in his blood and a strain of the flu, before ordering him to be intubated.

Federal government building $267-M emergency research lab in Winnipeg

The federal government is going to build a new $267-million medical countermeasures laboratory in Winnipeg with the goal of preparing Canada for future pandemics or outbreaks.

Expected to open in 2033, the national site will help the country develop vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostic tools, Liberal MP Terry Duguid said.

“This is a big deal for our city, for our province, a big deal for life sciences in Canada,” he told reporters Wednesday. “This facility is going to help protect the nation and help protect the world.”

Ottawa said the site — to be located next to the National Microbiology Laboratory’s Canadian Science Centre for Human and Animal Health on Arlington Street, just north of William Avenue — draws on lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Even AI has to watch its diet

Imagine going to your doctor and have that doctor tell you how much they like a new health app — but when you ask them whether their family likes it, the doctor says “Oh, I don’t trust it enough to let them use it.” Or having your general contractor extol the benefits of robotic construction workers — while bluntly saying he’d never use them to work on his home.

Well, enter AI.

For the last nine months or so, there have been recurring stories about AI companies buying up huge stockpiles of rare and out-of-print books, and “harvesting” — and destroying — the physical books to train their AI models.

Plenty of people questioned the stories, and went to Snopes to see if there was any truth to the claim.

Homegrown grub: Resto turns to the Leaf for freshest ingredients

The term “eat local” has taken on a whole new meaning at Gather Craft Kitchen and Bar, where the journey from plot to plate is measured in footsteps rather than miles.

Head chef Mike Licharson has expanded the restaurant’s focus on local sourcing by incorporating fruit and vegetables grown in The Leaf’s biomes and outdoor kitchen garden into his menu.

Bananas from the tropical biomes star in his banana-bread French toast and accompanying banana compote. Leeks, braised slowly and paired with Manitoba-grown beluga lentils, and Swiss chard — which takes the place of grape leaves in Licharson’s play on classic meze dolmades, a nod to the chef’s Greek-Ukrainian-Irish heritage — are both grown in the outdoor kitchen garden.

The park’s produce complements the restaurant’s other locally sourced ingredients, Licharson says.

Steinbach ER nurses ask for triage help as wait-averse Winnipeg patients strain hospital capacity

Forty nurses from the hospital’s emergency department signed an open letter stating because of the current staffing ratio, nurses are witnessing “excessive and unacceptable safety risks on a daily basis.”