Charlie Walker, who was the subject of a recent film starring Luke Cage‘s Mike Colter, has died at 89 years old.

In the 1960s, Walker led protests to open public construction jobs to Black contractors who were being excluded and deliberately discriminated and passed over for white truckers and white-dominated unions.

He later became one of the most successful truckers in the United States and was well-revered for cleaning up the San Francisco Bay after an oil spill in the early ’70s.

The post Charlie Walker, San Francisco’s Black Contractors’ Hero, Honored By Biopic Star Mike Colter In Light Of His Death appeared first on Blavity.

Walker’s legacy was immortalized in the recent biopic, I’m Charlie Walker.

“Charlie Walker was a true original. Cut from the same cloth as men like my own father and uncles,” said Colter. Men from the seventies era that took opportunity by the horns. Charlie was unapologetic about his ambition and desire to carve out a place in the world. He made a way for his family and set an example for generations to come. He was a character that moved through the world with a certainty and swagger that made people take notice. He deserved to have his story told. It was an honor to portray him. He will never be forgotten. My condolences to his family and loved ones. May he rest in eternal peace”

I’m Charlie Walker producer Mike Regan said, “On behalf of our Executive Producer Bill O’Keeffe and our entire cast and crew we are all devastated by Charlie’s passing, but at the same time we are here to celebrate his amazing life.  Our thoughts are with his beautiful wife Annette, his entire family and his beloved community of Bayview Hunters Point San Francisco.  We could go on and on about Charlie’s accomplishments and the impact he had on so many, but we also know Charlie would tell us to get back to work. And that is exactly what we will do to continue to honor his legacy and amazing life”

“Like many, I was honored and privileged to spend a lot of time with Charlie, as he regaled in stories and wisdom,” said I’m Charlie Walker director Patrick Gilles. “He will be missed but certainly not forgotten.”

In 2022, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed a resolution to honor Walker by naming a street in Bayview Hunters Point as “Charlie Way.”

Walker is survived by his wife of 63 years, Annette Walker, his daughters, Charlette Carnegia and Ruedell Walker, his son, Charles Walker Jr, his 11 grandchildren, which includes his eldest grandchild, Geoffrea Morris, whom he assisted in raising, and his 13, great-grandchildren, and host of nieces and nephews and community friends.

The post Charlie Walker, San Francisco’s Black Contractors’ Hero, Honored By Biopic Star Mike Colter In Mild Of His Demise appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

This week’s interview is on an underappreciated killer, sudden cardiac death. This is not the same thing as a heart attack. Our guest, Dr. Zian Tseng, has been studying cardiac arrest for years to learn why it happens and what to do about it.

You may want to listen to it through your local public radio station or get the live stream at 7 am EDT on your computer or smart phone (wunc.org). Here is a link so you can find which stations carry our broadcast. If you can’t listen to the broadcast, you may wish to hear the podcast later. You can subscribe through your favorite podcast provider, download the mp3 using the link at the bottom of the page, or listen to the stream on this post starting on December 4, 2023.

The Difference Between Cardiac Arrest and Heart Attack:

When most people think of death from cardiac causes, they may picture a person having a heart attack. Possibly a coronary artery has become clogged. The victim feels like an elephant is sitting on his chest. If he gets to the hospital promptly, doctors can insert a stent or administer clot-busting medication and stop the heart attack in process. It’s reasonable to think of this as a plumbing problem, in crude terms.

In a cardiac arrest, on the other hand, the heart stops beating. There may be no warning symptoms, and the majority of the people experiencing cardiac arrest die before anyone can get them to the hospital. That’s why sudden cardiac death kills more than 350,000 people each year. For a simple analogy, think of this as an electrical problem.

What Causes Sudden Cardiac Death?

Cardiac arrest may be triggered by a range of causes. Sometimes a previous heart attack leaves the heart in bad shape, susceptible to a breakdown in the conduction of electrical impulse. An enlarged heart (hypertrophic cardiomyopathy) is also more prone to cardiac arrest. Even a young healthy person may experience cardiac arrest, as LeBron James’s son Bronny did while playing basketball. In some cases, this is due to congenital factors. (We do not know what may have caused Bronny’s cardiac arrest and are relieved that he seems to be recovering well.)

Until recently, scientists assumed that most if not all sudden deaths were cardiac deaths. However, Dr. Tseng’s research has shown that is not the case. In fact, women are more likely to experience sudden death from neurological rather than cardiac causes. By the way, some neurological conditions can also trigger cardiac arrest, possibly resulting in sudden cardiac death.

Can Cardiac Arrest Be Prevented?

A person who has been lucky enough to survive a cardiac arrest may be a candidate for intervention to prevent a second such event. For this, doctors usually choose an implantable defibrillator. If this device detects an abnormal rhythm–or an ominous absence of heartbeat–it can shock the heart back into normal rhythm.

Are There Symptoms Prior to Sudden Cardiac Death?

We asked Dr. Tseng, and he replied:

“This is the billion-dollar question in our field. In more than half of cases, sudden cardiac death is the first expression of heart disease. So the enormous challenge I and others are tackling is how to identify these high risk people before their first cardiac arrest, and some emerging approaches are risk prediction models, genetics, or targeted testing. Some subtle symptoms can be fainting (especially fainting with exertion such as exercise), palpitations, racing heartbeat, and of course other traditional heart disease symptoms such as shortness of breath, chest pain, fatigue, unexplained swelling in the legs. The other important factor to consider is family history of sudden death, cardiac arrest, or early heart disease. If one has any of these symptoms or factors, they should see their doctor for a full evaluation and referral if necessary.”

We also asked him what a person who is vulnerable to cardiac arrest should do. He said:

“The remainder of cardiac arrest cases typically have established some form of heart disease (such as prior heart attacks, heart failure, or other known high risk conditions such as inherited heart diseases). For these people, close care and follow-up with their specialists to ensure they are receiving optimal treatment for the underlying heart disease.”

Heart Rhythm Problems:

Ventricular fibrillation is often associated with cardiac arrest. It is a failure of the lower chambers of the heart to pump in a coordinated fashion. Instead, the heart looks like a bag of squirmy worms, and the lack of blood going to essential organs kills a person rather quickly.

Sometimes, the problem is not with the lower chambers but with the upper chambers or atria. If they are not working together, the condition is called atrial fibrillation. When blood is not moving through the atria properly, the ventricles have to work harder and may start to speed up. That’s why a rapid heart rate without exertion should be investigated.

Atrial fibrillation is not lethal in itself. However, it can lead to blood clots forming in the heart that then get pumped out to the rest of the body. As a result, people with A-fib are about five times more likely to have a stroke than those with normal heart rhythms.

Many people now have access to devices that can detect atrial fibrillation. The Kardia device provides an electrocardiogram. The Apple watch can also detect atrial fibrillation. Treatments depend upon the severity of the condition but may include drugs to slow the heart rate and/or an anticoagulant to prevent blood clots.

What Are PVCs?

Another heart rhythm irregularity that is quite common is the pre-ventricular contraction, or PVC. This may not cause any symptoms, or it may result in palpitations. A doctor can help determine whether any treatment is needed. People with PVCs may not need to do anything about them.

Preventing Sudden Cardiac Death:

Every public space should have a defibrillator available, and people using the space should learn how to deploy the AED (automated external defibrillator). If someone collapses, call the ambulance and apply the defibrillator.

Not all spaces are public, and even places that should be equipped with an AED don’t always have one. That is why Dr. Tseng urges each of us to learn CPR, just in case someone we know collapses with a cardiac arrest while we are there.

This Week’s Guest:

Dr. Zian H. Tseng is a cardiologist and electrophysiologist (a specialist in heart rhythm disorders) and the Murray Davis Endowed Professor of Medicine at UCSF. He specializes in catheter ablation of complex arrhythmias and implanting heart rhythm devices and has special expertise in performing these procedures for patients with congenital heart disease. Dr. Tseng is a world expert in cardiac arrest and sudden cardiac death, its risk factors, and mechanisms. He is the founder and principal investigator of the NIH-funded POstmortem Systematic InvesTigation of Sudden Cardiac Death (POST SCD) Study, which has deeply investigated every sudden death in San Francisco County since 2011 in collaboration with the Medical Examiner.

https://medconnection.ucsfhealth.org/participant/zian-tseng-md

Zian H. Tseng, MD, UCSF

Listen to the Podcast:

The podcast of this program will be available Monday, December 4, 2023, after broadcast on Dec. 2. You can stream the show from this site and download the podcast for free.

This week’s podcast has some extra information that wouldn’t fit in the broadcast. You’ll learn about pacemakers (how reliable are they?), whether the focus on statins and coronary arteries is proportional to the problem, how coronary spasms contribute to sudden cardiac death and what can be done about it. We also discuss drugs, including an old drug called nitroglycerin and some newer ones that can change heart rhythm by prolonging the QT interval.

The post Present 1365: Revealing the Secrets and techniques of Sudden Cardiac Dying appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

Charlie Walker, who was the subject of a recent film starring Luke Cage‘s Mike Colter, has died at 89 years old.

In the 1960s, Walker led protests to open public construction jobs to Black contractors who were being excluded and deliberately discriminated and passed over for white truckers and white-dominated unions.

He later became one of the most successful truckers in the United States and was well-revered for cleaning up the San Francisco Bay after an oil spill in the early ’70s.

The post Charlie Walker, San Francisco’s Black Contractors’ Hero, Honored By Biopic Star Mike Colter In Light Of His Death appeared first on Blavity.

Walker’s legacy was immortalized in the recent biopic, I’m Charlie Walker.

“Charlie Walker was a true original. Cut from the same cloth as men like my own father and uncles,” said Colter. Men from the seventies era that took opportunity by the horns. Charlie was unapologetic about his ambition and desire to carve out a place in the world. He made a way for his family and set an example for generations to come. He was a character that moved through the world with a certainty and swagger that made people take notice. He deserved to have his story told. It was an honor to portray him. He will never be forgotten. My condolences to his family and loved ones. May he rest in eternal peace”

I’m Charlie Walker producer Mike Regan said, “On behalf of our Executive Producer Bill O’Keeffe and our entire cast and crew we are all devastated by Charlie’s passing, but at the same time we are here to celebrate his amazing life.  Our thoughts are with his beautiful wife Annette, his entire family and his beloved community of Bayview Hunters Point San Francisco.  We could go on and on about Charlie’s accomplishments and the impact he had on so many, but we also know Charlie would tell us to get back to work. And that is exactly what we will do to continue to honor his legacy and amazing life”

“Like many, I was honored and privileged to spend a lot of time with Charlie, as he regaled in stories and wisdom,” said I’m Charlie Walker director Patrick Gilles. “He will be missed but certainly not forgotten.”

In 2022, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed a resolution to honor Walker by naming a street in Bayview Hunters Point as “Charlie Way.”

Walker is survived by his wife of 63 years, Annette Walker, his daughters, Charlette Carnegia and Ruedell Walker, his son, Charles Walker Jr, his 11 grandchildren, which includes his eldest grandchild, Geoffrea Morris, whom he assisted in raising, and his 13, great-grandchildren, and host of nieces and nephews and community friends.

The post Charlie Walker, San Francisco’s Black Contractors’ Hero, Honored By Biopic Star Mike Colter In Mild Of His Demise appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

The property manager of a building where a woman fell three stories to her death during a Fleet Week Blue Angels party is investigating the incident, according to the building’s property management company. 

The woman, identified Tuesday as Patricia Hamon, 51, apparently tripped and fell during the rooftop party on Oct. 7, according to her ex-husband, Clark Hamon, and a Facebook post made by a friend. Hamon was known to her friends as Tricia O’Connor—her maiden name.

“Our office is investigating this matter and will follow up when we have more information,” said Stefan Calic, property management director at Hanford-Freund & Company. “Our office is still gathering all of the relevant facts of the incident.”

READ MORE: Woman Died Falling From San Francisco Building During Blue Angels Party

The roof of 2940 Van Ness Ave., where a woman fell to her death during a Fleet Week party, was easily accessible to a reporter from The Standard. | Source: Garrett Leahy/The Standard

Tenants and neighbors said the party happened on the roof of the apartment building at 2940 Van Ness Ave. and that about 10 people may have been present.

‘You’re Not Supposed To Go Up There’

The Standard visited the apartment building Thursday and accessed the roof via an unlocked door that was slightly ajar. Signs reading “keep out” and “emergency exit only” were posted to the door. The roof did not appear to be built for leisure use, felt spongy, was covered in gravel and had no guardrails or significant ledges around its perimeter.

In San Francisco, a roof does not need guardrails or protective walls, known as parapets, unless a building has a permitted rooftop deck, or has machinery on the roof being worked on, such as an HVAC system.

Signs warn tenants not to access the roof of 2940 Van Ness Ave., where a woman fell to her death during a Fleet Week party. | Source: Garrett Leahy/The Standard

“It’s not the owner’s responsibility; you’re not supposed to be up there,” said Engin Yagmur, a structural engineer with San Francisco firm ECS Engineering.

The property is owned by three individuals and two trusts. The Standard was unable to reach them for comment.

‘I Knew She Was Dead’

A witness who lives across the street from 2940 Van Ness Ave. said Patricia Hamon fell onto the steps of the neighboring home at 2930 Van Ness Ave. | Source: Garrett Leahy/The Standard

A witness who lives across the street from where the incident happened told The Standard that Hamon fell onto the outdoor steps of the neighboring home at 2930 Van Ness Ave.

The witness, who asked to remain anonymous because she said she feels traumatized by the incident and wants privacy, said she heard a “loud sound” around 4 p.m. Saturday before seeing a woman’s body on the concrete steps. The Standard has been unable to verify where Hamon landed after her fall. The San Francisco Fire Department said it could not confirm the location due to legal reasons.

“Then I saw blood pouring out [of her head], and I just screamed,” the witness said. “Her friends were looking over the roof. I was screaming for them to call 911, because I was too horrified to do so myself.”

An old exercise bike on the roof of 2940 Van Ness Ave. | Source: Garrett Leahy/The Standard

The witness said a passerby called 911 and they performed CPR for about five minutes until police responded and continued to administer medical aid. The witness said medics arrived shortly after and tried to use a defibrillator on Hamon.

“When they gave up, I knew she was dead,” the witness said. “They were taking the body away, and [her friends] all held hands, and talked about her,” the witness said.

A friend of Hamon, Alix Rosenthal, posted a message on Facebook Tuesday on behalf of Hamon’s family.

“I am sad to announce that Tricia suffered a fatal accident at a Blue Angels party on Saturday,” wrote Rosenthal. “We are still working on plans for a memorial, and will announce details as soon as we have them. Trishie was a bright light in our community, her passing is an unspeakable loss for all of us. Please seek support from one another as we grieve together.”

Rosenthal and the O’Connor family declined to comment further.

The post San Francisco Blue Angels Get together Loss of life: Roof Lacks Security Rails appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

A couple of weeks ago, as San Francisco emergency responders attempted to pull away from a scene where a man had been seriously injured, a pair of Cruise robotaxis allegedly loitered in the ambulance’s path, not understanding that they were required to get out of the way. The man died not long afterward. It didn’t take long for the autonomous vehicles to be blamed for the man’s death.

Cops Pull Over Self-Driving Car

Tensions between SF locals and the robotaxi population have been notably high since a state-level decision several weeks back unleashed hundreds of the automated vehicles onto Bay Area roads, and this episode seemed to confirm residents’ worst fears. The fact that the cars had obstructed an emergency vehicle—with fatal results—seemed to confirm worst suspicions. Worse still, a much-publicized public safety report showed that emergency responders tied to the incident had specifically blamed Cruise’s cars for their slowed response. A flurry of press stories blaming the robotaxis for the incident followed.

It’s now become apparent, however, that the story is more complicated than that. For one thing, city officials have now clarified—weeks later—that Cruise was specifically not at fault for the man’s death. For another thing, it’s been revealed that the man was actually fatally struck by a city bus, meaning that, while emergency responders partially blamed the self-driving cars for the deadly outcome, a human-operated city vehicle wounded the victim in the first place.

How the crash actually happened

This week, the San Francisco Standard reported that the victim in question, 69-year-old Sammy Davis, was a homeless man who, on August 14th, fell to the ground behind a city bus and was subsequently struck and seriously injured. Neither the bus driver nor passengers appeared to notice that Davis had been struck. Not long after the incident, emergency responders showed up and, after loading the man into their ambulance, had their unfortunate encounter with Cruise’s vehicles. In an initial Fire Department report that was acquired by Forbes via a public information request, emergency responders were clearly fuming about the role that the self-driving cars had played in the incident. The memo reads:

“The patient was packaged for transport with life-threatening injuries, but we were unable to leave the scene initially due to the Cruise vehicles not moving,” the report says. “This delay, no matter how minimal, contributed to a poor patient outcome…The fact that Cruise autonomous vehicles continue to block ingress and egress to critical 911 calls is unacceptable.”

Cruise previously denied that its vehicles had anything to do with Davis’s death, claiming that only 90 seconds elapsed between the time when he was put on a stretcher and when the man left the scene.

This week, officials released a statement that clarified that Cruise had not officially been blamed for Davis’s death. “The San Francisco Fire Chief has not attributed this pedestrian death to Cruise AVs,” a joint statement by the Fire Chief and the city’s Municipal Transportation Agency reads. The statement goes on to partially blame press reports which relied “on an internal report from an SFFD staff member on the scene” for the perception that Cruise was to blame for the man’s death. “The city sends our deepest condolences to [the] family and friends of the victim,” the statement concludes.

In response to the update from city officials, Cruise provided Gizmodo with the following statement: “Nothing lessens the tragedy of a lost life, but we appreciate the Fire Chief’s clarification that they have not attributed this to Cruise. We look forward to continued and increased collaboration with SFFD on our shared goal of road safety.”

San Francisco’s Robotaxi Infestation

Whether Cruise was at fault for this particular incident or not, it seems clear that San Francisco is in for some turbulent times, as the automated driving industry uses the city as a giant testing ground for its robotaxi experiment. Under such circumstances, it only stands to reason that locals would feel annoyed, if not outright alarmed. More relevantly, the tension between the city’s public safety officials and the robotaxi industry don’t really seem like they’re going away anytime soon. City officials are notably wary of a new, arguably experimental technology that has the potential to clog traffic and cause dangerous accidents. Only time will tell whether that wariness is justified or not.

UPDATE: This story originally stated that the public safety report detailing the incident involving Cruise’s vehicles had been leaked to Forbes. The documents were actually acquired via a public information request. We regret the error.

The post A Cruise Robotaxi Was Blamed for a San Francisco Man’s Demise However He Was Truly Hit By a Metropolis Bus appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

Ten years after he immigrated to the U.S. from China, Rongan Liang’s American dream has turned into a San Francisco tragedy, as he and his wife lost their house to a fire and she died only weeks later.

Liang’s wife, 63-year-old Yanfang Wu, was shoved to the ground and seriously injured near a Bayview bus stop in early July. She died two days later. The case has attracted considerable public and media attention as it was initially ruled as an accident and no arrest has been made.

Liang, a 72-year-old retiree and a monolingual Chinese speaker, is now alone in San Francisco with no direct relatives in the area. He wants to move back to China, where his son currently lives.

Liang declined to be interviewed for this story but said through various community groups that he still hasn’t fully recovered from what happened.

Police Chief: ‘It’s Not Resolved’

Very little information about the case has been released to the public since the death.

The fatal push happened on July 3 at about 6:30 p.m. The San Francisco Police Department said Wu was walking on the sidewalk when she was approached from behind by an unknown female who pushed her, causing her to fall to the ground and hit her head.

On July 5, Wu died, and the incident was initially investigated as a possible homicide. However, sources within the police department said that the case was later ruled as an accident after officers reviewed surveillance video evidence.

The police identified, detained, interviewed and released a person of interest, but there is insufficient evidence to establish probable cause and make an arrest.

According to the charity group Tzu Chi and the nonprofit Community Youth Center, which have been providing assistance to Liang, Wu worked in a restaurant in the Sunset District and she was returning home from work at the time. Liang was going to the bus station to walk his wife home, when he witnessed the push.

About three weeks after Wu’s death, amid criticism that the department was failing to handle the case properly, San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott stated that the investigation was ongoing.

“It’s not resolved,” Scott said at an event last week condemning violence targeting Asian elders. “We have more work to do.”

Returning to China

At this time, because his wife’s death is not considered a criminal case, Liang is not qualified to apply for certain crime victim aid programs. According to Michael Wong of Community Youth Center, Liang has borrowed money to pay for his wife’s funeral. The center is also assisting him with applying for emergency funding from the city.

Paul Ng, a volunteer at Tzu Chi, which gave Liang $800 in cash assistance, said that Liang’s son in China also wants his father to return to live with him, and was very worried about Liang. 

Wu’s body will be cremated and Liang will bring the ashes back to China.

Chinese language media reported that Liang and his wife moved to the Bayview because their Richmond District home had a fire in June. At that time, Tzu Chi gave them $500 to help with moving costs.

Both organizations said that Liang is unsure of what to do as long as his wife’s death remains an accident, and they may recommend he seek legal advice.

The post After Spouse’s Demise, San Francisco Man Needs To Return to China appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

GATES, Ore. (Reuters) – Intermittently heavy showers brought some relief to flame-stricken western Oregon on Friday, helping firefighters to further subdue deadly blazes that have ravaged much of the state and choked its air with smoke for the better part of two weeks.

Smoke rises from the Brattain Fire in the Fremont National Forest in Paisley, Oregon, U.S., September 18, 2020. REUTERS/Adrees Latif

Oregon was especially hard hit by scores of wind-driven wildfires that erupted all at once across the western United States earlier this month in the midst of catastrophic lightning storms, record-breaking heat and howling winds.

“We lost everything, but we will start all over again,” said Bill Kesselring, 73, pointing to the spot where the log cabin he shared with his wife had stood on the outskirts of Gates, Oregon, a Cascade Mountain village 80 miles south of Portland.

The cabin and a garage housing a beloved antique car Kesselring had just finished restoring were both reduced to charred rubble. Only the fireplace and chimney remained of the home.

“It breaks my heart. You work hard all your life and then get hit with a disaster like this,” he told Reuters.

Unaccustomed to the sheer scope and magnitude of the conflagrations, Oregon’s ill-equipped firefighters initially struggled for days to even keep pace with the blazes, before cooler, moister and less windy weather settled over the region, and reinforcements could arrive.

ANOTHER LIFE LOST IN CALIFORNIA

By Thursday, officials in Oregon, Washington state and California said they were making steady progress suppressing the fires. Brightening the outlook further, much-welcomed rains doused Oregon on Friday, even as the tri-state death toll from the fires rose to 35.

The U.S. Forest Service in California reported that a firefighter had perished on Thursday in a blaze still burning nearly two weeks after it was ignited by pyrotechnics at an outdoor gender-reveal party east of Los Angeles.

Authorities withheld the identify of the fallen firefighter pending notification of family members, and no details of the circumstances were released.

The death in the San Bernardino National Forest became the 26th fire-related fatality in California over the past month. That tally includes two other firefighters – a Forest Service contractor killed in a lightning-sparked fire in the Mendocino National Forest, and a private helicopter pilot whose chopper crashed on a water-dropping mission in Fresno County last month.

Wildfires have claimed at least eight other lives in Oregon and one in Washington state, all civilians.

Flames have blackened a record 3.2 million acres (1.3 million hectares) in California alone since mid-August. Another 1.7 million acres (650,000 hectares) have burned in Oregon and Washington state since Labor Day.

The blazes, described by scientists and officials as unprecedented in scope and ferocity, have largely incinerated several small towns, along with thousands of dwellings.

‘BEAUTY SCAR’

Thousands of evacuees, particularly in Oregon, remained huddled in emergency shelters, mobile trailers and hotel rooms. And Oregon emergency management officials have warned the death toll there could climb as search teams scour the ruins of homes engulfed in flames during chaotic evacuations early in the disaster.

Justin Gaskill, 28, a U.S. Army veteran leading a community watch organization that was also organizing food relief efforts, said residents in the fire-ravaged town of Estacada, Oregon, where he was born and raised, were still in a state of shock but resolved to rebuild.

“I like to say that this event is going to leave our community with a beauty scar,” he said. “We’ve been wounded but so many beautiful opportunities to share and show our strength as a town are coming out of this.”

Thundershowers brought drenching rains to the western slopes of the Cascade Mountains late Thursday and through Friday, helping a force of more than 6,000 firefighters make further headway against 10 major blazes still burning in Oregon.

The heavy rains also prompted flood and landslide warnings in areas where fire has stripped hillsides and canyons of vegetation.

Cooler, more favorable weather in the region since last week has already dispelled some of the smoky, polluted air and tempered the flames, enabling ground teams with axes and bulldozers to take the offensive while also allowing greater use of water-dropping helicopters and airplane tankers.

Higher humidity levels were likewise bolstering hopes for subduing blazes in the greater San Francisco Bay area.

“Milder weather is helping the fire fight as crews continue to gain ground on many of the major incidents,” the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said on Friday.

Reporting by Brad Brooks in Gates, Oregon; Additional reporting by Steve Gorman, Maria Caspani and Gabriella Borter; Writing by Will Dunham and Steve Gorman; Editing by Timothy Gardner, David Gregorio, Aurora Ellis and Daniel Wallis

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Dr. Carl Wigren could stand in for just about any medical examiner as seen on TV. He’s witty, a fast talker who knows a lot about investigating deaths.

In fact, Wigren has been on TV, after testifying as an expert witness in high-profile criminal cases. He’s the guy you call when a death investigation furnishes more questions than answers. 

And, Wigren says, that happens a lot more than you think. 

“It’s the image that’s popularized on television crime shows,” Wigren told KNKX Public Radio, “that whoever is doing that autopsy really knows what they’re doing.” 

But reality is a lot more complicated.  

In Washington state and many states like it nationwide, the system of death investigation is a patchwork led by professionals with wide-ranging experience. 

Only six counties in the state’s most populous areas rely on the work of medical examiners, doctors who specialize in forensic pathology. That means they are highly trained — even more than the average primary care provider.

Medical examiners manage a staff of investigators, perform autopsies and interpret toxicology results, among other medical duties necessary to determine causes of sudden, unnatural or suspicious deaths. 

This story is the first in a three-part series examining the system of death investigation in Washington state. Read and listen to Part 2 and Part 3.

The remaining 33 counties, covering a population of about 2.5 million people, depend on elected coroners. In 17 counties, candidates only have to check two boxes to make it onto the ballot: they must be 18 years old and have a clean criminal record. 

And in the state’s 16 least populated counties, prosecuting attorneys investigate deaths when they aren’t trying cases. In other words, they split their time between courtrooms and death scenes. 

In all coroner offices, those elected officials are administrators who manage the death investigation process with little or no support staff, minus medical duties — because they often don’t have the training. 

Credit Adrian Florez / KNKX

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KNKX

Kitsap County’s coroner, who was elected in 2018, is taking steps to transition the county from a coroner to a medical examiner system. Kittitas County transitioned to an elected coroner system in 2015, after its population surpassed 40,000.

While some coroners in Washington have prior experience related to death and medicine, such as mortuary work and nursing, others don’t have any relevant experience at all. Wigren says at one point, Eastern Washington’s roster of coroners included a former chimney sweep and a farmer. 

That mixed bag can result in shoddy work, he says, which has consequences.

Death determinations inform what we know about rates of suicide and murder. They affect decisions on public policy and life insurance claims. They help public health officials identify clusters of deadly disease, or trends in drug overdoses.

On a more personal level, though, this work provides closure to families who are left with questions about the sudden death of a loved one. It helps children learn about previously unknown medical conditions in their parents, potentially preventing similar deaths for other family members. It even helps prosecutors determine whether police killings are justified.  

And any mistakes or substandard work by untrained professionals has potential to disrupt that important public service. Missteps could interfere with homicide investigations or insurance payouts. Right now, it can affect data used to inform our response to the COVID-19 pandemic.  

More simply, though, this work seals the final chapter of someone’s life.

“These are the individuals who are responding to your family’s death,” Wigren said, often under traumatic circumstances. 

So, where you die determines a lot, including who responds and where they take your body for an autopsy. If you live in Pierce County and die unexpectedly more than 120 miles away in Wahkiakum County, your body and death certificate will be handled by an elected official you didn’t vote for.

Credit Parker Miles Blohm / KNKX

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KNKX

Dr. Carl Wigren owns a Renton-based private practice, Wigren Forensic. He has consulted on cases here and across the country, including one case featured on an episode of NBC’s “Dateline” in 2016.

MOBILE MORGUES

Hayley Thompson, the coroner in Skagit County, doesn’t sugarcoat the problems facing her industry. She understands the weight of the job — a public service to the voters who elected her. 

“As much as we don’t like to talk about death, it allows us to understand more about what we can do about the people who are living,” Thompson said during an interview at her office in Mount Vernon. 

Thompson is among the more experienced coroners. She’s a trained death investigator with a background in forensic anthropology. She’s worked under medical examiners in Snohomish County and in Arizona’s largest county. 

In both offices, she assisted with autopsies. But she can’t perform those exams in the office she holds now.

Credit Parker Miles Blohm / KNKX

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KNKX

Hayley Thompson sits at her desk inside the Skagit County Coroner’s Office in Mount Vernon.

So, Thompson and 32 of her fellow coroners scattered across Washington have to rely on outside help. A small cohort of traveling forensic pathologists — highly trained, contracted doctors — crisscross the state year-round, performing hundreds of autopsies that elected officials can’t do themselves. 

Wigren, who now owns a Renton-based private practice that consults on cases here and across the country, used to be one those travelers. 

“I would pack up the back of my Toyota 4-Runner with a bunch of cases,” Wigren said. “And then bring that to the funeral home, and create a morgue that I could literally work out of.”  

Right now, only a few of these pathologists are actively traveling in Washington. Each county has its go-to doctors, and many of them overlap. 

“Our pathologists that contract for us, they also work for two or three other coroner offices,” Thompson said. “So, when we call them to ask for their assistance on a case, sometimes they already have plans to help another office out with a case.”

Thompson’s not kidding when she says they get around. State records show the most active traveling pathologist in 2019 was Dr. Emmanuel Lacsina of Tacoma. He performed more than 600 autopsies over a two-year period, billing more than $520,000 in fees.  

Performance standards set by the National Association of Medical Examiners recommend forensic pathologists perform no more than 250 autopsies in a year, to minimize mistakes. Between the summers of 2017 and 2019, records show Lacsina’s average exceeded that standard. In that time, the work had him traveling between six counties spanning the length of the Olympic Peninsula: from Jefferson County to the north, down to Lewis County, and west to Grays Harbor County.

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The most active traveling pathologist in 2019 was Dr. Emmanuel Lacsina of Tacoma, according to state records. He performed more than 600 autopsies between the summers of 2017 and 2019, billing more than $520,000 in fees. The work had him traveling between six counties spanning the length of the Olympic Peninsula: from Jefferson County to the north, down to Lewis County, and west to Grays Harbor County.

It’s not a glamorous gig. Burnout is common. In any given year, the most active travelers in Washington spend more time driving from county to county than they do performing autopsies.

And their workload is increasing. As of 2019, roughly a half dozen pathologists were doing all of the autopsies in a majority of Washington’s 39 counties. In the past year, more than half have retired or scaled way back, including Lacsina.

Dr. Eric Kiesel is among the few who remain active. In that two-year period ending in 2019, Kiesel performed more than 230 autopsies in 13 counties. The work had him traveling as far west as Clallam County and as far east as Adams County, roughly 400 miles apart. Now, Kiesel’s distance traveled and volume of autopsies is likely to increase, as he and few others pick up the slack left behind by their retired colleagues.  

Credit Parker Miles Blohm / KNKX

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Dr. Eric Kiesel is one of only a few remaining forensic pathologists actively traveling across Washington state. Between the summers of 2017 and 2019 — when the pool of travelers was double what it is today — Kiesel performed more than 230 autopsies in 13 counties. He billed more than $300,000.

Attracting people to replace outgoing travelers isn’t easy. The country’s pipeline of forensic pathologists is drying up. Only about 500 practice nationwide, and recruiting efforts are stagnant. 

Becoming a forensic pathologist requires additional education beyond what’s standard for other medical specialties, which often pay at least double the average medical examiner salary. Additionally, only some counties — like King and Pierce — hire forensic pathologists to work in well-equipped facilities with a full staff.  

Those who choose to take their work on the road, like the handful of doctors in Washington, can make a lot of money. But they must cover their own malpractice insurance and benefits. And they have to haul their own equipment to substandard or makeshift facilities, sometimes hours away from where they live. 

That’s a hard sell for newbies coming into the business, says Wigren, who stopped traveling for this kind of work about five years ago. 

“When I was really actively doing this, I would get a call from Benton County, which is the Tri-Cities,” Wigren said. “I would drive three and a half hours out, perform the autopsy, and then drive three and half hours back to Seattle.” 

And sometimes, after walking in the door from that seven-hour road trip, Wigren would get another call from Benton County — looking for him to perform yet another autopsy.

“So then I would hop back in the car and drive all the way back, do the single autopsy, and then drive back to Seattle,” he said. “It’s a challenging way to practice medicine.” 

A BREAKING POINT

So, elected officials and prosecutors are not cutting open dead bodies. But they are struggling to find people who can. 

Wigren says that means some coroners, who lack medical training, sometimes draw blood and attempt to interpret toxicology results using textbooks and supplies they buy online. 

“There are literally, in Washington state, people who are elected officials who are drawing blood on decedents,” Wigren said. “Some of them have some training or they’ve watched that happen. But I would say that most of them don’t have any understanding of the anatomy of the body and where certain organs are.”

Wigren has firsthand experience with coroners playing doctor. He cites one case in Central Washington in 2012, in which a coroner incorrectly interpreted toxicology results for the sudden death of an elderly woman. The coroner determined the woman died by accidental drug intoxication. Wigren, who worked with the family to review the case, determined the woman likely died from natural causes. 

There are literally, in Washington state, people who are elected officials who are drawing blood on decedents.

But examining a body is only half the job. If the death scene isn’t properly investigated, Wigren says, a traveling pathologist is at a disadvantage even before performing an autopsy. 

“I would argue that the scene investigation of where that person died is critical in understanding how the death came to be,” Wigren said. 

Often, he says, a traveling pathologist is forced to perform an autopsy in a vacuum of information, because a coroner didn’t take photographs or collect medical records. “So there is no context to understand the death scene,” Wigren said. In that 2012 case in Central Washington, the records Wigren used to reach his determination were never reviewed by the coroner he says got it wrong.   

Experts say these gaps are bad news for public health data, which begins with forensic work and passes through state, national and even international health organizations.

A key function of death investigation is learning from the dead to help the living. That’s especially important now — in the middle of a pandemic. These frontline workers provide some of the most timely data to help public health officials better understand and respond to COVID-19. Gaps in coroner training and experience limit what we can learn. 

“I’ve spent a lot of time, I’ve had my boots on the ground,” Wigren said. “I just don’t think the system that we have now works.”

With fewer boots on the ground, fanning across the state to assist coroners and prosecutors, the industry is at a breaking point. 

That worries coroners, too, like Thompson in Skagit County. Despite its flaws, Thompson believes the system works. It just needs reforming to make it work better, she says.   

“One of the hard parts of my job is trying to find people that are going to do a good job, care about what they do, and provide us the information that we need for the family, community and also to make the death certificate as accurate as possible.”

This story is the first in a three-part series examining the patchwork system of death investigation in Washington state. In Part 2, we’ll visit coroners in Skagit, Grays Harbor, Cowlitz and Wahkiakum counties, and get an up-close look at the challenges the elected officials there are facing. 

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SALEM — Murder suspect Dawn Coleman was shaking as Washington County Circuit Court Judge Larry Medlock set her bond at $5 million on Monday afternoon in Salem.

She is one of two women charged in the death of 5-year-old Cairo Ammar Jordan, whose body was found in a suitcase the night before Easter in Washington County.

Judge Medlock said Coleman is now facing three charges in the child’s killing, including an aiding murder felony that was just added Monday, and decades behind bars with the Indiana Department of Correction.

At the hearing Coleman was visibly shaking and answering the judge’s questions affirmatively. She told him she didn’t have a home address currently because she is “homeless.”

The only time she spoke otherwise was when Judge Medlock was reading her charges, specifically after he named the Obstruction of Justice charge, a Level 6 felony.

“I don’t understand that,” she said. “Is that the new (charge?)”

The level six felony isn’t, but new court documents shed light on the aiding murder felony, which carries a 45- to 65-year prison sentence and a $10,000 fine.

According to the updated probable cause affidavit, filed by Indiana State Police Detective Matt Busick, Coleman said she was babysitting Jordan while his mother, Dejaune Anderson, was being held in Louisville Metro Corrections.

Anderson is facing a murder charge in the case, but is still on the run. Police said she was last seen in the Mount Echo Park area of Los Angeles.

The court documents said Coleman and Jordan picked Anderson up from the jail in Louisville and stayed at a family member’s home in Louisville.

Then, according to the documents, “A few days later, Coleman advised that she walked into the bedroom to find Anderson on top of (Jordan), with his face into the mattress. Coleman stated ‘it was already done,’ when she walked (in.)”

According to the documents, there were already trash bags inside the room at the time and Coleman said Anderson asked her to put Jordan in the suitcase. Coleman clarified that the suitcase he was put in was Coleman’s hard-sided suitcase that had “Las Vegas” written on the side.

Coleman said she zipped up the suitcase, then Anderson placed it in the trunk of the car they were traveling in.

Then, according to the court records, “Coleman advised that after they got in the car Anderson told Coleman she thought (Jordan) was something really bad, that he was a 100 year old soul, or some old soul that wasn’t supposed to be here.”

Coleman is due back in court on Dec. 15 at 9 a.m. for a pretrial conference. A trial date has been set for May 2, 2023.

It took police six months to identify and arrest Coleman, who was in San Francisco at the time. Charges in Jordan’s death were filed the day after what would have been his sixth birthday, on Oct. 25.

A few weeks later, the child’s family members traveled from Atlanta to Salem for a candlelight vigil in his army.

“We would like to thank you all for your generosity and many, many expressions of outpouring of love you have bestowed on behalf of our precious beloved Cairo,” family members wrote in a program that was handed out at the service. “Words alone cannot express how deeply grateful we are. We are all connected in the love of Christ.”

ISP is still working on the case and ISP Sgt. Carey Huls said more charges are possible in this case.

“It’s an open investigation and an active investigation, so anything is likely depending on what information investigators obtain,” Huls said.

Coleman was booked into the Washington County jail over the weekend.

“To see her here on Indiana soil, honestly brings a little bit of, not resolution, but somewhat of closure to that part of the case, at least,” Huls said. “That we have her back here in Indiana to answer charges.”

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When Mike Peters sat down to play a Seventh Seal-serious game of chess with Death back in 1986, the Alarm singer imagined a clear winner standing up from the table at some point. But his bout with CLL (chronic lymphocytic leukemia) still drags on, his opponent more like William Sadler’s Bergman-spoofing Grim Reaper from Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey, who—after each embarrassing Clue, Twister, and Battleship loss to two stoners—keeps demanding “Best two out of three!,” then “Best three out of five!” So his decision was inevitable, really—why not make art out of the prolonged ordeal (which had been compounded by his wife Jules’s simultaneous breast cancer diagnosis last year), via The Alarm’s new Forwards volley, a mortality-minded concept album written—and even partially-recorded—during long life-saving leukemia treatments in a local Welsh hospital.

The set is a soul-stirring career high for Peters, who won this latest round and transmuted base-metal suffering into anthemic gold on the opening title track, which peals with The Alarm’s classic amplified-acoustic-guitar assault, and tumbles into a faith-centric “The Returning,” stadium-huge “Another Way,” a punky “Next” (with the telling admission, “Whatever’s trying to get me/ Makes me feel alive”), and a rose-windowed chiming cathedral, “Transition,” that’s something of a mission statement; Peters, in his charismatic vocal rasp, declare that he really wants to live, and he’ll do whatever’s necessary to achieve that goal. Two socio-political commentaries close out the disc—“New Standards” and “X”, but somehow, all 10 tracks together roil with the same fervent spirit as the band’s definitive 1984 debut on IRS Records, Declaration, and its signature hits “Marching On,” “Blaze of Glory,” and “Sixty Eight Guns.”

But for a while, once Peters’s condition recurred in September of last year, it looked like Death might wind up winning. But so far, knock wood, the 64-year old sighs, he’s in remission again and plotting the band’s next tour with velvet-glove care. “So at the moment, I’m mindful of what I can do, because I’m still having treatments every two weeks,” says the artist, who still plans to maintain Coloursound, his side project with Cult guitarist Billy Duffy; he also oversees his Love Hope Strength charity, and an annual Welsh music festival dubbed The Gathering that he first launched in 1993. “And they keep ‘em two weeks apart in case I react to one, so they’ll know which one is causing the reaction. So I’m hoping I can push those weeks apart, which would give me a three-week break, and I could come to America and play ten or twelve dates in that time and not tax myself too much.” But maybe it’s the karmic kickback from all of the man’s generous charity work that helped him and his wife overcome this latest close call.

Peters also leases a block of waterfall-adjacent apartments in his scenic hometown of Dyserth, alongside a restaurant, hotel, even a yoga studio, plus his own personal recording studio where he and Duffy are planning a dramatic change for the next Coloursound effort. “Maybe it’s time to go Goth, after all this life and death stuff I’ve been through,” he reveals. “And we could hire Sisters of Mercy’s drum machine, Doktor Avalanche!” And it certainly beats another chess match with Death….

Paste: You and I talked right at the beginning of the pandemic, and everything seemed fine. So which happened first after that—your being diagnosed with pneumonia, or the recurrence of your CLL?

Mike Peters: I think it all started going out of control during the pandemic, because of the isolation rules that were in place. I couldn’t go to the hospital, and I never got to see my doctor. I still haven’t seen my main hematologist for four years! And things went out of control, so obviously the stats weren’t quite revealing until I had a face-to-face meeting, and by then it was discovered that I had the pneumonia, and the pneumonia really kicked off the leukemia again, and my lungs filled with blood, and I ended up in a very critical position, really. I wasn’t sure if I was going to make it out alive, but I did, so I’m grateful for that. But yeah—I think the pandemic really disrupted everything, in terms of my medical and health situation.

Paste: And from outside appearances, it seemed like you were staying busy.

Peters: I was! Until April of last year, it was The Alarm’s 40th anniversary, but it had gotten delayed because of the pandemic, so we did the tour in April and May, and it was amazing, it was fantastic, a full-on British tour, big shows every night, we were playing 32 songs in an hour and forty-five minutes, pretty intense. But during the day, I wasn’t well—I was coughing, I found it hard to sleep, I was having night sweats. But as soon as I stepped over the line and went onstage, I was fine—I could sing full-tilt. But obviously, everything was going out of control, and day by day, it was probably getting a little bit worse, but it wasn’t visible in the stats. It was nothing like that—it was just that everything was going out of whack, slightly, until when the tour finished, and then it really got bad, and I could hardly walk. When I got home, a few weeks after the tour, I couldn’t walk up the hill outside my house. I couldn’t walk up the field to see my son play football. And then I knew something really bad was up, so I went to the hospital, and when I was diagnosed with pneumonia, which is the worst thing that can happen to you when you’re a (CCL) survivor, so I knew then that that wasn’t going to be the end of it. So it was probably just the beginning of it.

Paste: So where was the hospital? There in Wales?

Peters: In Wales, yeah. But I went with my hematologist—he moved hospitals down the coast about 45 miles away, so I went in there because I’ve been with him a long time, and when it was kicking off, he advised me to go see a new doctor back in the hospital where I started from, and he said by going there I was allowed access to treatments he wasn’t allowed to prescribe under the regime he was working with at the new hospital. So I got lucky then, really. Because it was pretty groundbreaking treatment, and for a while I improved under it, but then it stopped working. And it never worked 100% for me—I think my blood count was always slightly out of whack, there was always something going on. But now my new doctor has prescribed a new treatment called Vanesoplax, and that treatment was something I had to get used to. I had to start with a ten milligram dosage and work my way up to a 400-milligram one a day. So that’s part of the reason I was in the hospital for such a long time—my body was being taught how to tolerate this drug. But since I’ve started taking it, there were a few collisions between the old regime and the new one, but eventually I was able to tolerate the full dose, and my doctor said I’d made a perfect transition from the old drug to the new one, and my blood count is absolutely normal. I mean, I’m going into hospital tomorrow for more treatment, and I have to be in hospital every two weeks for IV sessions and other treatments that back up the Vanesoplax, and go in intravenously and work on me. But yeah—I’m lucky to be alive! But my doctors have always said, “”Well, let’s not make the cure worse than the disease,” so they’ve always held off on going through bone marrow transplants with me, because that was far too heavy. So they’ve always sought other treatments and therapies. And it’s like a game of Donkey Kong—just when I get to the end of one level, he climbs up to another one.

Paste: All of which led to the new Forwards, one of your most inspired records, ever. When did these songs start occurring?

Peters: Well, most of them started in hospital, when I was there, usually for a long time, the long haul. I asked Jules if she’d bring my guitar in, to have by my bed, and most people there probably thought, “What’s he doing?” But for me, it allowed me to pass the time and change my focus. Instead of me looking internally, and looking at the world all around the hospital and the other patients and thinking, “Well, what’s going to happen to me?” I just started strumming the guitar and quietly thinking of melodies in my head. And I wasn’t intending to write an album—I just thought I’d have it just to play for pleasure, because I still find pleasure playing the guitar. And for recording, I had my iPhone, so I’d hit the voice recorder and put my ideas down, and then I started writing the words. I found it hard to sleep there, especially when I was on the ward with so many other patients and there are so many noises and bleeps. For me, it was suddenly a click track. And there were some points where you knew, when they pulled the curtains around certain people, that it was an end-of-life situation, and it was pretty frightening. So, in a way, the guitar became an instrument that I could get a lot of comfort from. And it was funny—i’d just be strumming away, and the nurses kind of liked it, and they’d go, “Keep going, mate! It sounds good, that!” There was a BBC show called The Old Grey Whistle Test, and they used to say there that if the people sweeping up the floors there started whistling your song, it was a good one. So there was something like that going on there—the nursing staff would come to clean in the morning, or it was the orderlies who would do the cleaning up, and I could see them lingering a little bit longer by my bed while I was working out a chord sequence In front of them. So I always had a little audience that started to become quite receptive to me, and it was quite nice for me—and for them, too—to have a bit of music and a bit of life going on around the whole situation.

Paste: Now are they all getting backstage passes to your upcoming Cardiff show?

Peters: Funnily enough, Yes! And we had The Gathering in January in North Wales, and loads of the NHS came to that show, and it was great. I was playing in the round on a Friday night, and I could see lots of them in their seats, singing along. And I was thinking, “Wow! They know more about the new music than the band!”

Paste: But you’ve always kept up with technology, too. I remember you playing solo at the Fillmore once, using a minidisc system in lieu of a backing band onstage, like Peaches used to do.

Peters: Yeah. That’s right. And I like all that stuff. And oddly enough, it started for me back when we nearly did our second album back in 1985 with Jimmy Iovine. We went to New York to play a concert, and we did a week of pre-production with Jimmy in a studio in New York, and he didn’t come all the time, but when he’d come in, he’d have insights into your music for you. And he said to me at the time, “Have you ever thought about writing with a drum machine? It would just give you something to play to while you’re strumming your guitar, and it could push you into different directions.” And I thought, “Okay,” so we got a drum machine and we started working with it, and I found it quite good, because you always had something to anchor you while you were playing. And from there, we got into playing with sequencers, like when The Who came along with “Baba O’Reilly,” so we started experimenting with new technology in The Alarm, and it’s never gone away completely. So in a way, The Alarm has always been an acoustic band, but we’ve always had technology at the center of it. When we had acoustic guitars, our technology was to put a Gibson amplifier pickup into an acoustic guitar, so you could hear it as loud as a Gibson. So technology has always been there, and I use it a lot, especially when I do my one-man shows—I play kick drum with my feet, and I loop it and play it back so I can move to another microphone. So yeah—you should use technology to your advantage.

Paste: So how did you keep the rhythm in the hospital, then? With spoons clickety-clacking?

Peters: Ha! Well, with the click-click-click of, you can call ‘em killing or living machines, whichever way you look at it. Because there was a lot of that going on, like someone’s heart monitor, going beep-beep-beep. And it’s going all night, so I’d wake up with those notes in my head, but I don’t know if that recorded through the album too much or not, or if I only sang songs in that key.

Paste: Were there some songs that were just too dark for the album?

Peters: Yeah, probably a few. There was one song called “Passover” that didn’t make the album, and it was quite dark, like with “Heaven’s rain is falling down” or something like that in the chorus. I mean, it had optimism, but it was dark, like “These are Biblical times.” And there was another one I had called “The Last Words of Johnny Rotten” that didn’t make it, that had the chorus line of “Ever get the feeling that you’ve been cheated,” which were the last words of Johnny Rotten when he left the stage in San Francisco that fateful night. So not everything was derived from being in hospital, but the core of the record was, that’s for sure.

Paste: In “Next,” you sing “Whatever’s trying to get me/ Makes me feel alive.”

Peters: Yeah. Well that’s it—that’s what it felt like. I was in hospital, and my glands were so swollen, it was like I had tennis balls in my neck. It was so bad, I didn’t want to look in the mirror because I couldn’t even recognize myself. It was scary, and I thought, “The only way I can get through this is, I’ve got to respect what I’m up against and allow it to be—I can’t pretend it’s not happening and wish it away. I have to embrace, so I’m gonna let this come to me, and I’m gonna take it on, and I’m gonna relish the game, I’m gonna relish the battle. I’m gonna try and be the winner here, and the only way to do that is by respecting the opponent.” Which were the drugs, because they come into you and they are killing part of you that you’ve created within yourself, in the biology of your humanity. You’ve created these things that are trying to kill you this time, so my way to combat them was to recognize them, give some respect, and say, “But you’re not gonna get the best of me—I’m gonna fight back with all I’ve got.” And that’s been my mindset all along, ever since I first heard the word ‘cancer’ applied to my life back in 1995.

Paste: I talked to Ian Astbury a few months ago, and he listed all the crazy times he nearly died, like almost freezing to death in a poorly-chosen windbreaker on a Himalayan mountaintop. He’s probably had even more close-call squeakers than you.

Peters: Yeah, maybe. But I’m lucky—I haven’t been in that kind of a situation. Although the whole of The Alarm were involved in a car crash the night after we played Top of the Pops in 1983. We’d come home from America, and we went on Top of the Pops, and flew straight back to America and then came home. And we came back to start playing a tour, and our first show was at a university in Wales. But while we were there, my 12-string guitar with pickups on it got stolen after the gig, and the tour manager, Simon Watson—who is now the manager of the Human League—he was so angry that I’d lost the guitar that he drove like a crazed person across North Wales that night, and we were all trying to get him to slow down, but he was getting angrier, and we came to this corner turn in a place called Bala, and we went ‘round the corner and the car lost control and we went straight through the hedges and into the fields. We all came around, but the car was upside down and we all had to crawl out of the vehicle, all of us. And a little old lady came up to us from nearby and said, “Come in and have a cup of tea! Our house is called Car Crash Cottage, and it looks like we’ve had another one!” It was a famous house, but Simon wouldn’t have known it because it was pitch-black that night. So our career almost ended before it began—we were lucky to come out alive.

Paste: In “The Returning,” you sing about the afterlife. Have you had any glimpses of it? And in “Forwards,” you talk about being “In the church of nonbelievers,” so what part does faith play in it all?

Peters: Yeah. “Forwards” was really my place where I could ‘Save my sanity,’ if you like, while I was in hospital. In between the IV sessions, I would be disconnected, and I could wander down the corridors and walk, and kind of save my muscle strength a little bit, because you really need to keep moving, and not just be in hospital, lying there all the time. So they said, “You can go, but just don’t go too far,” so my hospital walk was just up and down the corridors, but it was at night, and you’d see people at their loneliest in that time, when there no visitors and people had masks on, and I could see some people crying sometimes, and you’d wonder, “Wow. What’s going on there?” But if you kept walking, you’d pass by the natal clinic, where people are giving birth, with absolute joy on their faces. And then I’d meet some people on the ward who virtually gave up. You could tell that they’d given up, and they didn’t seem to want to communicate. And to me, they were in the church of the non-believers, those people I saw in the hospital, in the streets of emptiness and the city’s all deserted. So my little ward became my world, and I would wander through it at night, and in my mind, I would keep looking for the way out. I wanted that way forward, I was looking for that sign that I was gonna come out alive. I wasn’t sure if I was, at first, but I didn’t wanna become a disbeliever, either. I wanted to hang on and will the drugs to work, will the doctors to do their best, sing for the nurses so they could give me their best, and I could give my best to what they were trying to do, as well. So I tried to always think about that. But it’s a sad state of affairs when you’re in health care in the UK—and it’s free, and it’s brilliant—but doctors and the staff are briefed to not give any false hope, not really allowed to say to you, “Hey, we think you’re gonna make it!” Because if you don’t make it, somebody out there will sue them, and say, “You said he was going to get well, and he didn’t—he died, and it’s your fault!” So they won’t give you any of that false hope at all, so that was probably my walk through the afterlife—realizing that I might be transforming into a more dangerous disease, which people who’ve been suffering Leukemia for a long time can. So the doctors were worried about that, too, and they kept giving me this test and that test. And it was all trying to rule things out, but they didn’t want to frighten me or frighten my family, or give me false hope or any misinformation that could backfire on them. So I’m grateful for what I received from the NHS.

Paste: Did you get to talk to any of those lost-cause patients and maybe help bring them back to optimism?

Peters: Well, I got moved around a bit after I arrived. But yeah, I think just by playing music, with some people, it put a little bit of energy into the room, shall we say? It wasn’t a thing where people could ignore me, being in a hospital playing a guitar, because I’ve done it a lot with my charity Love Hope Strength—we’ve hosted a few things at Christmas time called The Big Busk, and I’d go and sing in all the hospitals, across them all, and sing in the corridors and sing for the surgeons, and go ‘round the wards. And it always had a massively powerful effect—I know that, and I could tell this time when I had my guitar, that this could really lift us all, and I think it gave some of the patients a lift, as well. And I wasn’t looking for that kind of feedback myself—I was just looking to stay alive, to be honest!

Paste: “Love disappearing” has some of your most fervent vocals ever, I think.

Peters: Well, I think I probably pitched it a bit too high. But I had to really push myself. And I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to sing that one, but what happened was, as soon as I got out of hospital, I put some demos down as fast as I could, and I took the demos to our producer George, but I started having all this other kind of treatment, and it was really impacting on my voice, and I wasn’t sure if my voice was gonna come back. So I’d say to George, “Look—we might have to treat this record posthumously, even though I’m still, because maybe Mike Peters, the singer, isn’t around so much. So you might have to just work with the demos.” But he liked the demos as they were, and said, “Let’s just keep on working—you’ve got the tempos worked out right, and there’s a spirit to them that I think has to remain. That sort of moment of creation has to remain.” So we just built on top of them, and then luckily, I got my voice back, so I just got in and sang them over a couple of days. So we recorded the album, start to finish, in literally two weeks, with only a couple of days off.

Paste: And you finally wade into politics on the two closing cuts, “New Standards” and “X.” Three years since lockdown, and we’ve learned nothing.

Peters: Yeah. And the whole Ukraine thing happened, and social media is out of control—people are still learning how to use it, because there are so many new things about it that we’re still coming to terms with. I kind of feel like going underground, and coming back again at another time, when everyone’s learned how to get along again. But there’s a lot of disruption in people’s lives, with the economy and wars all over the world, so it’s hard to know what to put your faith in these days.

Paste: I would be remiss not to ask how [your wife] Jules is. That was another spanner in the works, as Kate Bush would say, that you didn’t see coming.

Peters: Oh, man. When I was in hospital, we had the Love Hope Strength festival in the Sahara Desert, and at first we had a conflict because I couldn’t go, obviously. So Jules said, “No, I’ll go! And everyone’s gonna love it.” So she went and raised over 100,000 pounds, some serious money raised. We raised money for cancer care in Africa, where Jules was trekking, and I was able to speak to them from my hospital bed, by Zoom, and it was amazing. So I was kind of there, but not there, so Jules really picked up the mantle, and she’s changed as a result—she didn’t like to speak in public before, but she can do now and she’s really inspiring, because a lot of women really connect with her. And now she mentors a lot of women who suffer from breast cancer, so she does a lot of unseen work helping other women through the disease. And we’ve taken over my old studio in a chapel, and cancer patients can now stay there as a retreat. So it’s all amazing, really, and we’ve got an Alarm Staycation there this weekend, and in the pandemic, Jules worked out that we could do gigs with thirty people—that’s what we were allowed. And they could all stay in their apartments. And so we started doing internet broadcasts, and I’d play songs on a Saturday night that the fans wanted to hear and take requests.

Paste: So what are these Alarm Apartments by the Dysertal Waterfalls in Wales? And how do they work?

Peters: They’re built into the congregation area of the chapel, and were used mainly as storage. There are two on the ground floor, two on the first floor, and then a huge penthouse—they’re pretty spectacular, and we use them as holiday lets, and at the back end of the chapel’s where my studio was, but now we have a lot of yoga retreats there, and now we’ve bought the hotel next door, so we’ll keep it family owned—it’s a Victorian hotel called The Red.

Paste: Have you ever had a glimpse of the fabled Other Side?

Peters: No, but I’ve definitely faded out one time, and that was strange. I was in a hospital, and my blood count was half a million at the time, and I was having a treatment called leukapheresis, and I had needles sticking out of both arms, trying to get the bad white blood out of my system. And everything started going gray, and I was slipping down the bed. And luckily, the nurse had put a cardboard TV box at the top of the bed, and that kept me from slipping down the bed and out of reality. So the box kind of pulled me back, and Jules put some music on for me, and ironically I heard Big Country, and Stuart Adamson singing, “Like a lover’s voice on the mountainside…Stay alive!” And I thought, “Yes! I’m gonna stay alive!” And I pulled myself back out of it.

Paste: Which is a perfect example. A great song like “In a Big Country” or The Alarm’s “Blaze of Glory” can truly save your life.

Peters: It can definitely help you stay alive, without a doubt. Having a great song in your heart is a wonderful feeling. When their kids are being born, people have music, and at their funerals or at their weddings—it’s a big part of the biggest occasions in their lives, so when you’re struggling, I think you need an appropriate piece of music. And we’ve all done it—you come out of a bad day at work, and your boss has been on your back and you feel threatened. But you put that song on that you particularly like, and there’s no feeling like it. Like when that song gets a hold of you, and you hear Bruce singing “Roll back the window and let the wind blow back your hair” in “Thunder Road.” You only do that when a really great song gets a hold of you.

Paste: Call me curious, but have you actually planned your own future funeral yet?

Peters: I haven’t made any specific plans, but I think I wouldn’t mind being buried near the waterfalls, because there’s been a lot of our lives lived in this village, and there are a lot of people who come to this waterfalls, and they bring their family ashes to scatter there. And they do it secretly, but I know that it’s been done, and I think that’s kind of cool, going back to the water. But I’m sure I’ll be under pressure to have “(Going out in a) Blaze of Glory” played at my funeral, I think.

Paste: Call me ghoulish, but I can imagine the pallbearers lowering your casket into the ground and the lid popping open with you suddenly shouting, “Waidaminnut! I’ve got One! More! Song!”

Peters: Ha! I’ll take that! And I could imagine that happening! Brilliant! Now that would be a real blaze of glory!

Listen to an exclusive performance by The Alarm from June 29, 1983—40 years ago this month!

The post Mike Peters of The Alarm on Dealing with Demise and Dealing with Forwards appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.