DENVER – A resolution to declare Feb. 3, 2017, as National Wear Red Day and raise awareness about women’s cardiovascular health brought Sen. Don Coram, R-Montrose, forward to pledge his support – and he returned to his seat teary eyed.
Coram relayed a tale to his fellow senators of a scary time when his wife, Dianna Coram, was recovering from a lung infection and had an adverse reaction to a medication and collapsed.
“We got her to the hospital – her blood pressure was 190 over 150, she had 19 pounds of water in her chest cavity. We thought we were going to lose her,” he said.
Dianna Coram was diagnosed with congestive heart failure, but recovered.
“I personally thought it was the Lord didn’t want her and the devil was afraid of her,” Coram said.
Senate Joint Resolution 11 and SJR 110, which designated Feb. 4 as Missing Persons Day, were passed unanimously Friday by both chambers of the Legislature.
In addition, eight bills passed second reading in the House or the Senate, and one passed third reading in the Senate
Senate Bill 17, which would add medical marijuana to the list of medications that can be prescribed for stress disorders such as PTSD, passed its third reading in the Senate, 34-1.“Senate Bill 17 gives doctors the option to recommend medical marijuana for PTSD. We as legislators are not saying they should, we are just letting this diagnosis be listed on med cards,” said Sen. Irene Aguilar, D-Denver.
Sen. Beth Martinez Humenik, R-Thornton, asked for the bill to be pulled off of the consent calendar, due to the contentiousness of legislation concerning marijuana. She voted for it, and it will be sent the House for consideration.
S.B. 65, which would require healthcare providers to disclose a list of charges for the 15 most common health care services they provide, had its second reading in the Senate.“I don’t expect that this bill will answer all the questions, but I hope it gets everybody, both providers and patients in the habit of just asking the basic question ‘what does this cost,’” said Sen. Paul Lundeberg, R-Monument. It will receive its third reading in the coming days.
“It’s a proper policy for the people of Colorado that will hopefully provide more transparency and a better pricing structure for medical processes here in Colorado,” Lundberg said.
Lperkins@durangoherald.com
