Local ladies form comedy duo page 33
B.C. championship for Burnsview page 30
Friday June 11, 2010 Serving Surrey and North Delta www.surreyleader.com
Surrey man charged with killing wife and burning body Les Hart, who suffers with ALS, lost provincial funding for his care aide, Caprice Stadnyk, when he was admitted to hospital. His family has paid for his care, but will soon run out of necessary funds.
Panghali murder trial underway by Dan Ferguson
EVAN SEAL / THE LEADER
Dependent on ‘life support’ Les Hart needs a ventilator to stay alive. He relies on people for quality of life by Kevin Diakiw
A
t age 44, Les Hart’s mind is as sharp as ever. His body, however, has been failing for the last decade, as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) quickly spreads through his system. The neurodegenerative condition (also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease) physically shuts the body down. Four out of five people who have ALS die within two to five years of diagnosis. For Hart, symptoms started in 1999, when the 33-year-old noticed his right thumb was locking up. It wasn’t long before the avid runner received the news that his body would eventually be completely paralyzed. “It wasn’t until I started to research ALS that I got really
scared,” Hart said in an email interview this month. “There are no stories of remission or life-saving procedures, just death. “I stopped doing research.” After a couple of years, his breathing became laboured, and he faced the same excruciating decision every person with the disease does. “My respirologist sat my wife and I down and laid it on the line. At my current lung capacity I had probably a year left. The only other option was a (tracheostomy) and spend the rest of my life dependent on a ventilator, basically on life support.” Wanting to see his daughter graduate, he opted for life support. A director with ALS Society of B.C., Hart’s method of comSee ALS / Page 5
Walk for ALS: Q June 12, registration at 10 a.m. Q Bear Creek Park, 88 Avenue and King George Q www.walk forals.ca
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THE JURY chairs in the fourthfloor courtroom at the B.C. Supreme Courthouse in New Westminster were empty when Surrey resident Mukhtiar Panghali was brought in by a sheriff Wednesday morning. He’s been in custody since his arrest in 2007 for the 2006 murder of his wife. Before jurors can begin hearing the case against Panghali, Justice Heather J. Holmes has to decide what evidence will be presented. She presided over two weeks of arguments over admissibility during what is Mukhtiar called a “voir Panghali dire” or trial within a trial without a jury present. Details of the hearing cannot be reported. On Wednesday, as the hearing was winding down, Panghali listened to the arguments intently, occasionally staring at the almost deserted visitors gallery in the courtroom where just two people, one of them See PANGHALI / Page 4
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