Kaiser expands to Kauai, with a tether to Oahu

It’s a consequence of the population increase on Kauai that Kaiser Permanente is, at long last, opening its first clinic on the Garden Island, come January. To this point, Kauai’s been the only major island in the state without a Kaiser clinic, with members seeing other doctors through a special contract with the health maintenance organization.

The new clinic will have tele-health facilities enabling virtual linkups with Oahu specialists, something that exists at other neighbor island clinics in the HMO.

It will be interesting to see if this is just the first step of a larger Kaiser expansion on Kauai, or whether the tele-health trend will limit that growth, on all the islands.

A happy ending for a hiker — and his mom

There’s nothing quite like a mother’s love to keep hope alive.

Saturday’s happy ending for hiker Justin Clark, 32, after being missing for four days was largely thanks to persistent rescue crews — plus the persistence of his mother, Shirley Seeger. It was Seeger who, worried, texted her son when he failed to return from a morning hike last Tuesday in the hills above Wahiawa and missed a doctor’s appointment. Clark texted back about 4 p.m. that he’d fallen and was hurt but could still move. Seeger looked for him, unsuccessfully, then called firefighters the next day.

Each passing day brought declining hopes of finding Clark. But thanks to efforts of family, friends and rescue crews — he was found Saturday afternoon — Clark was rescued with bruises and scrapes plus an injured right ankle, but very much alive. Happy ending.