Power of the Narrative

KELLY COLTRAIN: This young woman was stopped for speeding outside of a small town in rural Nevada. Because she hadn’t paid some traffic tickets, the officer took her to the Mineral County Jail. She told deputies there she was drug dependent and needed to go to the hospital right away. Her jailers refused. As her conditioned worsened, she again asked for medical help. Instead, her jailer handed her a mop and told her to clean her vomit from her cell floor. She died during a seizure less than an hour later. This is the story of how she died.

FROSTBITTEN and HOMELESS: Bill George nearly froze to death under a bridge in downtown Reno. When a caseworker found him, his feet were so frostbitten that they nearly fell off of his body when medical workers tried to cut away his shoes. Bill George could have sought help for his feet. He was covered by health insurance when the state of Nevada expanded its Medicaid program a few years back. But like 30,000 other Nevadans, Bill George never made use of his state-funded health care plan. This is a story of the state’s failure to truly provide care to some of Nevada’s most vulnerable citizens, even though taxpayers are paying for it.

RENOWN SHOOTING: On a chilly afternoon last December, Alan Frazier walked into the medical building at 1500 E. Second St. carrying a pistol-grip 12-gauge shotgun. He took an elevator to the third floor, walked through the reception area at Urology Nevada into the back office and opened fire. He killed a doctor. Seriously wounded another doctor and patient and then killed himself. This is the story of fallout from that shooting in the medical community.

WATER WARS: Rancher Bob Marshall has been trying for decades to assemble water rights that he could sell for municipal use. He lost in the early days of the water war to a large corporation and now is on the hunt for a government buyer. This story was told both in narrative and through video.

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