Carroll County General

Carroll County General Hospital and Sinai Hospital plan to open medical offices within a few blocks of each other in Eldersburg, a growing area now served only by Sinai's walk-in clinic and several private physicians.The hospitals are expanding services to meet the health-care needs of the region's growing populace. Eldersburg's population has grown 21 percent since 1990 to 22,485. The nearest hospitals are Carroll County General in Westminster and Northwest Hospital Center in Randallstown.

Carroll County General Hospital is beginning a mentoring program to help sorely needed, newly trained nurses adjust to the challenges facing them in their first jobs. The program, which will begin next month, will involve four senior nurses who will be mentors assigned to the hospital's critical care, emergency room, general medicine and surgery departments. The mentors will be responsible for new nurses in the departments where they are assigned. "You want to do everything you can to hold on to new hires.

A 25-year-old Hampstead woman was flown to the Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore early Friday morning after a truck in which she was a passenger struck a tree near Lineboro.Angela Shaffer, of the 1500 block of Century St., was listed in fair condition Friday afternoon, according to a spokeswoman at Shock Trauma.The accident occurred about 2 a.m. near Grave Run and Shaffer Mill roads when a 1986 Toyota truck rounded a curve too fast, lost control and struck a tree, state police said.

A 19-year-old Finksburg woman was in the Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore after the car she was driving was struck from behind and knocked into the path of a moving train in Hampstead yesterday.She was taken from Carroll County General Hospital by helicopter to Shock Trauma, where she was in serious and stable condition.State police said Tricia Ann Mendigorin had stopped her 1985 Oldsmobile Calais, southbound on Hanover Pike, for flashing railroad crossing lights near the Black & Decker Co. plant.

Social workers are accustomed to dealing with the effects of violence.Yesterday, the social work staff at Carroll County General Hospital gathered to gain a better understanding of the roots of violence."

Sarah Anna Poole, 82, died Tuesday at Carroll County General Hospital. A Montgomery County resident, she was the wife of the late Ethan Poole. Survivors include a son, Raymond Poole of Poolesville, Montgomery County; daughters, Anne Harvey of Taneytown and Blanch Rippeon of here; sisters, Edna Poole of Taneytown and Nellie Rudder of Poolesville; 10 grandchildren; and 13 great-grandchildren.FinksburgDouglas L. Lenhart, 66, died Tuesday at Greater Baltimore Medical Center. He was the husband of Elizabeth Desmond Lenhart.

When Ronald Cardwell died in the emergency room at Carroll County General Hospital in 1990, doctors and the state medical examiner blamed it on brain injuries he received in a heated argument outside a Reisterstown bar.But a medical malpractice and wrongful death suit filed by Cardwell's sisters and nephews Monday in Carroll Circuit Court says the 42-year-old construction contractor died from inadequate care by the hospital and its doctors."

Downtown Hampstead will be filled with tables of arts and crafts, food, collectibles, sports cards and memorabilia Saturday as the Hampstead Rotary Club sponsors its 25th Hampstead Day.More than 150 vendors of antiques and arts and crafts will sell a variety of items from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Breakfast, lunch and dinner will be available.Starting at 9 a.m., entertainment will be provided in front of the old Hampstead Elementary School. The lineup includes the North Carroll Assembly of God Kids Choir, Windy Ridge bluegrass band, and Andrew Lawrence offering blues and rock 'n' roll.

To provide patients and visitors with more parking, Carroll County General Hospital has worked out a plan to allow employees to park at Carroll Community College and take a shuttle van to the hospital.The service starts tomorrow, and its use is voluntary.Construction of the hospital's emergency room removed some spaces, and patients and visitors were having trouble finding parking, said Gill Chamblin, a hospital spokeswoman.Carroll Community College has agreed to let the hospital use its 300-space lot on Washington Road for the next two or three months, until the hospital's new parking lot on Center Street is completed, Ms. Chamblin said.

A Baltimore County man suspected by police of swallowing narcotics during his arrest Monday remained in critical condition yesterday at Carroll County General Hospital. Brett T. Barton, 29, of the 800 block of Sturgis Place in Pikesville was rushed to the hospital from the county jail about 9:30 a.m. Tuesday after suffering "an apparent adverse reaction to an unknown substance," Warden George Hardinger said. "We don't know exactly what was going on with him," he said. "He denied ingesting anything."