County General Hospital

Howard County police are searching for a man who escaped from county detention early yesterday. Jejuan Deon Griffin, 20, fled Howard County General Hospital about 7 a.m., said police spokesman Robert Leaf. Griffin had been taken to the hospital from the county detention center with an asthma problem. Leaf said Griffin was in custody on drug charges and does not have a record of violent crimes. The detainee went to the bathroom and apparently escaped through a side door that guards were not aware of. He picked the lock on his leg shackles and removed them.

A Columbia man charged with threatening Wilde Lake High School students with a handgun in September was hospitalized yesterday with medical problems, leading attorneys to postpone a preliminary hearing. Stephen P. Bourexis, attorney for Edward Brown Jr., said in Howard County District Court that his client could not attend the hearing because he was in Howard County General Hospital because of fainting spells and complications from diabetes. Kim Oldham, a county prosecutor, told District Judge Sue-Ellen Hantman that she planned to present Brown's case to a grand jury next week for a possible indictment.

A 62-year-old man accused of pointing a handgun at two teenagers near Wilde Lake High School is being held for evaluation at Howard County General Hospital, a county police spokeswoman said. Edward Brown Jr. of the 10500 block of Jason Lane in Columbia was arrested Monday morning on the parking lot of the school and charged with first-degree assault and possession of a gun on school grounds. Two teenagers had called police to report that a man in a Porsche had pointed a gun at them, police said.

Police union gets final `no' from Robey on delayed pay raise After months of sometimes acrimonious wrangling over a delayed pay increase, Howard's police union got a final "no" from County Executive James N. Robey. "There's no additional movement," said county Human Resources Director Robert S. Lazarewicz. The only thing left to decide, he said, is whether Robey will issue an executive order imposing a contract, and whether it would be the pre- or post-arbitration version. Missing Elkridge woman declared legally dead Nearly eight years after Nancy Lee Riggins disappeared and three years after a jury held her husband responsible for her disappearance and presumed death, a Howard County judge has declared the Elkridge woman legally dead.

Elizabeth Marie Bridygham, a companion to the elderly and a former hospital employee, died of a heart attack Thursday at Howard County General Hospital. She was 62 and lived in Ellicott City. Elizabeth Stevens was born in Smithsburg, Washington County, where she graduated from Smithsburg High School in 1960 and married Jack Mongan shortly afterward. After he was killed in an car accident in 1966, she and her parents moved to Southwest Baltimore, said her son, Kirk Bridygham of Columbia.

As part of Carroll Hospital Center's evolution into a state-of-the-art medical facility, upgrades in technology mean that one day paperless documentation will be the norm. This shift is aimed at eliminating vast storehouses of files, allowing simultaneous viewing of a patient's chart and more time for nurses to spend with patients. The hospital's additions and renovations - its biggest ever - are in step with a name change from Carroll County General Hospital, though many county residents still refer to it by that name.

Howard hospital appoints Cservek to public relations post Kevin M. Cservek has been named senior communications project manager, assigned to the public relations department of Howard County General Hospital. He will work on internal and external communications, and will help to implement a new physician portal on the hospital's Web site. Cservek joined the hospital this year after five years as senior public relations specialist at Harbor Hospital in Baltimore. He is a graduate of Towson University.

Carole Jeanne Kronzer, a longtime nurse at Howard County General Hospital, died Monday at the University of Virginia Medical Center in Charlottesville, Va., of a neurological disease. She was 68. At the Howard County hospital, she was a nurse in the emergency room, during surgeries and on the psychiatric floor. Working in its quality-assurance department, she recovered millions of dollars in unpaid bills, said a daughter, Elizabeth McConville of Eldersburg. Born Carole Weyenberg in Little Chute, Wis., she was raised in Wisconsin, where she graduated in 1956 from the Mercy Hospital School of Nursing in Oshkosh.

Hospital changes its name to reflect expanded services Carroll County General Hospital has a new name. Effective yesterday, the health care facility will be known as Carroll Hospital Center. The hospital's decision stemmed from a desire for a name that better reflects the scope of services offered and that would allow patients to easily identify the facility as a comprehensive medical campus, according to yesterday's announcement. The name change, the first in the hospital's history, occurs as it is undergoing the largest expansion in its 42-year history.

An Anne Arundel County man died yesterday as Howard County police attempted to arrest him for allegedly assaulting his girlfriend in her Scaggsville home, police said. Howard police said the man was resisting as officers were taking him out of the woman's home in the 8500 block of Murphy Road when he stopped breathing. After police attempted to revive him, he was taken to Howard County General Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. An autopsy was scheduled for today. His name was not released last night.