Welcome back to an old friend

It's wonderful to see the ALERT helicopter back in action.

The medical helicopter was in Canada for repairs after it crash-landed due to an engine problem near its pad at Kalispell Regional Medical Center last November. Pilot Addison Clark was later given a rare commendation from Bell Helicopter for landing the aircraft with no injuries to the crew.

There was, however, substantial damage to the chopper that cost just over $1 million to fix. Making the repairs was in the hospital's best interest, since a new helicopter would have cost nearly $2 million and couldn't be delivered until late in 2009.

The hospital has been leasing a replacement helicopter in the interim, so service in the area has remained at the usual high level.

Indeed, the Flathead Valley has come to rely heavily on ALERT. When it began in 1975 it was America's first rural hospital-based helicopter ambulance.

Fly high and well, ALERT, and welcome back.

Move over, Picasso; there are a bunch of human cells waiting to rival the world of abstract art.

Kalispell Regional Medical Center's new art exhibit, "Beauty Within - Cellular Structures as Living Art," is well worth seeing, and teaches us that art happens in the most unexpected places.

Who knew that gout crystals could be stunning? Or that sweat glands look like purple slices of kiwi fruit? Photographs of seemingly mundane tissue from the colon and stomach lining, among other internal organs, have produced psychedelic kaleidoscopes of colors and shapes.

Kudos to hospital lab director Terry Petersen, pathologist Dr. David Walker and other local scientists for putting together the extraordinary exhibit that will be on display free of charge through Oct. 28.

By the way, viewers can buy copies of their favorite cells, and proceeds benefit Northwest Healthcare Foundation. Go buy a picture of a parathyroid gland - it's for a good cause.