Health

For the first time in its 40-year history, Verdugo Hills Hospital is no longer independent, announcing on Tuesday that it has completed its merger with USC's Keck Medical Center. The partnership, first explored by Verdugo Hills board members at a meeting in June 2012, still needs approval from the California Attorney General's Office before it is finalized. Len LaBella, chief executive officer and president of Verdugo Hills Hospital, said in a statement that the merger would allow the 158-bed facility to expand its clinical services while having access to greater resources to improve existing services.

Breastfeeding Support Group meets every Friday from 10 a.m. to noon. Certified lactation consultant is available to offer advice and support. No registration required. Babies in arms are welcomed. Free. For more information, call 952-2272. Babysitting class for boys and girls (ages 11-15) offered one Saturday each month from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Skills covered include infant/child CPR, basic first aid, home/auto safety, accident prevention, telephone skills, safety tips, when to call 911, poison control, fire/earthquake plans and other helpful childcare tips.

Verdugo Hills Hospital Offers Childbirth and Babysitting Classes Childbirth ? Thurs. Sept. 14 at 7 p.m. Verdugo Hills Hospital is offering a free introduction to childbirth class, called Beginnings, from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. The class covers topics such as baby growth and nutrition, and dealing with the discomforts of pregnancy. It includes a tour of the hospital's Birth Center. Teri Rice, Family Education program coordinator recommends women sign up as soon as their pregnancy is confirmed.

Tim Willert NORTHEAST GLENDALE -- Arthur Rumya is ready to run for a good cause, and so are his children. The 39-year-old Glendale resident and his two sons -- 8 and 11 -- will be among the hundreds expected to participate in Sunday's "Just for the Health of It" 5K and 10K run/walk at Verdugo Park. "This year we're going to do it together," Rumya said Thursday. "My little one wants me to run with him." The annual event, which is designed to promote healthy and drug-free living, raises money for drug prevention and other programs.

Ryan Carter GLENDALE -- The writing was on the wall for Dr. Narine Arutyounian. She knew it after parking her car one morning outside her Glendale medical urgent-care clinic, the one she and her colleagues had opened in November. The outside windows were sprayed with graffiti. A few days later, she confronted the perpetrators, whom she found outside the clinic -- two teenage boys. "I simply asked them, 'Why are you doing this?' " she said.

GLENDALE— A Glendale man was sentenced Monday to five years in state prison for running a health-care fraud and money laundering scheme that affected more than 800 Medicare patients in the Los Angeles region, officials said. U.S. District Judge Margaret Morrow ordered Manuk Karapetyan, 46, to serve five years in prison after being convicted in March of multiple counts of health-care fraud and money laundering, officials said. "It was a serious offense that had a number of aggravating circumstances," Assistant U.S. Atty.

In battling ailments from asthma to alcohol abuse, Glendale Memorial Hospital and Medical Center is looking to give away more than $100,000 to local charities. Since 1999 the hospital has doled out more than $1 million to nonprofit groups seeking to improve public health in the region, hospital spokeswoman Danielle Grossman said. Local groups have until Aug. 20 to submit letters seeking some of the $102,000 the hospital has set aside this year. Past recipients have included the Salvation Army of Glendale, the American Red Cross, the Glendale Community Free Health Clinic and the Armenian American Medical Society Ladies Auxiliary.

A longtime mental health advocate got the thanks and recognition many felt he deserved Tuesday. Eugene Ferkich spent more than three decades volunteering his time and professional expertise at Tobinworld, a Glendale-based school that serves students with severe emotional and behavioral problems. Before his death last year at the age of 77, the mental health expert and school psychologist was a member of Tobinworld's Peer Review/Human Rights Committee, and helped design a satellite campus in Antioch.