Medical News May 4th, 2008
Posted on May 4, 2008
Filed Under Uncategorized |
Patients unite to battle medical mishaps
Several families who have suffered a loss of loved ones after unusual medical events in the Calgary Health Region met yesterday to talk about their cases and try to find ways of improving the system to ensure others won’t have to endure the same pain. About a dozen families gathered at the Inglewood Golf Club, said Rick Lundy, the head of the Open Arms Patient Advocacy Group (OAPAG) - which he created after his wife, Rose, suffered a miscarriage in the emergency room of the Peter Lougheed hospital in July 2006.
Read More?
More who need major surgery are leaving U.S.
Overseas treatments sometimes carry extra risks, but can come at fraction of the expense
Robert Lupo of Santa Rosa had never been on an airplane until last month, when he flew to India to get his hip replaced.
The 45-year-old self-employed contractor had dropped his Kaiser coverage before an uninsured driver hit him last summer while he was riding his motorcycle. A $50,000 settlement covered those medical bills and living expenses while he was unable to work, but Lupo later learned he needed a hip replacement - a $30,000 price he couldn’t afford.
Are you 65 years or older? You need VisiVite, vitamins for your eyes.
Medical Center working to improve heart failure death rate
The Medical Center of Central Georgia is one of just 35 hospitals in the country where patients treated for heart failure have higher death rates than the national average, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
But more recent, unreleased statistics show a lower death rate, said Dr. Louis Goolsby, the hospital’s senior vice president for medical affairs. He said the poor performance that the CMS reported last year was caused by paperwork errors at the hospital rather than poor patient care. CMS is an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Shower Birth Teen Finally Comes Clean
A teenage girl in California secretly gave birth at home - then walked to hospital with the baby still attached by its umbilical cord.
Xochitl Parra, who kept her pregnancy secret lest her mother kick her out of the house, was “just a little nervous” when she went into labour with her new son Alejandro.
The 17-year-old from Long Beach was taking a shower before school when her contractions started.
“I felt his head coming, so I sat down and pushed so he could come out,” she said.
Xochitl could not call the emergency services because her phone was disconnected, and was too considerate to conceive of waking her neighbors at the early hour.
Medical unit takes care of all who come in
As a U.S. Army medical operations officer deployed and fighting the War on Terror in Iraq, Maj. Joseph Tudela is familiar with death and suffering.
His duty station: Fort Operating Base, or FOB, Warhorse, where he is commander of the medical company, which consists of about 65 soldiers.
But these realities aren’t what makes his job difficult, he said.
“We have a good unit,” Tudela said via telephone from Iraq Thursday. “We take care of individuals — U.S. soldiers or Iraqi citizens — who are brought into us and try to keep them alive. But we try as best we can to get together every Saturday and barbecue and play cards.”
Are you 65 years or older? You need VisiVite, vitamins for your eyes.
$150m for fight against cancer
THE Brumby Government is to plough $150 million into the fight against cancer in an ambitious bid to save thousands more lives.
It is setting a target that by 2015, another 10 per cent of patients will survive, symptom-free, the critical first five years after diagnosis.
Four years ago that survival rate was three patients in five; the aim is to lift it to at least three patients in four.
Free book for cancer patients
Half the battle of coping with cancer is dealing with the emotional trauma - but good medicine in book form is now available to Wellington cancer patients.
The Book to Patients CanBook Programme, which has been launched at the Wellington Blood and Cancer Centre, provides free copies of Phil Kerslake’s book, Life, Happiness … & Cancer, to every patient in the region.
Mr Kerslake, who has survived six bouts with cancer, wrote his life story because he felt “something was missing” from the many self-help books already out there.
Are you 65 years or older? You need VisiVite, vitamins for your eyes.
INTERVIEW-Global Fund considers loans to fight AIDS
MOSCOW, May 4 (Reuters) - The Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria may loan cash to developing countries when they grow too wealthy to qualify for grants, the fund’s director, Michel Kazatchkine, said on Sunday.
Including loans in its remit would allow The Global Fund — which has raised about $10.8 billion for donations since 2002 — to extend help to governments and civic groups in heavily infected but increasingly wealthy countries.
Married scientists at UM search for cures
Margaret Pericak-Vance and her husband, Dr. Jeffery Vance, spend their days searching for clues to unlock human disease.
Their maze: the thousands of genes in the human body that cause cancer, heart disease, multiple sclerosis, autism, Parkinson’s and myriad other medical mysteries.
As professional colleagues, they share a storied history of genetic discoveries in their 30 years as scientists. As spouses, they share a family foundation that has withstood the death of their 14-year-old son a decade ago.
Purity Products - Save on Specialty Vitamins, Dietary Supplements and more. Shop Now.
The quest for natural healing
The bad news is that breast cancer continues to plague our women, with no respite in sight.
It seems that medical science is unable to keep pace with the onslaught of breast cancer, and we see the rates increasing incessantly.
Are ‘medical cures’ for addiction valid?
Bill: Freddy G. writes us to ask about radio commercials for a “medically-oriented institution” that says it can cure addiction in ten days. “They also promise the cure is so final, there is no need for follow-up 12 step meetings,” he writes. “Maybe I could even go back to social drinking!”
As a former drunk myself, I find that claim flat out unbelievable — the triumph of money over medicine. But can’t this approach be seen as a logical outgrowth of the AMA pronouncing addiction a disease? I’ve voiced my doubts about that often enough. You don’t catch alcoholism by kissing the bartender; I feel it’s an addiction and you do it to yourself.
But I don’t want my beliefs — my prejudices if you like — to be the last word for Freddy. Dave, you’ve been in the field now for 25 years. If addiction is a “disease” why can’t medicine “cure” it?
Purity Products - Save on Specialty Vitamins, Dietary Supplements and more. Shop Now.
Stem cell firm’s move to N.J. called medical and fiscal boon
Gov. Jon Corzine yesterday hailed the decision by a global stem cell and therapeutic products company to open a corporate office in New Jersey, saying it underscores the state’s commitment to medical research.
California-based StemCyte Inc. will get “as much as $500,000″ in state grants over the next decade and is now working with Rutgers University on a spinal cord injury therapy, Corzine said.
Read More?
Purity Products - Save on Specialty Vitamins, Dietary Supplements and more. Shop Now.
Comments
Leave a Reply
