NY 5 year old girl, saves mom’s life

A 5-year-old Long Island girl is credited with saving her mother’s life.

Authority’s say Jillian Given was “calm and collected” when she dialed 911 and told a dispatcher her mother was diabetic and had passed out.

Jillian told the dispatcher she was 5 years old and had tried to call her father but didn’t get him.

The incident occurred on Sept. 16.

She said her mother, Elisabeth Given, was breathing but not awake.

Nesconset fire department assistant chief John Martins tells Newsday he’s never seen a 5 year old “as well-versed and as calm as she was.”

Given is a registered nurse and diabetes educator. She says she had coached Jillian on emergencies.

The family on Wednesday thanked officials who responded to Jillian’s call.

Source: http://poststar.com/news/state-and-regional/ny-girl-credited-with-saving-mom-s-life/article_3b983003-4cd5-5643-aef3-24a9db67ec6b.html


Bionic Man: Controls Artificial Leg with his Thoughts

For the first time ever, doctors have developed an artificial leg that is controlled by the person’s thoughts. And it happened here at the Rehabilitation Institute Of Chicago (RIC).

“So I move my leg out, push the toes down and bring my toes back up,” said Zac Vawter, the first man in the nation to have a so-called bionic leg.

He is able to make these movements just like people with a fully functioning leg do: With his thoughts.

In 2009, Vawter lost his right leg from above the knee down in a motorcycle accident. His bionic leg allows him to bend his knee and move his ankle. “It’s exciting,” he said. “It’s neat. It’s intuitive. It puts energy into me walking and moving around.” With a regular prosthetic leg, movement like this isn’t possible.

So how does this all work?

Two nerves in Vawter’s leg were rewired to his hamstring muscle.  Those nerves communicate with the sensors inside the prosthetic leg socket. The sensors send a message to a computer. “So when he thinks about straightening or bending his knee, this computer can detect that and tell the knee to bend or to straighten,” Dr. Annie Simon, Biomedical Engineer at the RIC.

A team, headed by Dr. Levi Hargrove, spent four years perfecting the technology Vawter is using. “He’s giving back so much,” Hargrove said. “He’s taken a less than ideal situation and made the most of it and he’s helping potentially, millions of people.”

Vawter, a software engineer, knew about RIC’s bionic research. He never thought one day, that technology would be used to help him walk.

“RIC is really pushing the boundaries of what’s possible with prosthetics and it’s exciting to contribute to that and to help them push forward into new areas of research,” Vawter said.

RIC research is funded through an $8 million grant from the U.S. Army with a goal of creating better prosthetic limbs.

More than 1,200 soldiers have had lower limb amputations from the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Source: http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2013/09/25/bionic-man-amputee-controls-artificial-leg-with-thoughts/


Wristband can help you track your health goals

If you want to learn more about your lifestyle habits, a new wristband and app called UP, made by the technology company Jawbone, might be able to help.

Users wear the wristband, which syncs to their smart phones, throughout the day to monitor how many steps they take, how long they sleep, what they eat everyday – and even what their mood is like.

If users are idle for too long, the app will give them a nudge to get them moving again. Additionally, the app can help people wake up at the optimal time every morning.

The band costs $130 and offers customized health tips at the end of each day.

While users should still speak with their doctors about their overall health goals, this app is a good way help people monitor their progress along the way

Source: Fox news.com


3-Year-Old Girl Dies in Sofa Bed

A 3-year-old girl died after she was caught inside a sofa bed where she and another child were sleeping in their Harlem home Sunday, police said.

Police responding to a 911 call at the home on West 140th Street around 6 p.m. found Aissante Diallo unconscious. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

Police said she and a 10-year-old sibling were on the bed when it somehow folded up, trapping Aissante. The 10-year-old was able to escape.

Two other younger children were in the room at the time, but not on the bed.

The children were in the care of their mother’s boyfriend, who flagged down a police officer on the street for help after the child was caught. He has been charged with endangering the welfare of a child.

Neighbors were horrified.

“Can you imagine?” said Fatsu Matza, crying. “She just stays right there and strangles herself to death.”

The medical examiner will determine the cause of death.

Source: http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Child-Found-Dead-Harlem-Home-Police-224858622.html 

 


Photo of pregnant weightlifter sparks heated debate

Pregnant Mom Lea-Ann Ellison lifting weights

Pregnant women are encouraged to stay fit and active during pregnancy to help reduce the risk to themselves and their unborn children. But 35-year-old weightlifter, Lea-Ann Ellison, has sparked a huge online debate after sharing photographs of her lifting heavy weights just two weeks before giving birth.

The Los Angeles mom-to-be can be seen hoisting kettle balls and barbells above her head. With the photos, she gave the statement, “I strongly believe that pregnancy is not an illness, but a time to relish in your body’s capabilities to kick .”

Within just hours of the CrossFit regime follower’s post, more than 500 shares had taken place. Within less than five days, nearly 17,000 shares had been counted. That has resulted in some vehemently opposed comments regarding her fitness routine, which is described as a ‘strength and conditioning program [adopted by many organizations, including] military special operations units, champion martial artists and professional athletes worldwide.’

User Amanda Cinq-Mars wrote: “This is actually sickening. I hope pregnant women around the world do not do this kind of crap…I am a crossfit enthusiast but I DO NOT recommend this at all. Doctors always strongly suggest to not lift heavy because you can sever your placenta and cause major damage and  early labor and miscarriage…Posting this picture [gives] people the wrong message that it is OKAY when it’s not!!!”

Another user, Stephanie Herrera wrote: “Sure you look and sound cool, but we’re only human…why would you risk hurting your baby just to stay in shape? That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. It’s not time to kick. It’s time to be protective of your unborn child.”

But not everyone has lashed out at the expectant Lea-Ann. In fact, she’s had some pretty strong supporters on her Facebook page.

Source: http://www.growingyourbaby.com/2013/09/20/pregnant-mom-sparks-online-debate-shares-photographs-weightlifting-just-weeks-due-date/


1 in 500 patients wakes up on operating table

One of the most disturbing surgical complications is also frighteningly common: As many as 1 in every 500 patients wakes up on the operating table and is at least dimly aware of what’s happening, according to a new survey of doctors.

The findings, published in the British Journal of Anesthesia, noted most patients say they are not distressed by the experience because they feel no pain and are not fully awake or aware of the circumstances.

But lead researcher Jaideep Pandit, an Oxford University anesthetist, said it happens far more frequently than past research has suggested. One reason: Only 1 in 15,000 patients who can remember at least some aspects of an operation mentions the experience to the doctor afterwards.

The experiences recalled by the patients: Vague awareness of conversations among the staff in the operating room and even the knife on their skin (but no pain). 

“The difference between the incidence of one in 500 and one in 15,000 suggests that even in the rare cases where patients are experiencing awareness, in most cases, the sensation is a ‘neutral’ one,” Pandit told the Independent on Sunday. 

“What we are possibly seeing is a third state of consciousness — dysanaesthesia — in which the patient is certainly aware of events but not concerned by this knowledge, especially as they are not in pain.” 

He added that problems in the way the anesthetic is given or even by genetic variation among surgical patients may cause some to react differently to the drugs.

For the survey, Pandit polled more than 7,100 anesthesiologists at 329 British hospitals.

Source: http://www.newsmaxhealth.com/Health-News/waking-during-surgery/2013/09/23/id/527243

 


FDA issues final rules governing mobile medical apps

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued final rules covering the development of mobile medical apps on Monday, saying it will focus it oversight on those apps that have the potential to harm consumers if they do not function properly.

The FDA has cleared about 100 mobile medical apps over the past decade, including products that can diagnose abnormal heart rhythms or help patients monitor their blood sugar. About 40 apps were cleared within the past two years.

The agency said it will not regulate the sale or general consumer use of smart phones or tablets or mobile app distributors such as the iTunes store or Google Play store.

It will, however, focus its enforcement on products that transform smart phones into devices the agency currently regulates, such as electrocardiography (ECG) machines that can determine whether a patient is having a heart attack.

The FDA will also focus on apps that would be used as an accessory to a regulated device, such as one that displays images used by physicians to make specific diagnoses.

Source: http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/09/23/us-fda-issues-final-rules-governing-mobile-medical-apps/


How Many Die From Medical Mistakes In U.S. Hospitals?

It seems that every time researchers estimate how often a medical mistake contributes to a hospital patient’s death, the numbers come out worse.

In 1999, the Institute of Medicine published the famous “To Err Is Human” report, which dropped a bombshell on the medical community by reporting that up to 98,000 people a year die because of mistakes in hospitals. The number was initially disputed, but is now widely accepted by doctors and hospital officials — and quoted ubiquitously in the media.

In 2010, the Office of Inspector General for the Department of Health and Human Services said that bad hospital care contributed to the deaths of 180,000 patients in Medicare alone in a given year.

Now comes a of the Journal of Patient Safety that says the numbers may be much higher — between each year who go to the hospital for care suffer some type of preventable harm that contributes to their death.

That would make medical errors the, behind heart disease, which is the first, and cancer, which is second.

The new estimates were developed by John T. James, a ‘s space center in Houston who runs an advocacy organization called . James has also about the death of his 19-year-old son after what James maintains was negligent hospital care.

Asked about the higher estimates, a spokesman for the American Hospital Association said the group has more confidence in the IOM’s estimate of 98,000 deaths. ProPublica asked three prominent patient safety researchers to review James’ study, however, and all said his methods and findings were credible.

What’s the right number? Nobody knows for sure. There’s never been an actual count of how many patients experience preventable harm. So we’re left with approximations, which are imperfect in part because of inaccuracies in medical records and the reluctance of some providers to report mistakes.

Patient safety experts say measuring the problem is nonetheless important because estimates bring awareness and research dollars to a major public health problem that persists despite decades of improvement efforts.

“We need to get a sense of the magnitude of this,” James said in an interview.

James based his estimates on the findings of four recent studies that identified preventable harm suffered by patients — known as “adverse events” in the medical vernacular — using use a screening method called the , which guides reviewers through medical records, searching for signs of infection, injury or error. Medical records flagged during the initial screening are reviewed by a doctor, who determines the extent of the harm.

In the four studies, which examined records of more than 4,200 patients hospitalized between 2002 and 2008, researchers found serious adverse events in as many as 21 percent of cases reviewed and rates of lethal adverse events as high as 1.4 percent of cases.

By combining the findings and extrapolating across 34 million hospitalizations in 2007, James concluded that preventable errors contribute to the hospital patients annually.

That is the baseline. The actual number more than doubles, James reasoned, because the trigger tool doesn’t catch errors in which treatment should have been provided but wasn’t, because it’s known that medical records are missing some evidence of harm, and because diagnostic errors aren’t captured.

An estimate of 440,000 deaths from care in hospitals “is roughly one-sixth of all deaths that occur in the United States each year,” James wrote in his study. He also cited other research that’s shown hospital reporting systems and peer-review capture only a fraction of patient harm or negligent care.

“Perhaps it is time for a national patient bill of rights for hospitalized patients,” James wrote. “All evidence points to the need for much more patient involvement in identifying harmful events and participating in rigorous follow-up investigations to identify root causes.”

Dr. Lucian Leape, a Harvard pediatrician who is referred to the was on the committee that wrote the “To Err Is Human” report. He told ProPublica that he has confidence in the four studies and the estimate by James.

Members of the Institute of Medicine committee knew at the time that their estimate of medical errors was low, he said. “It was based on a rather crude method compared to what we do now,” Leape said. Plus, medicine has become much more complex in recent decades, which leads to more mistakes, he said.

Dr. David Classen, one of of the Global Trigger Tool, said the James study is a sound use of the tool and a “great contribution.” He said it’s important to update the numbers from the “To Err Is Human” report because in addition to the obvious suffering, preventable harm leads to enormous financial costs.

Dr. Marty Makary, a surgeon at Johns Hopkins Hospital whose book Unaccountable calls for greater transparency in health care, said the James estimate shows that eliminating medical errors must become a national priority. He said it’s also important to increase the awareness of the potential of unintended consequences when doctors perform procedure and tests. The risk of harm needs to be factored into conversations with patients, he said.

Leape, Classen and Makary all said it’s time to stop citing the 98,000 number.

Still, hospital association spokesman Akin Demehin said the group is sticking with the Institute of Medicine’s estimate. Demehin said the IOM figure is based on a larger sampling of medical charts and that there’s no consensus the Global Trigger Tool can be used to make a nationwide estimate. He said the tool is better suited for use in individual hospitals.

The AHA is not attempting to come up with its own estimate, Demehin said.

Dr. David Mayer, vice president of quality and safety at Maryland-based , said people can make arguments about how many patient deaths are hastened by poor hospital care, but that’s not really the point. All the estimates, even on the low end, expose a crisis, he said.

“Way too many people are being harmed by unintentional medical error,” Mayer said, “and it needs to be corrected.”

Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2013/09/20/224507654/how-many-die-from-medical-mistakes-in-u-s-hospitals


Woman in Bihar Gives Birth to Quintuplets

The babies were born at a private hospital in Bihar’s Nawada district. Janakai Prajapati gave birth to four children at Sultania Hospital on Thursday late night. Hospital superintendent Dr Sudha Chaurasia told that the delivery was done in seven-and-a-half months, therefore, the children are weak but stable.

Three infants died soon after birth, while a boy and a girl survived despite weighing less than normal, said the district health official.

The woman, resident of Ambika village, was fine and the doctor was monitoring the health of the two surviving babies, he added.

Hundreds of villagers thronged the hospital to take a look at the quintuplets but doctors did not allow them to enter the hospital.

Source: medindia.net

 


What does California’s new toxic substances law mean?

What does California’s new toxic substances law mean?

A short while ago, the point out of California one particular-upped these producers by approving the landmark Safer Buyer Products and solutions polices, which choose effect October one, 2013 and will need companies to look for safer options to the harmful chemical ingredients at this time located in usually applied goods.

As the California Department of Toxic Substances Management (DTSC) observed in a press release, this is a single of the initially programs of its form in the planet. The laws lay out an considerable, time-consuming critique procedure that commences with the condition establishing a list of “Candidate Substances.”

Suppliers can then figure out if any of their “Priority Products” consist of a person of these substances perform an “Alternatives Analysis” as to what safer ingredients might be substituted and then wait around for “Regulatory Responses” to be issued.

All this may possibly audio easy ample, but could just take years to generate true outcomes in the marketplace. The eventual implications, nonetheless, are exceptionally extensive-achieving: If manufacturers have to reformulate their goods for sale in California – by considerably the most populous state in the country – they’ll probably do so throughout the board for merchandise sold in all states, in any nation.

The term “consumer products” is vague, making it challenging for businesses to exempt their goods from subsequent the laws. Luckily, California’s DTSC will prioritize a product for evaluation centered on the “Applicant Chemicals” it includes (if any), and just how dangerous these chemical compounds can be more than the everyday living cycle of the item – this means not just when it is made use of by the client, but also how poisonous its manufacturing method is on the atmosphere, among the other factors.

I admire California lawmakers for having this essential move in the name of public wellness, and I persuade shoppers to follow this story as it develops. Although it might take yrs for adjustments to be compelled on makers, all those with any amount of money of foresight will strike preemptively, and take away unsafe components ahead of currently being pressured to do so by regulation.

In the meantime, glance out for California’s list of “Prospect Chemicals,” to be unveiled at the conclude of October, and do some regulating of your have! Scour the cupboards and closets of your property and look at the chemicals on the list to individuals detailed as components on your favorite goods.

It is good that California desires to support safeguard its citizens, and by extension the relaxation of the region, from harmful substances, but only you can management which merchandise enter your dwelling and have an effect on the wellness of everybody inside.

Source: dailynewsen.com