Rebecca Oldham found herself suffering painful cramps, and after multiple tests, New Zealand doctors decided to remove her ovaries in November, believing them to be the cause of the problem.

But then they woke the 25-year-old up to deliver some very surprising news: Instead of removing her ovaries, they were about to perform an emergency caesarean section …

to deliver a 9-pound baby boy, with whom she was 32 weeks pregnant. “I was facing not being able to have any more children because they thought there were problems with my ovaries and all of a sudden we had a son,” Oldham told

She and her partner already had a 20-month-old daughter, Hayley, at the time surprise son James was born. “When he cried at night I would say, ‘ssshhhh Hayley,’ and then remember it wasn’t her and that I had a newborn baby,” Oldham said.

“People say ‘how could you not know?’ But I really didn’t.” Doctors are baffled as to how the advanced pregnancy didn’t show up on any tests (the following were reportedly completed: three scans, two blood tests, and six pregnancy tests), though they told her the cramps were likely caused by the baby being so snugly lodged along her back.

Oldham says she’s about to receive findings of the hospital’s investigation and says she hopes it will provide some answers. How often does a woman make it so late into pregnancy without knowing she’s pregnant? Per Jezebel, estimates range from 1 in 500 pregnancies to 1 in 7,000.

Source :fox news

When teens in conflict with their fathers consult others for advice, the response may lead to improved well-being and create a stronger parent-child relationship, according to a U.S. study.

The study, published in the Journal of Research on Adolescence, surveyed 392 families, observing the interactions between both step and biological fathers and their children.

Researchers processed responses from both parents and children about who they turned to after a conflict in order to get perspective and to determine who was at fault. Next they asked the children to describe how they felt after reaching out for help.

Adolescents whose sources led them toward a better understanding of their fathers’ reactions and to recognize who was at fault felt better about themselves and their relationships with their father, the study concluded.

“There has been a lot of evidence suggesting that talking to people about conflict is a good thing for adolescents,” says Dr. Jeff Cookston, psychology professor and department chair at San Francisco State University.

“What we did for the first time was look at what actually happens when they talk to someone.”

The frequency at which teens reached out made little difference; it was rather the quality of the explanations offered and the accuracy of fault recognition that led to better well-being and relationships.

“When kids get explanations and good reasons that fit with the world they see, it helps them feel better,” says Cookston. “It’s sometimes hard to change how adolescents feel about situations, but we can talk to them about how they think about those situations.”

All participating father figures lived with their respective families, with survey data divided in half between biological and step fathers.

“Families are happier when they have less negative emotions, so anything we can do to promote more positive or even more neutral emotions within family is desirable,” says Cookston.

Source: Ctv news

In the Andes Mountains of Peru, living in extreme poverty, Filomena Taipe Mendoza, 116 years old, is in the running to become the world’s oldest living person.

If her claim proves to be true, it would make her three months older than Misao Okawa of Japan, who currently holds the record for the oldest living person according to Guinness World Records and the Gerontology Research Group.

Mrs. Mendoza lives in the tiny village of Huancavelica, one of the poorest cities in Peru. Her age was reportedly discovered when she left her village to pick up a new type of retirement check for seniors living in poverty. BBC News reports that Peru’s National Identity Register claims that her ID card indicates that she was born on December 20, 1897.

“I am not of the past century, young man, but the other one… I am very old,” she told an official accompanying her to cash her first check according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Eat From the Garden, Don’t Eat Processed Food

What is Filomena Taipe Mendoza’s secret to such a long life? According to BBC News, she attributes it to the following:

• Eating a natural diet of potatoes, goat meat, sheep’s milk, goat cheese and beans
• Cooking only items she grows from her own garden
• Never eating processed foods

While we wait for officials from Guinness World Records and the Gerontology Research Group to verify Mrs. Mendoza’s claim, we can take this opportunity to spotlight the rare group of individuals known as supercentenarians in order to learn their secrets for living long and healthy lives.

Supercentenarians are the elite group of people who have reached the 110-year milestone. According to the Gerontology Research Group (GRG), there are 74 verified living supercentenarians in the world and 71 of them are female. The GRG reports that there are probably hundreds more supercentenarians that have yet to be verified.

Lots of Sushi and Lots of Sleep

Leading the pack is Misao Okawa. According to Guinness World Records, she is the current verified oldest living person at 116 years and 64 days. She was born on March 5, 1898, at a time when Queen Victoria was still on the throne.

She resides in Osaka with her two daughters, one son, four grandchildren, and six great grandchildren.

So what is Misao Okawa’s secret to longevity? Guinness World Records reports that she attributes it to the following diet and lifestyle:

• Three large meals a day
• Eight hours of sleep a night
• Lots of sushi

Misao Okawa’s advice is rather simple. “Eat and sleep and you will live a long time,” she said in an interview to The Telegraph, “You have to learn to relax.”

In addition to her regimen of sleep and sushi, Mrs. Okawa maintains a healthy lifestyle of physical activity. The Telegraph recounts one remarkable story of her strength of body and character. When she was 102, she fell and broke her leg. After returning to the nursing home from the hospital, she was seen doing leg squats to help herself recover.

Mrs. Okawa is a prime example of Japan’s healthy aging citizens. According to the GRG, Japan boasts the highest population of verified supercentenarians in the world.

In John Robbin’s book Healthy at 100, he talks about the specific group of centenarians in Okinawa, Japan, the place where more people live to 100 than anywhere else in the world. In fact, fifteen percent of the world’s documented supercentenarians live in Okinawa. In his book Robbins describes the Okinawan Centenarian Study, which researched human longevity from a group of over 900 centenarians.

The study found that, first, genetics was an important factor for longevity. In addition to genetics, cultural habits such as hara hachi bu (eating only until being 80 percent full) and the maintenance of a healthy lifestyle by keeping physically active were key reasons that Okinawans retained remarkable health.

While Misao Okawa is the oldest living person, she does not hold the record for being the oldest person ever recorded. That title goes to France’s Jeanne Calment according to Guinness World Records. Mrs. Calment died on August 4, 1997 at the impressive age of 122.

Eat Two Pounds of Chocolate and Take Up Fencing

Jeanne Calment was born in February 21, 1875, in Arles, France. Her date of birth falls one year before Alexander Graham Bell patented the telephone.

In her New York Times obituary, it recounts how in her preteens she met Vincent Van Gogh, describing him later as ”very ugly, ungracious, impolite, sick — I forgive him, they called him loco.”

Her secret to staying young as reported in her obituary was a most unconventional list of diet and lifestyle habits:

• Drinking Port wine
• Eating two pounds of chocolate per week
• Treating her skin with olive oil
• Taking up fencing at 85
• Riding her bike until she was 100
• Smoking until she was 117

Yet despite her smoking and addiction to chocolate, her long life continued to surpass expectations. As recounted in her obituary, to one man’s financial disappointment her age not only surpassed his expectations but also his own lifespan.

When Mrs. Calment was 90, lawyer André-Francois Raffray, bought the apartment in which Mrs. Calment had lived. However, there was one provision. He would have to pay her 2,500 francs a month (the equivalent of $400 today) until she died and then the apartment would belong to him. He agreed.

Year after year after year Mr. Raffray paid the monthly allowance, and Mrs. Calment went right on living. At the age of 77, Mr. Raffray died and his widow continued to pay her. When Mrs. Calment died 32 years later, the total payment came to $180,000 — more than double the original price of the apartment.

Although Mrs. Calment, being the wife of a well-to-do shop owner, never had to work, this did not mean that her life was without hardships. Her husband died in 1942 after consuming a dessert of spoiled preserved cherries. Their daughter, Yvonne, had only one son, Frédéric Billot, whom Mrs. Calment raised after Yvonne died of pneumonia at age 36. In 1960, Frédéric Billot died, also at age 36, without children in an automobile accident.

A Long Life Is One of Persistence, Not Just Attitude

Living with and through tragedies is a theme found also in Filomena Taipe Mendoza’s life in Peru. “I had a very hard life, I was a very young widow with nine dependent children and I worked hard to raise them. Only three of them are alive,” she said to Peru’s Ministry of Development as reported in Agence France-Presse.

In their book The Longevity Project, the authors Drs. Howard Friedman and Leslie Martin consider what role tragedy and having a worry-free life plays in living longer. They discuss the findings of an eight-decade study of 1,528 participants that was begun by Dr. Lewis Terman in California in 1921.

In reviewing the factors that have an effect on predictions of living longer, the authors state: “It was not those who took life easy, played it safe, or avoided stress who lived the longest.” They explain that instead those who live longer had “an often-complex pattern of persistence, prudence, hard work, and close involvement with friends and communities.” The authors explain that because of their perseverance they “found their way back to these healthy paths each time they were pushed off the road.”

If Filomena Taipe Mendoza’s claim is verified, then as the oldest living person, her life really does exemplify this fact.

Living in extreme poverty with her new pension check she will now receive about 250 nuevo soles (about $90) per month and obtain free medical care.

According to Agence France-Presse, when asked if there was anything she wished for, she replied: “I wish I still had teeth.”

Source: huffington post

A Seattle physician’s medical license has just been suspended after officials received reports he committed a number of offenses that include exchanging texts of an explicit sexual nature during surgery.

Zilberstein, an anesthesiologist, was caught sexting when he should have been focused on caring for patients while present at childbirth and surgeries. According to investigators, during one procedure he sent 45 text messages of a sexual nature, including explicit ‘selfies’ sent to a patient.

So far two of his patients at Swedish Medical Center have come forward to file complaints. The doctor is a contractor at Swedish Medical Center through Physicians Anesthesia Services in Seattle.

Zilberstein refused to respond to KIRO’s request for comment on the allegations.

Additionally, Zilberstein is accused of committing a number of other offenses, which include having sexual relations with patients, improperly accessing medical imaging for sexual gratification, issuing at least 29 unauthorized prescriptions for oxycodone and other medications, and improperly diagnosing and treating patients, according to the Medical Quality Assurance Commission, which develops rules, policies and procedures to regulate physicians’ and physician assistants’ competency and quality.

“That is an egregious breach of trust for a doctor to have a sexual relationship with a patient,” Michael Farrell, state investigator for Washington State’s health department, told KIRO’s Alison Grande. “It raises grave concerns with the commission and his ability to practice medicine safely.”

Officials also report Zilberstein made racist remarks against patients and misrepresented his work schedule to an investigator. He is currently prohibited from working and has 20 days to respond to these allegations and request a hearing.

source: cbs news

A set of twins in Boston has beaten all odds by being born 24 days apart in a rare, lifesaving delayed delivery procedure.

Lindalva Pinheiro da Silva has spoken out about the technique doctors resorted to in the hope they could save one twin when the first was born at only 24 weeks after she went into premature labor in February.

Miraculously, both twins managed to survive and, despite one being nearly a month older than the other, are recovering well. ‘One twin was born in winter, and one was born in spring,’ da Silva, 35, gushed to the Boston Globe.

Alexandre and Ronaldo were to be her first children with Ronaldo Antunes, 40, and she was thrilled to be pregnant with twins. But when her water broke in February, the excitement turned to fear.

‘I panicked,’ da Silva told. ‘It wasn’t time. It was too early. I knew I could lose the babies.’ Around 50 percent of babies born at the 24 week mark don’t survive.

When potassium sulfate injections failed to stop da Silva’s labor, doctors decided to go forward with a rare technique in which one baby is kept in the womb after its twin is born.

‘When you have a situation where one baby is born and labor stops, you are given this window of opportunity,’ Dr. Steven Ralston, director of Maternal-Fetal Medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, told the Globe. ‘But it’s a rare window. Most times, labor does not stop.’

Thankfully, after Alexendre was born at just 1 pound, 10 ounces, it did happen.

Doctors stopped da Silva’s labor and left the delivered child’s umbilical cord and placenta inside da Silva’s womb.

‘On the second day after Alexandre was born, his umbilical cord came out,’ da Silva . Her husband Ronaldo ‘saw it hanging.’

‘But they just cleaned it and put it back inside,’ she said. Da Silva was given antibiotics to combat infection, which can be common after the procedure. However, unlike many mothers, da Silva was fortunate not to require her cervix to be stitched up to keep the baby from coming.

For the next three weeks, da Silva remained in the hospital, where she was able to visit Alexendre in the neonatal unit. ‘I would sing to him and touch him,’ she recalled. Then, 24 days after his brother was born, Ronaldo came at a much more robust 3 pounds, 3 ounces.

‘That time made a crazy difference,’ da Silva said of the three-plus weeks between births. ‘He was born like a regular baby. He didn’t need a breathing tube or anything.’ The boys remain in the hospital growing stronger. Now they each weigh over six pounds each.

Doctors say they’ll likly be able to go home by their original due date of June 18. ‘They’re my miracle babies,’ gushed da Silva. ‘Ronaldo because he stayed inside, and Alexandre because he’s a survivor.
Source: daily mail