Living Well

Eight Energy-Saving Tips to Make Every Day Earth Day

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Earth Day 2014 is the 44th birthday of the modern environmental movement, and it provides a great opportunity to take small, easy steps to shrink your carbon footprint at home and put money back into your pocket year-round. Not only will you lower your utility bills, you can help the planet by implementing these simple steps in eight areas of your home for minimal, or no, cost.

1. Adjust your TV

Although today’s flat-panel televisions use far less energy than previous models, you can easily increase the savings even more. Go to your TV’s picture set-up menu and choose the “home” or “standard” screen setting — the “vivid” or “retail” settings are unnecessarily bright and burn up to 20 percent more power. Don’t forget to disable the “quick start” function that allows your TV to boot up a few seconds faster, but eats significantly more power during the 19 hours or so your TV is in standby mode and not being used.

2. Check your set-top box

The set-top box hooked up to your television to deliver pay-TV services from cable and satellite companies may well use more energy than your big screen TV alone (especially true for DVR set-top boxes). But the industry is working hard to bring more-efficient options to the market. Ask your service provider for an ENERGY STAR™ version 3 box, and if you have multiple TVs, request a whole-home DVR for your main TV and a thin client box (which uses far less power than a DVR, but still allows you to watch live or recorded shows) for the others.

3. Change your computer settings

A typical desktop computer and monitor running 24/7 wastes $40 a year more in electricity than when the devices are off. Adjust control-panel settings for the screen to turn off after 15 minutes of inactivity and for the computer to power down after 30. Be sure to set the screen to turn off, not to display a continuously running slide show or screen saver, because these use a lot of energy.

4. See the light (bulb)

Replacing old, inefficient light bulbs with new energy-saving versions can lead to big savings. To select the best one for your needs, consult NRDC’s updated Light Bulb Buying Guide. Choose “warm white” for the same yellow-white color as an old incandescent bulb; “daylight” produces a bluish-white light. Try each before switching out all your bulbs. LED bulbs, now less than $10 at big-box stores, are a good investment because they can save $100 or more over their lifetime. With 3 billion screw-based sockets still containing an inefficient incandescent or halogen bulb, switching to LEDs and CFLs would add up to a whopping $3 billion in savings for U.S. consumers and businesses while avoiding the electricity equivalent of 30 coal-burning power plants and preventing 100 million tons of carbon dioxide annually.

EarthDay-infographic

5. Ensure your game console doesn’t guzzle energy when it’s supposedly off

Approximately half of U.S. households have a video-game console, and while the latest models are better at reducing power when idle, they could still consume as much electricity as your refrigerator if left on when the TV is turned off. With the new Xbox One and PS4, go into the unit’s menu to ensure the automatic power-down feature is enabled and set for one hour of inactivity or less. Even then, Xbox One’s “Instant on” and PS4’s standby mode are configured by default to remain connected to the internet, which can represent half their total energy use, so consider disabling those features. With older consoles, also set the menu to power down after one hour of inactivity or less. And don’t stream video with your game console because it requires up to 30 times more energy to play a movie than such devices as a smart TV or an external box like Apple TV, Roku or Amazon Fire TV.

6. Dial back the water heater

Water heating is typically a home’s third-largest energy expense. Lowering the temperature setting from 140 degrees to 120 degrees Fahrenheit saves money and still gets the water plenty hot. If you’re going to be away for days, drop the setting even more.

7. A programmable thermostat is your friend

Why run your central air conditioning or furnace at the same temperatures round-the-clock when you’re not home most of the day? Program your thermostat to reflect your schedule. Most models have a temporary override if that schedule changes. If you can’t program your thermostat, get a new one, and if you want to splurge, buy a Nest model that learns your schedule and can provide even greater savings. (Don’t forget to regularly clean or replace your A/C and heating filters to save additional electricity and money.)

8. Watch that washer and dryer

With new detergents designed to work in cold water, select that setting for all but the dirtiest loads. If you have an electric water heater, and a slightly older washer, you’ll save up to 50 cents a load, or around $175 a year, because most washer electricity goes toward heating the water. Choose maximum spin speed on your front-load washer and your clothes won’t come out as wet, requiring less drying time and energy. If you’re only doing one load and not in a hurry, pick dryer settings like Eco mode or energy saver — they typically save energy by using lower temperatures but take a little longer. With a large load of different fabrics, pop open the door about two-thirds through the cycle and pull out dry items: Thinner fabrics won’t get wrinkled, and more warm air circulates around the heavier ones. Also don’t forget to clean the lint off the screen before each load so your dryer can run more efficiently.

These easy steps, can turn your whole house into a year-round celebration of Earth Day. And if everyone else takes them, too, these small changes could add up to big financial, energy and pollution savings for our planet.

Source: livescience

Michigan girl mauled by raccoon gets surgery to replace ear

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A Michigan girl whose face was severely mauled by a pet raccoon when she was a baby is getting reconstructive surgery Tuesday to create a new ear.

Eleven-year-old Charlotte Ponce is a veteran of many previous surgeries to repair damage to her nose, lip and cheek.

For the latest operation, Dr. Kongkrit Chaiyasate of Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak is taking cartilage from Charlotte’s ribs and carving it into the shape of an ear using a computer-generated template based on the girl’s other ear. Then he’ll implant the ear structure under the skin of Charlotte’s forearm. The skin will mold to the ear shape over a period of weeks.

Chaiyasate, the director of reconstructive microsurgery at Beaumont, performed a series of five operations in 2012 to rebuild Charlotte’s nose, which was also disfigured by the attack. At the time, the girl’s adoptive mother, Sharon Ponce, described it as “the best Christmas present she could ever get.”

The family’s blog, Healing Charlotte, tells the harrowing story of how the girl was attacked in her crib as a baby by a pet raccoon that gnawed away at her right ear, upper lip and cheeks. she barely survived and spent months in the hospital. Charlotte and her brother were removed from the home and later adopted by their great aunt and uncle.

Before the series of operations began at Beaumont, Charlotte had already undergone half a dozen reconstructive surgeries and skin grafts. Some resulted in painful complications, and an earlier attempt at a prosthetic ear had to be removed after repeated infections, according to the blog. But despite the trauma, the family said Charlotte was “starting the road to emotional and mental recovery,” taking dance, art and gymnastics and making new friends at school.

Source: CBS news

Paralysis Patients Move Again in Shocking Breakthrough

An accidental discovery is giving four paralyzed men a new lease on life. During experiments with paralysis patients that entailed electrically stimulating their nerves, a neuroscientist made a shocking discovery when a patient made a breakthrough that allowed him to move his legs again. While none of the four men have regained the ability to walk, the fact that they have regained substantial lower body functioning is astonishing to researchers.

The breakthrough came about through an accidental discovery. Neuroscientist Susan Harkema was conducting research on the nerve pathways of patients with paralysis. One day, to her great shock, the electrical stimulator she was using allowed a man paralyzed below the neck to move his toes.

For a total of five years, Harkema and her team worked with four different men with paralysis, and all of them regained significant abilities. While they have not regained the ability to walk, they can pull themselves into sitting positions without support, and lift their legs and move them. Rob Summers, the original patient, has regained the ability to stand.

Summers says that the electrical stimulator treatment has changed his life in dramatic ways. He has regained a great deal of movement and sensation, and he is now able to travel and live in a more independent fashion. Summers is not alone: patient Dustin Shilcox said the device has greatly improved his bladder and bowel functions, and his sexual function.

The breakthrough has come as a shock to scientists, because the way in which it has allowed patients with paralysis to move again overturns previous ideas about how the spinal cord works, and how it is damaged in those who are paralyzed. Researchers now think that the treatment works by effectively retraining the nerves that it stimulates, teaching them to work with the brain. Harkema has come to the conclusion that the spinal cord has the ability to, in effect, decide to move on its own.

Previously, scientists thought that repairing injury to the spinal cord would require the re-growth of neurons, or else their replacement with stem cells. Electrical stimulation proves that this is not necessary. This is a very fortunate discovery for patients with paralysis who wish to regain functionality, given the difficulties and impracticalities encountered with the other two approaches.

The electrical stimulator is a device about the size of a pacemaker, which is implanted under the skin of the abdomen. It sends electrical pulses to the spinal cord. The fact that it doesn’t actually touch the brain, generally held to be the source of motor activity, is why it was so shocking when the electrical stimulation allowed the men to overcome their paralysis enough to move again. The stimulator was originally developed to treat chronic pain.

Electrical treatment with the stimulator does have limits. None of the men have regained the ability to walk, at least not yet. The stimulator can only allow one leg at a time to function. Still, the difference has been very dramatic for the four men, and examinations have revealed that they are healthier overall, thanks to improvements to heart and respiratory function.

However, scientists believe that electrical stimulation treatment could be an important part of a broader approach to treating paralysis. The four men in question were all believed to have been “hopeless” with respect to overcoming their paralysis, and the treatment has already proved this to be in error. Harkema and her team are already recruiting another four volunteers for a second round of testing with the device.

Harkema and others believe that these shocking breakthroughs offer a great deal of hope for helping other patients with paralysis who have been told they will never move again. According to these scientists, it may be possible to improve the electrical stimulation technology, and other techniques could be developed to work in combination with it. In the meantime, the four patients with paralysis have all reported that the treatment has greatly enhanced their quality of life.

source: Liberty voice

Tips for New Dads: 9 Healthy Habits to Teach Your Kids

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Watch Me, Dad!
Even if you just brought your bundle of joy home days ago, you’ll scarcely blink your eyes before your active preschooler crows at the playground: “Watch me, Dad!” But remember that your child watches you. Read on for tips on demonstrating a healthy, active life, so you’ll never need to tell your child, “Do as I say, not as I do.”

Get Your 5-a-Day
You’ll have greater success introducing your child to colorful, crisp and crunchy fruits and vegetables if you regularly eat and enjoy them yourself. Research shows that eating five or more fruits and vegetables every day helps prevent heart disease, cancer, osteoporosis, high blood pressure, obesity, diabetes, and stroke (CDC, 2009).

Berries at breakfast, salad with lunch, and steamed veggies with dinner satisfy you, help keep you slim, and show your child how to eat for health.

Cook Up Fun
Engage your child in the kitchen and garden—even if you live in the city and your garden consists of pots of herbs in a sunny window. Kids love to stir and pour, and their sense of wonder will come alive as they watch tiny shoots emerge from the soil and transform into veggies, herbs, or fruit they enjoy.

Bag Lunch = Good Health and College Funds
Switch from getting your midday meal from the sandwich shop or fast-food joint to packing your own lunch. You’ll log plenty of practice in making healthy, tasty lunches by the time your child marches off to kindergarten. Eating a bagged lunch also will help manage your salt and fat intake and save you money—which you can funnel into a college fund.

Early Childhood Activity
Model an active life for your child from the get-go. Bundle the baby into a carrier and check TrailLink to find a beautiful place to walk in your area. Invest in a jogger that lets you run, walk, or skate while your child takes in the sensory stimulation the outdoors offers.

When your child is big enough to ride in a safe and comfortable bike carrier, cruise around to show them the sights and demonstrate that bicycling is fun.

Go Smoke-Free
Now is the time to let go of your tobacco habit. You’ll feel better, have more energy to play with your child, live longer and—most importantly—you won’t model unhealthy, high-risk behavior.

Get help quitting through smokefree.gov, call 1-800-QUIT-NOW, or talk with your doctor about smoking cessation aids.

Be Friendly
Friends are good for your physical and mental health, according to an analysis of 148 studies published in PLOS Medicine that showed a link between relationships and lower mortality risk (Holt-Lunstad, et al., 2010). Women tend to reap this benefit more than men do, but you can counter that trend.

Join a social, athletic, community, or faith-based group where you can meet others, develop relationships, and show your child that friends are important throughout life.

Show Them How to Snooze
This may sound like illogical advice for a new dad who is up at night with a newborn. However, chronic sleep deprivation is linked to an increased risk for type 2 diabetes, obesity, heart disease, kidney disease, stroke, cancer and depression (NCBI, 2006).

As time passes and your child grows, show them the importance of regular sleep by going to bed and getting up at the same time each day—even on weekends. Aim for seven to eight hours a night

Raise Your Glass (of Water)
According to USDA dietary guidelines, moderate drinking consists of two drinks or less per day for men (USDA, 2010). If you tend to consume more than that—even occasionally—think about cutting back. You’ll lower your risk for liver disease, pancreatitis, some cancers, and high blood pressure, which are associated with overindulging in alcohol (CDC, 2012), and you’ll exhibit a responsible approach to drinking.

Hand Over Good Health
Hand washing is the best and easiest way to prevent the spread of colds and flu. As soon as your child is a toddler, teach them how to lather up and scrub thoroughly:

  • before preparing or eating snacks and meals
  • after using the bathroom
  • after sneezing or coughing into hands
  • after each diaper change
  • after handling trash or touching a pet
  • Wash for 20 seconds, about the time it takes to sing “Happy Birthday” twice. Your child will have fun while developing this healthy habit.

Source: health line

 

Why happiness is healthy

You might call it a sense of well-being, of optimism or of meaningfulness in life, although those could also be treated as separate entities. But whatever happiness is, we know that we want it, and that is just somehow good.

We also know that we don’t always have control over our happiness. Research suggests that genetics may play a big role in our normal level of subjective well-being, so some of us may start out at a disadvantage. On top of that, between unexpected tragedies and daily habitual stress, environmental factors can bring down mood and dry up our thirst for living.

Being able to manage the emotional ups and downs is important for both body and mind, said Laura Kubzansky, professor of social and behavioral sciences at Harvard School of Public Health.

“For physical health, it’s not so much happiness per se, but this ability to regulate and have a sense of purpose and meaning,” Kubzansky said.

Why be happy?

Many scientific studies, including some by Kubzansky, have found a connection between psychological and physical well-being.

It’s not as simple as “you must be happy to prevent heart attacks,” of course. If you have a good sense of well-being, it’s easier to maintain good habits: Exercising, eating a balanced diet and getting enough sleep, researchers said. People who have an optimistic mindset may be more likely to engage in healthy behaviors because they perceive them as helpful in achieving their goals, Kubzansky said.

Lower blood pressure, normal body weight and healthier blood fat profiles were also associated with a better sense of well-being in this study.

For now these studies can only show associations; they do not provide hard evidence of cause and effect. But some researchers speculate that positive mental states do have a direct effect on the body, perhaps by reducing damaging physical processes. For instance, another of Kubzansky’s studies found that optimism is associated with lower levels of inflammation.

If what you mean by happiness is specifically “enjoyment of life,” there’s newer evidence to support that, too. A recent study in the Canadian Medical Association Journal found that people ages 60 and older who said they enjoyed life less were more likely to develop disability over an eight-year period. Mobility was also related to enjoyment of life. This study does not prove that physical problems are caused by less enjoyment of life, but suggests a relationship.

Where happiness comes from: genes + environment
There is substantial evidence that genetics play a big role in happiness, according to Nancy Segal, psychologist at California State University, Fullerton, and author of “Born Together — Reared Apart.”

Research has shown that identical twins tend to have a similar level of happiness, more so than fraternal twins. And in identical twins, one twin’s happiness is a better predictor of the other twin’s current or future happiness than educational achievement or income, Segal said.

“If you have happy parents and happy children, I think that people usually assume it’s because the children are modeling the parents,” she said. “But that’s not really so. You need to make the point that parents pass on both genes and environments.”

What’s more, there seems to be a certain level of happiness that individuals have generally, to which they usually gravitate, Segal said. That level depends on the person, and the situations he or she is in.

Even if genetics has a big influence, though, that doesn’t mean anyone is biologically stuck being unhappy, she said. It might take more work if your baseline mood is low, but certain therapies have proven useful for elevating psychological well-being.

The environment is still quite important for psychological well-being, too, Kubzansky said.

“To say to someone, ‘Don’t worry, be happy,’ is kind of not looking at the whole picture of, what are the environmental constraints on things they can do?” Kubzansky said.

Source: cnn

44-pound baby rescued from family by Colombian charity

Eight-month-old Santiago Mendoza might look like a happy, cuddly little tot – but the reality is that he is very sick.

Santiago, who weighs around 44 pounds — the equivalent of a 6-year-old child — has been ‘rescued’ from his family by Colombian health charity Chubby Hearts.

Volunteers from the foundation took the grossly obese infant away from his home in the north east city of Valledupar to a hospital in Bogota for urgent medical treatment.

The intervention came after his mother Eunice Fandino wrote to Chubby Hearts for help after Santiago became too heavy to take outside. Fandino blamed her own ‘‘ignorance’’ for Santiago’s weight gain and admitted she fed him every time he cried.

Santiago’s weight has landed him in the hospital on several occasions in the past. He is now being assessed by specialists.

Source: Fox news

 

Aquarium pumps saving babies’ lives

When Chokonjetsa was born, he weighed just over 2 pounds. His tiny, underdeveloped lungs struggled for each breath. Then doctors in the hospital in Blantyre, Malawi, put Chokonjetsa on a breathing machine made out of aquarium pumps.

Chokonjetsa is one of dozens of newborns in the African country who have survived thanks to the ingenuity of students in a senior design class at Rice University in Houston. The overall survival rate of babies with respiratory distress at the Malawi hospital increased from 44% to 71% with the use of the students’ breathing machine, according to a recent clinical trial.

Using aquarium pumps, the students have designed a low-cost version of a breathing device called a bubble CPAP, or Continuous Positive Airway Pressure, machine. Traditional bubble CPAP systems used in developed countries can cost upwards of $6,000; the students’ machine can be manufactured for around $350, providing big savings for hospitals in poverty-stricken areas.

Malawi has the highest rate of preterm birth in the world, 18.1 per 100 live births, according to the World Health Organization. Babies born too early often have underdeveloped lungs that don’t inflate easily.

Premature babies struggle to breathe in part because they don’t produce enough lung surfactant, a naturally-produced chemical that keeps the tiny air sacs in the lungs, called alveoli, from collapsing. A lot of these babies die because of the stress struggling to breathe puts on their bodies.

Second baby possibly ‘cured’ of HIV

In Malawi, when a newborn is suffering from respiratory distress, he or she is typically provided extra oxygen via tubes placed gently in the nose. But doctors don’t add air pressure to help inflate the infant’s lungs. This is the way respiratory distress was treated in newborns, even in developed countries like the United States, until the 1970s.

With a CPAP machine, gentle air pressure is pushed via tubes into the nostrils and/or mouth to help facilitate breathing.

To understand how a bubble CPAP works, think of a straw that is partially submerged in a glass of water. When you blow into the top of the straw, bubbles come out of the bottom of the straw and bubble up.

“When lungs are underdeveloped, it’s like when you’re blowing up a completely deflated balloon and that first breath to inflate the balloon is really difficult,” said Dr. Rebecca Richards-Kortum of Rice University, who helped facilitate the design of the students’ bubble CPAP machine. “For a baby with underdeveloped lungs, every breath is like that.”

Doctors and nurses know that it takes very little air pressure to assist newborns. The design students found that two aquarium pumps provided the perfect amount of gentle pressure for delicate lungs. In the original prototype, the machine was housed in a clear plastic shoebox from Target.

The device’s latest casing box is made from bent sheet metal specifically designed for usability, funcation and durability, said Dr. Maria Oden of Rice University, a co-author of the device’s clinical trial along with Richards-Kortum.

“Having used bubble CPAP myself, the (low-cost aquarium pump) machine uses the same general principles,” said Dr. Andrea Trembath, a neonatal specialist at Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital in Cleveland who was not associated with the device’s design. “We’ve found bubble CPAP to be very beneficial in infants with respiratory distress. … After taking a look at the photos, the low-cost machine doesn’t seem to be very different.
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Jocelyn Brown, a former student who helped design the low-cost bubble CPAP machine, has lived in Malawi for almost two years. She is collaborating with aid organizations and using a transitions grant from USAID in hopes of rolling out the device across the country — first in government hospitals, and then in private and rural hospitals.

So far, the machines have been implemented in nine government hospitals, she said.
Mysterious cluster of birth defects stumps doctors
Brown said one major challenge to the rollout in Malawi is a lack of nurses and physicians; the high turnover rate makes training difficult.

“Many district hospitals have maybe one doctor, who may not even be a neonatal specialist,” Brown said. “Much of the care is provided by nurses, but one nurse could be taking care of 40 patients at a time.”

Another challenge, Brown explained, is that parents in Malawi are sometimes reluctant to allow the bubble CPAP machine to be used, perhaps because nasal tubes and masks used in respiratory therapy are associated with death — usually, only extremely ill patients receive breathing assistance.

Fortunately, baby Chokonjetsa’s family allowed him to receive the respiratory therapy. His name, which means “thrown away” in Malawi’s Chichewa language, was chosen by his grandmother. She feared he had been thrown away by God, as she didn’t expect him to survive.

But with the help of a breathing machine made of aquarium pumps, Chokonjetsa is now a healthy, thriving 7-month-old baby.

Source: CNN news

3-year-old cracks cellphone password, saves pregnant mom

It’s been a milestone week for the Lynch family of Weymouth, Mass.: Their 3-year-old daughter was honored for getting urgent medical care last month for her pregnant mother, and within hours, the family welcomed a healthy baby girl.

On Feb. 10, Kevin Lynch awoke with a severe stomach bug and drove himself to the emergency room at about 2 a.m. Later that morning, while he was still at the hospital, his wife, Tiffany Lynch, also fell ill while home with their daughters, Aryanna, 3, and, Camryn, 1.

Eight months pregnant and feeling extremely dizzy, Tiffany, 33, tumbled off the couch and fell unconscious for an estimated 20 minutes, Kevin Lynch recalled Thursday. Doctors believe she suffered a seizure brought on by severe dehydration, he said.

Aryanna sprang into action, knowing just who to call: Tiffany’s cousin, Kristine Munnis, a relative so close the Lynch girls call her “auntie.” But Aryanna had to leave a message.

“‘Auntie, call me. Mommy’s not waking up. I need you,’” went the plea, Kevin said. Munnis got the message, called 911 and returned Aryanna’s call. Dressed up as Snow White, the little girl unbolted the door to let paramedics inside, staying calm and minding her baby sister all the while, Kevin said, adding that Tiffany was hospitalized for three days.

“She’s definitely our little rock star,” Kevin said of Aryanna. “She’s just a hero all around. I don’t want to think what would have happened if she wasn’t there.”

The Lynches, who don’t have a landline phone, were all the more amazed because they had never taught Aryanna the password to Tiffany’s cellphone, which is entered by drawing a picture on the screen. But somehow, Aryanna unlocked it.

“She’s such a sponge,” said Kevin, 34. “She’s such a smart kid. I think she’s seen my wife using the phone she just memorized it, and when she needed to know it, she just knew what to do.”

Aryanna unlocked the phone, got to the phone book and found Munnis’ photo that was linked to her phone number. “That was the key,” Kevin said.

On Wednesday afternoon, Aryanna, who turns 4 next month, was honored at the Weymouth police station with a citation from the mayor and a safety officer’s award from the police department, along with a scholarship from a preschool and a basket of toys.

“It’s remarkable what she did to save her mother’s life,” Weymouth police Capt. Richard Fuller said in an interview. “The outcome could have been tragic.”

And early Thursday, the Lynches were back at the hospital, where Tiffany gave birth to Ashlynn-Lee, the couple’s third child. Kevin says they are both doing well; Tiffany was not available for an interview, but is “beyond proud” of Aryanna, her husband said.

Though the effect that smartphones and tablets have on young children continues to be studied, it is clear that such devices can be beneficial in the hands of young children in emergencies.

Source: Today

 

Toddler’s FaceTime Saves Mom After Dog Bite

While toddlers using tablets and smartphones may be too much for some, 2-year-old Bentley Toone’s FaceTime expertise turned him into his mother’s hero.

The boy’s mother, Laura Toone, had taken a walk when a foster dog she was caring for attacked one of her dogs. She tried breaking up the fight but the dog nearly bit one of her fingers off.

“I begged my daughters to call 911 and they’re four and they were quite afraid to even touch the phone because it was covered in my own blood,” she said Friday from her home in Tucson, Ariz.

Toone continued to lose blood and felt like she’d pass out soon. But Bentley saved the day.

“Here comes my son from the kitchen bringing me our dish towel,” she said. “He wiped off the blood himself and proceeded to call my friend on FaceTime.”

Bentley, an avid iPhone player, is known for making his share of prank FaceTime calls. It’s encouraged some of his mother’s friends, like Connie Guerrero, to usually ignore the ring.

“Something inside of me just told me that I needed to answer this FaceTime,” Guerrero recalled. “All I could see was his little forehead and I said, ‘hi, Bentley,’ and it was quiet for a little bit and then I hear Laura screaming.”

Guerrero then called 911 and Bentley unlocked the door when firefighters arrived. Toone said she has since taught their three children how to call 911.

Source: abc news

Drug company refuses to give lifesaving medication to 7-year-old boy

Seven-year-old Josh Hardy has survived four bouts of kidney cancer, heart failure and a bone marrow transplant. But now, he is fighting for his life once again, after a drug company denied him access to a medication that could cure him of a potentially deadly virus.

In an attempt to save her son’s life, Josh’s mother, Aimee Hardy, has launched a grassroots campaign to encourage drug manufacturer Chimerix to allow her son to have the medication he so desperately needs.

“I want to be by his bedside, holding his hand, telling him, ‘It’s going to be okay,’ but because of this unwillingness to release this drug, I have to leave him and come talk to you and it infuriates me,” Hardy, from Fredericksburg, Va., told Peter Johnson Jr. on Fox and Friends.

Josh had been cancer-free for two years when a bone scan in November 2013 revealed he had developed a bone marrow disorder as a result of his earlier cancer treatments. In January 2014, he underwent chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., but he subsequently developed adenovirus – an acute infection that can be deadly in people with compromised immune systems.

“Normally, Josh’s immune system would be able to handle the adenovirus if his immune system was set free,” Hardy wrote on her son’s CaringBridge.org page. “The challenge is his immune system can’t be set free yet because his body is still trying to adapt to the new bone marrow cells. So to keep the body from killing the new cells, they have to suppress the immune system, thus creating ideal conditions for adenovirus to advance. Catch 22.”

Doctors at St. Jude recommended Josh be treated with Brincidofovir – an antiviral drug that has been proven to clear up adenovirus in children within two weeks. However, Brincidofovir has not yet been approved by the FDA, so Josh hasn’t been able to gain access to the medication.

Chimerix, the company that manufactures Brincidofovir, has given hundreds of patients emergency access to the medication in the past, but they have since stopped this practice saying ‘they cannot afford it,’ according to Johnson Jr. However, Chimerix has received more than $72 million in federal funding to develop Brincidofovir.

“As we progressed to larger and more complex safety trials, we made the decision two years ago to stop the program and focus resources on earning FDA approval,” said Kenneth Moch, the CEO of Chimerix.

As Josh’s health continues to worsen, the Hardy family has launched a campaign to convince the company to allow Josh to receive the drug through a ‘compassionate use’ program – in which a drug company can allow a seriously ill patient to receive access to an unapproved drug.

“I feel that it’s just an excuse and we need them to totally change their stance, not only for us but for hundreds or even thousands of people that need [this drug],” Hardy told Fox and Friends. “…To me, [it’s] almost a crime to not make it available to everyone who needs it.”

Moch said his company has received hundreds of phone calls and emails in support of Josh. A Twitter campaign utilizing the hashtag #savejosh has also been launched to support Josh’s cause.

However, when Johnson Jr. asked Moch off camera if a visit to Josh’s bedside might help change his mind, Moch said it would not – much to the distress of Josh’s mother.

“He would see a frail little boy who has a very weak voice and has a hard time staying awake, because he’s in so much pain and to combat the pain he has to be on a lot of pain medication, so he’s drowsy,” Hardy said. “It’s horrible for us as parents to see, because he’s a vibrant, strong little boy, and even though he is frail, he has a very strong will about him. But things just keep stacking against him, and we just want to do everything we can to give him the opportunity to make a full recovery.”

To help save Josh, Hardy is encouraging supporters to call Chimerix at 919-806-1074; supporters can also e-mail compassionateuserequest@chimerix.com

SourcE: fox news