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Women have served in military conflict, in one position or another, since the American War of Independence. Now, women are in most, if not all parts of the US Military. Many have been awarded honors for their bravery and service. But only one has earned the right to wear the Medal of Honor.

**** IMPORTANT UPDATE, 07/05/07: Please read my 07/03/07 updated list of terrorist doctors and information on the scary Oath of Muslim Doctors. **** Sometimes–so many times–diversity is not what it’s cracked up to be. Just ask Joseph Applebaum. Well, you could ask him. But you won’t get an answer. He’s dead. And he’s dead because he was a Jew, and his doctor is a Muslim and grad of “Ayman Al-Zawahiri” Medical School. But Applebaum wasn’t denied treatment for being a Jew in Egypt. Or elsewhere in the Muslim world. It happened right here on U.S. soil. In Chicago. As Muslim...

It’s the doctors, stupid! I’m not sure why everyone is so shocked that all eight suspects in the attempted British terrorist attacks of last week are Medical Doctors (and that ALL eight suspects are tied to the British national healthcare system, the NHS). Readers of this site aren’t surprised by the doctor terrorists. As you’ll recall, in my mid-May column, “When Your Doctor is a Muslim: Medical Terrorism Comes to America,” I wrote about many of the doctors who’ve been top-ranking terrorists and involved in terrorist plots. Also, of note, I’ve complained about the special visas available for foreign alien...

In the face of solid Republican opposition, Senate Democrats on Tuesday backed down from their effort to increase Medicare payments to doctors without offsetting any of the cost over the next 10 years. It was the first skirmish in a larger partisan battle over President Obama’s effort to remake the health care system in a fiscally responsible way. The Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada, had hoped to whisk the Medicare bill through the Senate this week, before taking up a much larger bill to provide health insurance to nearly 30 million Americans. But Republicans had other ideas,...

On "The Senate Doctors Show" Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) answers health care reform questions about the supply of doctors and nurses, how Medicare will be affected, and government-run health care. Republicans want step-by-step health care reform solutions that reduce costs and covers more uninsured Americans without increasing the deficit.

Gunmen Open Fire Near Pakistan’s Army HQ ‘Intense’ gunbattle leaves top officers trapped inside, official says BREAKING NEWS NBC News and news services ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Gunmen have opened fire near the army's headquarters outside the capital of Islamabad, a Pakistani military official said Saturday. NBC News reported that the assault sparked a shootout and that "intense" fighting was ongoing. A senior army officer said troops were returning fire and top officers were trapped inside. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

WASHINGTON — Wondering if swine flu's bad enough to require a doctor's attention? An interactive Web site may help you decide, using the same type of triage calculations that doctors at Emory University use. Microsoft Corp. unveiled the site Wednesday at http://www.h1n1responsecenter.com. Type in your age — it's only for people over 12 — and answer questions about fever, other symptoms and your underlying health.

I learned a lot about the cost of health care when I had a hybrid general surgery practice in California 's rural San Joaquin Valley. My practice consisted of uninsured women with breast cancer combined with a smaller percentage of cosmetic patients whose cash payments for "vanity care" subsidized the treatment of women unable to pay for needed medical treatment. Although patients seeking cosmetic services tend to be healthy, I evaluated them like any other patient. I asked about medical history, allergies, medications and genetic disorders. Upon questioning Sherry S., a pretty 46-year-old seeking wrinkle relief, I learned that four...

Stockton, CA - A St. Joseph’s Medical Center emergency room doctor is under fire by the family of a retired Manteca Police Lieutenant who died from a heart attack last June. The family alleges the doctor did not resuscitate their father so he could steal his Rolex. The adult children of the retired police official filed a wrongful death lawsuit last week, as reported by KTXL.

Physicians Are Talking About: The Million Med March on Washington "I'm tired, mad as hell, and just not going to take it anymore," says Richard Chudacoff, MD, a gynecologist from Las Vegas. "I am going to Washington, DC. At noon, on Thursday, October 1, 2009, I will be on the Mall with a few other physicians." Dr. Chudacoff is not talking about vacation plans. Rather, he intends to unite with other physicians in what he calls the Million Med March. "We simply decided that we will not work that day and perhaps the day before and maybe even the day...

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Some 5,000 patients suddenly found themselves without an ob/gyn last November when Dr. Tara Wah closed her practice in Tallahassee, Fla. Wah, 55, informed her patients in a letter that she could "no longer afford to make ends meet." After 24 years, "I'm working longer hours than ever," she wrote. "Insurance payments for patient care have stayed virtually the same for the last 15 years, while the cost of doing business, including health insurance, staff salaries and supplies have risen." The rising cost of malpractice insurance, particularly for her specialty, was the straw that broke the...

Reform: If Massachusetts is any guide, the passage of ObamaCare is almost certain to increase demand and worsen the shortage of doctors. Access to health care doesn't mean much if there's no doctor to provide it.Suppose health care reform passes and all are insured, by force or otherwise. The U.S. will be short 124,400 front-line physicians by 2025, according to the Association of Medical Colleges. That does not include the 15,585 new primary-care providers the administration plan is estimated to require. The Massachusetts reforms enacted in 2006, designed to provide universal coverage, provide an insight into what we might expect...

Divisive Debate by Dr. Joe Douglas As a physician I have talked with people about how they want to be treated at the end of their lives. If they knew they were dying, how much would they want done? Would they want to be at home or at a hospital or in a nursing or hospice facility? How much chemotherapy, resuscitation, diagnostic tests, feeding tubes, etc., would they want? At some point would they just want to be kept from suffering?I also want to be able to have this sort of conversation for myself. I want eventually to be allowed...

VIDEO: House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) today released a new web video on President Obama’s health care plan that uses footage from a classic ‘80s TV ad in a humorous way to make a serious point – despite what the President and congressional Democrats say, government doesn’t know best when it comes to the very personal health care decisions that families and doctors make every day.

Canada's Medical Care LotteryThursday, July 16, 2009 So this is what passes as serious commentary on health care reform in the United States of America. It will be news to all of us on this side of the border, but apparently, Canada has a lottery system to "decide who gets to go see a doctor this month." "That's why people are suing." UPDATE - July 18, 2009 In response to some of our commenters, surely you are not confusing a unique episode in Gander, Newfoundland with the ordinary operations, nationwide, of Canada's health care system: In May of this year,...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Obama often talks about all of the forces lining up against his health care plan. But there's one critic who has remained relatively mum in the debate. David Scheiner, a Chicago, Illinois-based doctor, has taken a hard look at the president's prescription for health care reform and sees bad medicine. "This isn't that kind of health care program that I think is going to work," he said. So what makes Scheiner so special? He was Obama's personal physician for 22 years, and voted for the former Illinois senator in the 2008 presidential election. Scheiner thinks the...

After dancing her way through school, former Miami Heat cheerleader has Fabienne Achille traded in her pom-poms for a stethoscope. From the Heat to the Hospital Watch VideoA former Miami Heat dancer turns in her hot pants for scrubs. The pretty 28-year-old paid her way through pre-med school at University of Miami by cheering on the likes of Alonzo Mourning, then turned her attention to the grueling medical curriculum at University of South Florida. The ballgame glamor made her undergrad days memorable, but it wasn't exactly easy, she says. “It was a lot of hard work especially being pre-med," Achille,...

Regina Benjamin, the youngest doctor and first black woman admitted to the American Medical Association, is President Obama's pick to be surgeon general. ------ snip ------

Mobile machines, remote hookups help Lahey Clinic cope with shortage of specialists BEVERLY - The robot glides past the beeping heart monitor, past a row of patients supine on their electric beds, past the beehive of the nurses’ station. The sleek, metallic body, dusky blue, stops outside Room 9 and slowly rolls through the doorway. Discuss COMMENTS (33) “Mrs. Morash, Dr. Liesching’s here,’’ says nurse Dawn Deschenes, announcing the arrival of the robot to a gray-haired woman breathing behind an oxygen mask. The face of Timothy Liesching, a pulmonary critical care doctor, gazes at his patient from a computer screen...

Doctor says he did not inject JacksonCalcutta News.Net Sunday 28th June, 2009 Michael Jackson's doctor has labelled reports he injected the pop icon with a powerful painkiller prior to Jackson’s death as false. Speaking through his lawyer, Dr. Conrad Murray, told the Los Angeles Times he did not administer the narcotic drugs, Demerol or OxyContin. Dr Murray explained that Jackson was unconscious and not breathing when he entered the bedroom at Jackson’s Holmby Hills mansion in California. He said he checked for a pulse, which was only weak. He then started administering CPR. The LA Times said the account provided...

President Obama's ambitious plan for radically increasing the government's role in the nation's health care system misses one critical detail: There aren't enough primary care physicians in America now and their numbers are declining. That means government won't be able to deliver the expanded health care Obama is promising to millions of uninsured people. With access to primary care already deteriorating in many parts of the country, Obamacare will make it even harder to get a doctor's appointment without a lengthy wait. "The politicians don't talk about who's going to do this extra work," Dr. Jane Orient, executive director of...

WASHINGTON (Army News Service, June 26, 2009) -- Several Walter Reed Army Medical Center staffers survived the deadliest accident in Washington Metrorail's 33-year history Monday. Maj. David Bottoms, a Walter Reed chaplain and Col. Thomas Baker, chief of pathology, said they were both riding in the first car of the train that slammed into another stopped train during Monday's rush-hour commute home. "I was reading and listening to my iPod, and I noticed the front end of the car was buckling and it was coming toward us. It looked like a wave ... it stopped three seats in front of...

LONDON (Reuters) - One person captured on Internet videos helping "Neda," the young Iranian woman killed last week who has become an icon of the protests, was identified by a British newspaper on Friday as a doctor who has since fled Iran. "I felt she was trying to ask a question, 'Why?'," Dr. Arash Hejazi told the Times in an interview as he recalled her final moments lying in a street with blood pouring from her body. "She was just a person in the street who was against the injustice going on in her country, and for that she was...

(CNN) -- Nearly a decade after she was rescued from a remote Antarctic research station after diagnosing herself with breast cancer, Dr. Jerri Nielsen died early Tuesday, her brother said. She was 57. Jerri Nielsen treated herself for breast cancer while stationed at the South Pole in 1999. Jerri Nielsen treated herself for breast cancer while stationed at the South Pole in 1999. Nielsen had been fighting the latest round of cancer for the past five years, brother Eric Cahill said. She died just before 4 a.m. in Massachusetts, surrounded by her family, he said. "She would want to be...

WASHINGTON, June 10, 2009 – When Army Col. (Dr.) Kenneth Lee began evaluating more than 3,000 Wisconsin Army National Guardsmen called to duty last fall in the state’s largest operational deployment since World War II to ensure their medical readiness, he approached the task with unique and personal insights. Army Col. (Dr.) Ken Lee applies his own experience with a traumatic brain injury to his work as the Wisconsin National Guard’s state surgeon and as chief of spinal cord injury division at the Zablocki Veterans Administration Medical Center in Milwaukee. DoD photo by Donna Miles  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution...

Anti-Abortion Leader May Buy Clinic MONICA DAVEY Published: June 10, 2009 An anti-abortion leader says his group may try to buy the now-closed Wichita abortion clinic owned by a doctor who was shot and killed last month. The leader, Troy Newman, the president of Operation Rescue, said on Wednesday that his group, which had long fought to close the clinic, was considering trying to buy the squat, beige building to perhaps turn it into a memorial museum, “a tribute to the babies,” that might be open to visitors. For decades, the clinic, Women’s Health Care Services Inc., had been operated...

Attorney General Eric Holder has ordered increased security for some abortion clinics and doctors in the wake of the slaying of Dr. George Tiller. Jeff Carter, a spokesman for the U.S. Marshals Service, confirmed the decision "to increase security for a number of individuals and facilities" following Tiller's slaying at a church service Sunday in Wichita, Kan.

Reports out today that a controversial abortion doctor has been murdered in his own Church, are a "lose-lose" for all sides of the abortion debate. We condemn the killing of late-term abortion provider, Dr. George Tiller. Read more...

KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan, May 8, 2009 – The young Dari interpreter standing by the desk translates the words of the American doctor to the young woman, as she sits quietly. An examining table stands against one yellow wall in the small room. Various tools and medical equipment are positioned around the room. Army Col. (Dr.) Kathryn Hall-Boyer, the Joint Sustainment Command Afghanistan surgeon, examines a girl’s ear for infection at the women’s clinic at the Afghan National Army Kandahar Regional Hospital in Afghanistan, April 21, 2009. U.S. Army photo by Pfc. Elisebet Freeburg  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available....

The rush is on to give us information… or, in some cases, is it really to sell fear? As I watched the National News Organizations give the moment by moment occurrences of the “upcoming Pandemic” throughout the day I felt moved to speak the truth about the current flu ... Patients with asthma or other pulmonary issues may need oxygen or short term bronchodilator medications for breathing difficulties. But, the majorities of patients, at least in this country, need to stay home, eat nutritional meals, drink water and electrolyte fluids such as Gatorade or Pediolyte, and not go out to...

There are plenty of surgeons and other medical specialists in America - more than enough, perhaps. And specialized institutionalized care of high quality is available for people who are seriously ill. But primary care - the continuing personal supervision of a family's overall health, with emphasis on prevention and early treatment of illness - is sadly lacking for the urban poor, for most rural residents and for millions of middle-class people, too. President-elect Barack Obama has promised to expand health insurance coverage for everybody. But fulfilling this promise will require enough doctors on the firing line - internists, family doctors,...

He also was accused of aiding terrorist-charities and repeatedly meeting with Osama bin Laden. All rubbish, insists his lawyer; as for his meetings with bin Laden, well, they were all merely "chance encounters." "U.S. Decides to Release Detainee at Guantánamo," by William Glaberson for the New York Times, March 31: The Justice Department announced Monday that the administration had decided to release a detainee at the prison at Guantánamo Bay, a Yemeni doctor who the Bush administration once claimed had taken part in an anthrax program of Al Qaeda. The government had backed away from the anthrax accusations but had...

The state is trying to shut down a New York City doctor's ambitious plan to treat uninsured patients for around $1,000 a year. Dr. John Muney offers his patients everything from mammograms to mole removal at his AMG Medical Group clinics, which operate in all five boroughs. "I'm trying to help uninsured people here," he said.

Funeral honors Moorestown surgeon killed in Iraq by The Associated Press A funeral service will be held this morning for a prominent New Jersey surgeon from who was killed in Iraq.The funeral for Army Maj. John P. Pryor is scheduled for 10 a.m. in Philadelphia's Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul. Pryor died Christmas Day when a mortar round hit near his living quarters in Iraq. John Pryor, center, at work at the University of Pennsylvania trauma center in Philadelphia in 2007. The 42-year-old married father of three was a trauma surgeon at the Hospital of the University of...

In response to my recent column on patients trusting doctors too much, several readers wrote in about the difficulty of finding or sifting through information on doctors and diseases. Many asked for suggestions, so a couple of weeks ago I contacted several nationally respected leaders in family medicine, pediatrics, internal medicine, oncology, surgery and anesthesia and asked them to share their advice on researching doctors and diseases. Many of the doctors I spoke to or exchanged e-mail with made commonsense suggestions that were not unexpected. They urged patients to find out which doctors their closest friends really like, to ask...

President-elect Barack Obama has offered the job of surgeon general to Sanjay Gupta, the neurosurgeon and correspondent for CNN and CBS, according to two sources with knowledge of the situation. Gupta has told administration officials that he wants the job, and the final vetting process is under way. He has asked for a few days to figure out the financial and logistical details of moving his family from Atlanta to Washington but is expected to accept the offer. When reached for comment today, Gupta did not deny the account but declined to comment. The offer followed a two-hour Chicago meeting...

BAGHDAD, Jan. 5, 2009 – Young men and women frequently follow the footsteps of their parents and grandparents by joining the military. Army Maj. (Dr.) Robert Sexton reversed that role when he followed his two sons into the military after a 38-year-break from his previous service. Army Maj. (Dr.) Robert Sexton, who rejoined the Army after a 38-year break in service, serves as a physician with Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 425th Civil Affairs Battalion, attached to the 4th Infantry Division in Baghdad. U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Brock Jones  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Sexton was an...

The good doctor on the day of his grand jihad Cambridge alum guilty of plotting the jihad deaths of untold numbers. Poverty Causes Terrorism Update: "Iraqi doctor found guilty of Glasgow airport bomb plot," by Steve Bird in the Times, December 16 (thanks to all who sent this in): An NHS doctor who waged a terrorist car-bomb campaign intended to kill and maim hundreds of people in London and Glasgow has been found guilty of conspiracy to murder. Dr Bilal Abdulla was part of a cell that set up a bomb-making factory and bought five cars to convert into firebombs...

t was a bizarre and abrupt way to die for a man who, by all accounts, went at life full-bore and was fit and agile from riding his bicycle everywhere he went ... Doctor killed in mysterious elevator shaft fall It was a bizarre and abrupt way to die for a man who, by all accounts, went at life full-bore and was fit and agile from riding his bicycle everywhere he went. But as San Francisco police combed over the evidence Tuesday, investigators said this is what appears to have happened: Dr. Daniel J. Kliman, an Alameda physician and one...

It was a bizarre and abrupt way to die for a man who, by all accounts, went at life full-bore and was fit and agile from riding his bicycle everywhere he went. But as San Francisco police combed over the evidence Tuesday, investigators said this is what appears to have happened: Dr. Daniel J. Kliman, an Alameda physician and one of the Bay Area's foremost pro-Israel activists, stepped into an open elevator shaft by accident last week and died. His body was found Monday by workers inspecting an elevator in the historic, nine-story Sharon Building at 55 New Montgomery St.,...

Lack of primary care physicians boosting health costs, hassles. There were days last fall when Gabrielle McGrew felt she must be the most popular physician in Oregon – and she hadn’t even begun practicing. McGrew is one of only three graduating residents who are choosing to practice primary care medicine, and the only one in Portland. Most of the other 31 internal medicine residents are taking fellowships that likely will lead to careers as specialists. the long-term implications of the growing shortage of primary care doctors could be a disaster, experts say, given the steadily growing number of senior citizens...

CAIRO, Egypt — Demonstrators in Cairo demanded Tuesday that Saudi Arabia release an Egyptian doctor sentenced to 15 years in prison and 1,500 lashes after he was convicted of malpractice — reportedly after treating a Saudi princess. His wife said she feared the punishment would kill him. Raouf Amin el-Arabi, a doctor who has been serving the Saudi royal family for about 20 years, was convicted last year of giving a patient the wrong medication. Egyptian newspapers reported that he was accused of driving a Saudi princess "to addiction."

CAMP KOREAN VILLAGE, Iraq, Oct. 29, 2008 – When Navy Cmdr. (Dr.) Dennis McKenna took his Hippocratic oath in 1992, he vowed to devote his life to improving the welfare of human beings. Navy Cmdr. (Dr.) Dennis McKenna, left, battalion surgeon for 2nd Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment, Regimental Combat Team 5, walks the streets of Rutbah, Iraq, on a security patrol, Oct. 21, 2008, with Akram Shawky Mohammed, center, his Arabic interpreter, and Marines and sailors from the battalion's Weapons and Golf companies. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Capt. Paul Greenberg  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. In the...

VICTORVILLE — Sheriff's deputies arrested a physician after he lost patience with a patient's husband, punched him and threw a chair at him, sheriff's officials announced Wednesday. The victim received first aid from the injuries at the physicians office, officials said. Sukalpa John Dutta, 36, was booked into jail on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon, according to San Bernardino County sheriff's officials from the Victorville station. San Bernardino County sheriff's deputies came to the 12600 block of Hesperia Road at 4:37 p.m. after receiving a report of the attack. Deputies said the victim was with his wife whose...

CYPRESS -- Things are getting ugly at Southern California gas pumps, and we're not just talking about the record prices. Some drivers are turning to violence. A doctor from La Palma was arrested Monday night after police say he grabbed a tire iron and threatened a driver who cut him off at a Costco gasoline station in Orange County. According to witnesses, Dr. Antonio Reyes, 58, was among a crowd of motorists waiting in line at the pumps at the Costco on Katella Ave. around 5:40 p.m. when another vehicle cut in front of him. Apparently angry about being cut...

Bo (woof) In Commentary: So I had to go the vet the other day for an embarrassing situation. Here’s exactly what happened… “So what’s the problem, Bo?” the vet asked. “I’ve been farting a lot. I mean I fart all the time,” I tell her. She just nods, encouraging me to talk some more. So I continue, “Luckily, my farts don’t stink and you can’t hear them. It’s just that I can’t stop it. Look, we’ve been talking here for about 10 minutes and I’ve farted five times. You didn’t hear them and you didn’t smell them, did you?” She...

We just got back from the graduation ceremony for the 2008 class from USU (The Uniform Services University {for health sciences}). My kid is now a M.D. The same kid that lost her lunchboxes, forgot books needed for homework, and kept a half full Thermos of rotten milk over Easter vacation. She’s now ready to heal. She has changed immensely, it’s interesting to me when she looks at me with her ‘Doctor Eyes’ when she says “howz it going dad?” Their graduation ceremony was held at the “Daughters of the American Revolution” hall in Washington D.C.. The Marine Corps band...

Doctor Who? Are Patients Making Clinical Decisions? ScienceDaily (Feb. 12, 2008) — Doctors are adjusting their bedside manner as better informed patients make ever-increasing demands and expect to be listened to, and fully involved, in clinical decisions that directly affect their care. In a study just published in Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research, Dr. J. Bohannon Mason of the Orthocarolina Hip and Knee Center in Charlotte, NC, USA, looks at the changes in society, the population and technology that are influencing the way patients view their orthopaedic surgeons. As patients gain knowledge, their attitude to medicine changes: They no longer...

AL MOCHID VILLAGE, Iraq — Dr. Fadil Monhoush Deub al-Zawbori knows the horror of terrorism firsthand. Two years ago the Iraqi physician was the victim of an ambush that nearly cost him his life. Bullets hit him in his left upper chest, he said, showing the scars he will carry to the grave. “It was al-Qaida in Iraq. They wanted me dead,” he said. The doctor has never hidden his disgust for the foreign fighters operating in what was called the Triangle of Death, a rural agricultural area south of Baghdad. “They came into the area and frightened the people...

Incredibly it seems the Dr Hasan Faraj who was an author on the below JAMA paper on the death of anthrax victim Kathy Nguyen was arrested http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/287/7/858 see NYT article here: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9500E2DE123CF935A35752C1A9629C8B63 In a letter submitted to a federal judge yesterday, prosecutors outlined what they said were ties linking a Syrian-born American doctor, who has been charged with lying to obtain American citizenship, to terrorism and suspected members of Al Qaeda. Still, no new charges have been brought against the man, Hassan Faraj, of Brooklyn, and his lawyer belittled the letter as a scare tactic and called the allegations flimsy....