Free Republic

FORT INDIANTOWN GAP, Pa., July 18, 2008 – Medical students at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences are getting a healthy dose of the challenges in providing battlefield medicine during two concurrent field exercises under way here. Air Force Staff Sgt. Lacy Johnson, a staff member at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, applies “moulage” to simulate a combat wound on Army 2nd Lt. Dan Coughlin, a first-year medical student. Photo by Air Force Tech. Sgt. Andre Nicholson  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. About 360 medical, public health and graduate-level nursing students from the...

BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan, July 15, 2008 – On a warm morning in early June, a worried Abdullah Haqim walked with his daughter into the weekly coalition medical clinic in Afghanistan’s Farah province. Six-year-old Gulzana was sick, and local Afghan doctors could not diagnose or treat the painful swelling that had engulfed her left eye. Gulzana Haqim, a 6-year-old Afghan girl, and her father, Abdullah, arrive at Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan, July 9, 2008. Gulzana was treated for a tumor over her eye at Craig Joint Theater Hospital. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Daniel Love, Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force  (Click...

A disabled foster child whose liver is failing has been removed from a Central Florida hospital's organ-transplant waiting list because hospital administrators fear the state's shaky child-welfare system cannot ensure he has a permanent home in which to recover. Shands Hospital in Gainesville removed the boy, 15, from a waiting list for organ recipients after administrators determined the boy's unstable living conditions make him a poor candidate for a transplant, said Nick Cox, the Department of Children & Families regional administrator in the Tampa Bay area, where the boy lives. The state's next move: appeal to Miami's Jackson Memorial Hospital,...

I’ve noted the phenomenon of Big Nanny pediatricians quizzing parents about whether they own guns before. The AMA, of course, is notoriously filled with gun-grabbing activists. Read Shawn shares another example via the Raleigh News and Observer. He e-mails: “No longer satisfied with just making sure the kids are in good health, the doctors now see fit to pry into your personal life to see if you have guns in the home.”

Plummeting Reimbursement Rates Have Some Doctors Looking for a Way Out By AUDREY GRAYSON ABC News Medical Unit RSS For the past four years, Dr. Heather Tipsword has owned a family practice clinic that primarily treats Medicaid and Medicare patients in Oklahoma City. As many of her friends and family were looking forward to Fourth of July celebrations this past weekend, Tipsword was anxiously looking forward to another event altogether: Congress' meeting on the Monday after the holiday weekend to discuss some kind of fix to the scheduled 10.6 percent Medicare reimbursement cut. For many doctors, low Medicare and Medicaid...

When Magen David Adom Chairman Dr. Noam Yifrach told Foreign Ministry officials that he had received an entry visa for Indonesia, he was told that entering the country wouldn't be the problem. "They told me, 'We're sure you'll be able to go in,'" he said with a smile. "It's getting back out that we're concerned about." Indonesia, which is home to the largest Muslim population in the world, has no official ties with Israel, and contact between the two countries, while not completely unheard of, is certainly rare. But that didn't stop Yifrach and MDA coordinator to the Red Cross...

City: Sacramento, CA Two closely-watched cases involving the conscientious rights of doctors and pharmacists have been scheduled for argument within the next few weeks. Pacific Justice Institute filed an amicus brief last week with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in the case of Stormans, Inc. v. Selecky, where pharmacists are seeking protection from a Washington law requiring them to dispense the "Plan B" abortifacient drug. A lower federal court ruled in favor of the pharmacists, allowing them to refer patients to other pharmacists who do not have moral objections to selling the drugs. The court cited a lack of...

U.S. medicine is in the middle of a cultural revolution, as young physicians intent on balancing work and family challenge the assumption that a doctor should be available to treat patients around the clock. Walter Cheng, 32 years old, is in the profession's new guard. Upon graduating from the Johns Hopkins... he bristled at the notion espoused by some senior physicians that a doctor should put medicine above all else. "...I don't really want to be that kind of doctor... My family is as important, if not more important, than my career." That philosophy influenced Dr. Cheng's job search... He...

The utter horror of an abortion, and its moral magnitude, has increasingly caused Medical Doctors in Italy to refuse to engage in the brutal practice. May their refusal spread among their colleagues throughout the world and help to hasten the end of this barbaric practice.

3/31/2008 - BALAD AIR BASE, Iraq (AFPN) -- Approximately 20 deployed military doctors, U.S. civilian doctors and Iraqi doctors gathered at the Air Force Theater Hospital to share information about operations at their respective hospital facilities and discuss and how they could work to be more interoperable here March 24 and 25. The Joint Theater Trauma System conference addressed how medical staff members could improve the delivery of care, and ultimately continue to decrease morbidity and mortality in Iraq among servicemembers and civilians, said Lt. Col. (Dr.) George Costanzo, a Joint Theater Trauma System Surgeon deployed from Moody Air Force...

Doctors (A) The number of physicians in the U.S. is 700,000. (B) Accidental deaths caused by Physicians per year are 120,000. (C) Accidental deaths per physician is 0.171. Statistics courtesy of U.S.Dept of Health Human Services. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Now think about this: Guns (A) The number of gun owners in the U.S is 80,000,000. (Yes, that's 80 million)

MEDINA NY: Doctor’s office searched Hassan Medical targeted by State Attorney General’s office By NICOLE COLEMAN Investigators with the New York State Attorney General’s Office raided a Gwinn Street family physician’s office during patient visiting hours Friday. Wearing official jackets and golden badges, they arrived in multiple SUV trucks at Hassan Medical Group PLLC, 1038 Gwinn St., Medina sometime Friday morning. At least five State Attorney General officials remained at the office throughout the day probing the employees with questions and apparently looking through records. None were able to confirm the reason for their presence or whether they were sent...

WASHINGTON, DC, March 17, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt today expressed disappointment in a new policy put forth by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists ( ACOG ) which mandates that doctors refer for abortions. He also called on the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology ( ABOG ) to reject this policy and protect the conscience rights of physicians. In a letter sent to ABOG Executive Director Dr. Norman Grant today asking for clarification, Secretary Leavitt notes, "It appears that the interaction of the [ABOG Bulletin for 2008 Maintenance of Certification] with the...

LONDON - A patient was told there was no reason why he couldn't have surgery in a hospital, despite the smell caused by a dead rodent trapped in the building's ceiling. Andrew Cowper was due to have an operation at the Queen Elizabeth II hospital in Hertfordshire when staff "were made aware of a dead rodent in the single storey unit's roof space," the hospital said in a statement. The hospital said its experts concluded that the dead animal was outside the operating theater and posed no risk. But "despite being told that the trust's infection control experts had stated...

Col. Ryan Kuhn, from Clarks, Neb., deputy commanding officer for the 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, gives a young boy a soccer ball March 4 in Jisr Diyala. Photo courtesy of Task Force Marne. FOB HAMMER — Col. Ryan Kuhn, deputy commanding officer of the 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, met with Hussein Gazi Zaydan, head of dentistry for the Mada’in Qada, March 4 in a hospital in Jisr Diyala. Kuhn, from Clarks, Neb., and Zaydan discussed ways to increase awareness of improved security in the Mada’in Qada, the 3rd HBCT’s area of operation, to attract new dentists and medical...

In coming weeks, private audit companies will begin scouring mountains of medical records. Their mission: Determine if health care providers erred when billing Medicare and require them to return any overpayments to the federal government. The auditors will keep a tidy percentage for their services. The contractors have shown they're pretty good at their work. In just three years, they've returned more than $300 million to the federal government -- and that's just from three states. That experiment is winding down. But a larger, national program will soon take its place. The rollout of "recovery audit contractors" will be gradual....

Zainab Najy holds her daughter, Noor, at the Forward Operating Base Delta medical facility before the infant had a procedure to rectify her prolapsed rectum. The 8-month-old was born with eight inches of her rectum outside of her body and with bladder exstrophy. Noor received the first of three treatments to repair her rectum, Feb. 8. Photo by Sgt. 1st Class Stacy Niles, Multi-National Division-Central. FOB DELTA — U.S. military doctors recently began the process of treating a potentially life-threatening condition for Noor, an 8-month-old Iraqi baby girl. Doctors from the 948th Forward Surgical Team (FST), from Shelbyville, Ind., performed...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A national organization for pro-life OBGYNS is challenging the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ACOG) over a new policy saying all doctors, including those who are pro-life, should refer women to abortion centers. The American Association of ProLife Obstetricians and Gynecologists (AAPLOG) objects to the guidelines.ACOG released the position statement last year entitled "The Limits of Conscientious Refusal in Reproductive Medicine."The paper targets pro-life physicians, insisting that doctors who object to doing abortions should refer patients to physicians who will do them.ACOG also requests that pro-life doctors move their practices closer to abortion businesses...

WHEN Sue MacKinnon heard a doctor at a St. James clinic was accepting new patients, she jumped at the chance to find a physician close to home. MacKinnon went to the clinic and filled out a form detailing her medical history, including her Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, cholesterol and chronic sleep disorder. Weeks later, MacKinnon found out she didn't make the cut -- the physician rejected her as a patient because of her health troubles. "I got a letter saying that I had too many medical problems," said MacKinnon, 51. "I was too complicated to take." According to...

The ABC network said on Monday it will go ahead with plans to air an episode of its new legal drama "Eli Stone" despite objections from pediatricians who say the show may discourage parents from having their children immunized. The debut episode features the show's title character and hero, a trial lawyer for big corporations who decides to fight for the little guy, convincing a jury that a mercury-based preservative in a vaccine caused a child's autism. On the show, a jury awards the boy's mother $5.2 million in damages after it is revealed the CEO of the vaccine maker...

SANTA FE— Gov. Bill Richardson launched his personal campaign for universal health care Tuesday. Some of his key arguments, advanced in an in-depth interview with the Journal: * Health care is a basic human right. * Universal health care is doable this year and it won't break the bank. * Physicians are too greedy and need to give a little. * A so-called single-payer system is out of the question. * New Mexico has been historically cautious; now is the time to move boldly to make sure every resident of this state has health insurance. Richardson, fresh off his abandoned...

Capt. Keri Mullens (left), brigade surgeon, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, Fort Stewart, Ga., begins treatment on 5-year-old Dhuha Khalid Abed's legs. Dhuha was brought to Patrol Base Murray by her father Khalid Abed (pictured on right) Dec. 4 to receive treatment for second and third degree burns she suffered while playing with her brother around a pot of boiling water. Photo by 2BCT, 3rd Inf. Div. PATROL BASE MURRAY — The day after treating 307 local residents at a coordinated medical engagement in Al Buaytha, U.S. Army medics were back on the job again at Patrol Base...

BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan, Nov. 30, 2007 – The towns of Eskandareh and Pacha Khak hide deep within the mountains of the Kohe Safid district in Afghanitan’s Parwan province. Sgt. 1st Class Jason Sealey, Kohe Safi Police Mentor Team, holds a calf still while Lt. Col. Richard Probst, 413th Civil Affairs Battalion, gives it a shot during a medical outreach visit, Nov. 27, 2007, in Afghanistan’s Parwan province. Coalition doctors and veterinarians saw more than 450 people and 330 animals during the two-day visit. Photo by Senior Airman James Bolinger, USAF  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Eskandareh is...

They’re watching you right now. They counted every beer you drank during last night’s Red Sox [team stats] game.They see you sneaking out to the garage for a smoke.They know if you’ve got a gun, and where you keep it.They’re your kids, and they’re the National Security Agency of the Nanny State.I found this out after my 13-year-old daughter’s annual checkup. Her pediatrician grilled her about alcohol and drug abuse.Not my daughter’s boozing. Mine.“The doctor wanted to know how much you and mom drink, and if I think it’s too much,” my daughter told us afterward, rolling her eyes in...

It may not be the most appetizing reading before a hearty holiday meal, but the New England Journal of Medicine is devoting part of its Thanksgiving issue to a giant hairball -- and not the feline kind. The prestigious journal details the case of a previously healthy 18-year-old woman who consulted a team of gastrointestinal specialists. She complained of a five-month history of pain and swelling in her abdomen, vomiting after eating and a 40-pound weight loss. After a scan of the woman's abdomen showed

Since I've been following the trail of the Chahine Hezbollah organized crime family for years, I've learned a lot more about Hezbollah spy and FBI/CIA Agent Nada Nadim Prouty. Don't forget that she and her sister Elfat El-Aouar Chahine are not the only members of their family to defraud the federal government in immigration, tax, and Hezbollah related matters. Another sister, an OB-GYN, Rula Nadim Al Aouar (different spelling to confuse/evade U.S. authorities--a common Muslim and Arab practice), also engaged in a sham marriage and immigration fraud.

December's The Atlantic has an article written by Shannon Brownlee. The major thesis of the article is we have an over-supply of doctors and are about to add to that supply. She points that in the next 8 years medical schools will boost enrollment by 30%. She also points out the mix in doctors has changed. Fewer and fewer in Family Medicine and more and more in procedure oriented medical sub-specialties. There are notable errors in our calculation of how many doctors are needed. These errors include: The assumption the number of doctors we have right now is about right...

Scientist at Work | John Holcomb SAN ANTONIO — Since the war in Iraq began, Col. John Holcomb has been working to change the way the military takes care of its wounded. Along the way he has suffered a few dings himself. A tall medical doctor with a Southern lilt and close-cropped gray hair, Colonel Holcomb, 48, has spent his entire 27-year career in the Army, earning a reputation as one of the military’s top trauma surgeons. Since 2001, he has headed the Army’s Institute of Surgical Research, based on the campus of the Brooke Army Medical Center here. Under...

JALALABAD AIRFIELD, Afghanistan, Nov. 2, 2007 – A new partnership between U.S. and Afghan doctors here is helping the Afghan physicians do a better job of treating their own citizens. Army Spc. Amy Long, an x-ray technician with Company C, Brigade Support Battalion, 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team, prepares to screen an Afghan man Oct. 8, 2007, at a forward operating base near the northeastern Afghan city of Jalalabad. At right, another local man sits on a litter waiting for an assessment at the 555th Forward Surgical Team clinic. Photos by Spc. Gregory J. Argentieri, USA  (Click photo for screen-resolution...

LONDON: A study has found a scientific explanation for why people find doctors and nurses sexy. The study conducted by Dr Brendan Kelly, of University College Dublin found that people get attracted to GPs, nurses and surgeons because they expect them to be more caring than the average professional. The study was carried out after researching medical romance stories to see what got readers so hot under the collar. In the study, at random 20 novels were selected with a medical theme and the recurrence of “brilliant, tall, muscular, male doctors with chiseled features, working in emergency medicine” was noticed....

Should your doctor ask your child if you own a gun? Guidelines issued by the American Academy of Pediatric say "yes." They warn that "Children are curious even if they’ve had some sort of firearm training. That’s why parents taking responsibility for safe gun storage is so essential.” Doctors across the United States are being advised to interrogate children about mom and dad’s "bad" behavior.

Muslim medical students get picky   Daniel Foggo and Abul Taher   Some Muslim medical students are refusing to attend lectures or answer exam questions on alcohol-related or sexually transmitted diseases because they claim it offends their religious beliefs. Some trainee doctors say learning to treat the diseases conflicts with their faith, which states that Muslims should not drink alcohol and rejects sexual promiscuity. A small number of Muslim medical students have even refused to treat patients of the opposite sex. One male student was prepared to fail his final exams rather than carry out a basic examination of...

They’re watching you right now. They counted every beer you drank during last night’s Red Sox game. They see you sneaking out to the garage for a smoke. They know if you’ve got a gun, and where you keep it. They’re your kids, and they’re the National Security Agency of the Nanny State. I found this out after my 13-year-old daughter’s annual checkup. Her pediatrician grilled her about alcohol and drug abuse. Not my daughter’s boozing. Mine. “The doctor wanted to know how much you and mom drink, and if I think it’s too much,� my daughter told us afterward,...

According to the AMA, in many communities around the United States, there is a physician shortage, which presents a serious health care problem. For a host of reasons, more than twenty million people are affected by the inability to access quality medical services. While the premise of a popular television show, “Northern Exposure,” alluded to this very predicament some time ago, most viewers were likelier caught up in the relationships between the quirky inhabitants of Cicely, Alaska instead of pondering the very real implications for those without access to a qualified doctor. Similar to the circumstances in which the main...

Constitutional Struggle in Argentina Ends in Death for Unborn Child Archbishop Warns of the Threat of Abortionist "Totalitarianism" By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman ARGENTINA, October 1, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A recent constitutional struggle over the right to life in Argentina has ended in death for the unborn child of a retarded woman in the province of Mar de Plata, where doctors performed the procedure in secret, despite warnings that it threatened the health of the mother. The woman, referred to by the Argentine press by her initials, "MFC", to protect her identity, had been impregnated by a relative, and her fetus...

Source: University of Chicago Date: September 30, 2007 Doctors Learn To Control Their Own Brains' Pain Responses To Better Treat Patients Science Daily — Physicians apparently learn to "shut off" the portion of their brain that helps them appreciate the pain their patients experience while treating them and instead activate a portion of the brain connected with controlling emotions, according to new research using brain scans at the University of Chicago. Because doctors sometimes have to inflict pain on their patients as part of the healing process, they also must develop the ability to not be distracted by the suffering,...

Medical graduates out of work because overseas doctors ‘take too many jobs’By DANIEL MARTIN - More by this author » Last updated at 22:05pm on 20th September 2007  Professor Graham Winyard says hundreds of medical graduates are unemployed because too many posts go to doctors from overseas     Hundreds of medical graduates are unemployed because too many posts go to doctors from overseas, it is claimed today. Professor Graham Winyard blames the Government's "muddled approach to managing medical immigration". Writing in the British Medical Journal, Professor Winyard said: "This has created a large surplus of applicants over available...

Lt. Col. Mark Burnett, task force surgeon, 1st “Red Lion” Battalion, 37th Field Artillery Regiment, who hails from Aiea, Hawaii, counts donated medical books on Camp Taji. Burnett has received thousands of books as part of a project designed to give the most recently published and up to date medical books and professional journals to Iraqi doctors. Photo by Staff Sgt. Jon Cupp, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division Public Affairs. BAGHDAD — As he reflected on his 15 months in theater and prepared to leave, Lt Col. Mark Burnett, task force surgeon for the 1st “Red Lion� Battalion,...

The only "crisis" in health care in this country is that doctors are paid too little. (Also they've come up with nothing to help that poor Dennis Kucinich.) But the Democratic Party treats doctors like they're Klan members. They wail about how much doctors are paid and celebrate the trial lawyers who do absolutely nothing to make society better, but swoop in and steal from the most valuable members of society. Maybe doctors could get the Democrats to like them if they started suing their patients. It's only a matter of time before the best and brightest students forget about...

Once upon a time, women took estrogen only to relieve the hot flashes, sweating, vaginal dryness and the other discomforting symptoms of menopause. In the late 1960s, thanks in part to the efforts of Robert Wilson, a Brooklyn gynecologist, and his 1966 best seller, “Feminine Forever,” this began to change, and estrogen therapy evolved into a long-term remedy for the chronic ills of aging. Menopause, Wilson argued, was not a natural age-related condition; it was an illness, akin to diabetes or kidney failure, and one that could be treated by taking estrogen to replace the hormones that a woman’s ovaries...

In February, a group of cardiologists in Gainesville, Ga., announced they were building a diagnostic heart center in an $18 million joint venture with the local hospital. Last month, they said the project was dead. The reason? Federal Medicare officials want to crack down on arrangements like the one that was planned in Gainesville, where doctors refer patients to businesses in which they have a financial stake. In recent years, many physicians have become wealthy by investing in magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI, facilities, surgery centers and diagnostic sites -- and then sending their patients to them. A recent McKinsey...

Much of what is known about the health problems of ground zero workers comes from a small clinic in Manhattan that at the time of the trade center collapse had only six full-time doctors and a tiny budget. Yet in the weeks after 9/11, its doctors stepped into the fray in the absence of any meaningful effort by the city, state or federal government to survey, interview or offer treatment to potentially sickened recovery and cleanup workers. Since then, the clinic, the Irving J. Selikoff Center for Occupational and Environmental Medicine, based at Mount Sinai Medical Center, has examined more...

VICTORY BASE COMPLEX, Iraq, Aug. 27, 2007 — Since the beginning of the war Americans have provided basic medical care to Iraqis, but more and more Iraqi medics are treating their own countrymen. Members of Task Force Vigilant, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry), Fort Drum, N.Y., coordinated with Iraqi medics and doctors to conduct a combined medical engagement outside Victory Base Complex, Aug. 24 "Today is a good day to show the Iraqi people we can help them. It is my job to help them and I am glad that I am able to." Dr. Zetad...

NO surprises” is a basic rule in hospitals. Junior doctors are supposed to notify their superiors promptly about worrisome developments in a patient, and information is supposed to move smoothly up the chain of command. One of the gravest errors a doctor in training can make is to inform the attending physician well after the fact about a patient’s turn for the worse. Unfortunately, this rule does not extend to seriously ill patients themselves. They and their families are frequently surprised by the sudden imminence — and the raging authority — of death. Research has revealed doctors’ tendency to contribute...

Pills not the answer to obesity, says top doctor 02.08.07 Obese people are often simply greedy and should not always be treated with pills, the head of the British Medical Association has said. Controversial: Dr Hamish Meldrum, head of the British Medical Association, says obese people are just greedy Dr Hamish Meldrum believes an obsession with medical labels may be stopping overweight people addressing their own problems. He said the obesity epidemic is being mistakenly targeted with medical treatments and doctors' appointments. The obesity epidemic in Britain is mistakenly targeted with medical treatments and doctors' appointments, says Dr Meldrum Dr...

HOW to fix the health care system? Easy, liberals say. If Washington would just force cuts in prescription drug prices and insurance company profits, plenty of money would be left over to cover the uninsured. Conservatives prefer to argue that the answer lies in forcing people to pay more of their own medical costs. But many health care economists say both sides are wrong. These economists, some of whom are also doctors, say the partisan fight over insurers and drug makers is a distraction from a bigger problem: the relatively high salaries paid to American doctors, and even more importantly,...

Police are hunting three Iraqi doctors who went on the run in Glasgow after terrorists tried to blow up the city's airport. The men arrived in the UK in May to take part in a Government-backed training programme, but failed to turn up for their flights back to Baghdad earlier this month. They disappeared just two weeks after Bilal Abdullah, an Iraqi-trained doctor who worked at a Glasgow hospital, was arrested and charged with terrorist offences over the airport attack on June 30. He was a passenger in a Jeep driven by Kafeel Ahmed, an engineer who is being treated...

Tamar Lewis runs a makeshift hair salon ...in Roxbury... She's ...been cutting hair since she dropped out of high school... Until recently, she never had health insurance... Earlier this month, she signed up for state-subsidized insurance under a new Massachusetts law... The plan costs her $80 a month... On the day Ms. Lewis signed up, she said she called more than two dozen primary-care doctors approved by her insurer looking for a checkup. All of them turned her away. Her experience stands to be common among the 550,000 people whom Massachusetts hopes to rescue from the ranks of the uninsured....

GREENWOOD, Miss. - A national shortage of doctors is hitting poor places the hardest, and efforts to bring in foreign physicians to fill the gap are running into a knot of restrictions from the war on terror and the immigration debate. Doctors recruited from places such as India, the Philippines and sub-Saharan Africa to work in underserved areas like the Mississippi Delta and the lonesome West already face an arduous and expensive gauntlet of agencies, professional tests and background checks to secure work papers and permanent residency. Those restrictions have only tightened in the years since 9-11, and now many...

Man with tiny brain shocks doctors 12:17 20 July 2007 NewScientist.com news service New Scientist and Reuters The large black space shows the fluid that replaced much of the patient’s brain (left). For comparison, the images (right) show a typical brain without any abnormalities (Images: Feuillet et al./The Lancet) A man with an unusually tiny brain manages to live an entirely normal life despite his condition, which was caused by a fluid build-up in his skull. Scans of the 44-year-old man's brain showed that a huge fluid-filled chamber called a ventricle took up most of the room in his skull,...