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The other day I heard my mother call downstairs to my father, “Honey, there are a bunch of roosters out in the front yard.” Lest you think we live on a farm or out in rural America, let me set you straight. We live in suburban America where houses are stamped next to each other every hundred feet or so. We don’t get many roosters walking in our neighborhood, and if we did they would be cited for jaywalking. So it was no surprise that curiosity got the best of my father as he ran up the stairs to check...

Fake bus stop keeps Alzheimer's patients from wandering off By Harry de Quetteville in Berlin Last Updated: 11:11PM BST 03/06/2008 German nursing homes are using a novel strategy to stop Alzheimer's patients from wandering off: phantom bus stops. The idea was first tried at Benrath Senior Centre in Düsseldorf, which pitched an exact replica of a standard stop outside, with one small difference: buses do not use it. The centre had been forced to rely on police to retrieve patients who wanted to return to their often non-existent homes and families. Then Benrath teamed up with a local care association...

Seriously ill patients are being kept in ambulances outside hospitals for hours so NHS trusts do not miss Government targets. Thousands of people a year are having to wait outside accident and emergency departments because trusts will not let them in until they can treat them within four hours, in line with a Labour pledge. The hold-ups mean ambulances are not available to answer fresh 999 calls. Doctors warned last night that the practice of "patient-stacking" was putting patients' health at risk. Figures obtained by the Liberal Democrats show that last year 43,576 patients waited longer than one hour before...

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...

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...

WASHINGTON, June 13, 2007 – Medical Engineer Technician Carlos Villamizar uses a dental pick to scratch between the crevices of a hard plastic model. Carlos Villamizar, a medical engineer technician at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, uses a dental pick to scratch between the crevices of a 3-D “medical models,” or replica, of a male patient’s lumbar spine. Walter Reed’s 3D Medical Applications Center uses technology originally designed for the manufacturing industry, to cut down on the amount of time a patient is in surgery by as much as six hours. Defense Dept. photo by Fred W. Baker III  (Click...

The career tracks of Drs. Jeffrey Duckham and James Taylor and the reactions they've faced from advocates of socialized medicine say a lot about the future of health care in the United States.

MADRID, Spain — A Spanish anesthesiologist with hepatitis C was sentenced to 1,933 years in prison Tuesday for infecting 275 people with the virus by injecting them with morphine from the same needles he used to feed his addiction to that drug. The Valencia Provincial Court said Juan Maeso, 65, tainted the patients by first giving himself a portion of morphine shots meant for them, then shooting the rest into them without changing the syringes. Maeso worked in four hospitals in the coastal city of Valencia when he infected the people from 1988-1997, the court said. Four of the patients...

Increasing numbers of patients are paying for private "top-up" treatments alongside NHS care, meaning the health service is no longer free, leading doctors are warning. While politicians often claim care is free at the point of delivery "this mantra is now a political mirage," their report says. The group has written to Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt, the opposition parties and the Royal Colleges, asking for a debate on the future of healthcare funding. The study, published by the group Doctors for Reform, was written by three doctors, including Karol Sikora, professor of cancer medicine at Imperial College School of Medicine....

FORT SAM HOUSTON, Texas, March 23, 2007 – When Army Sgt. Antonio Autrey was burned in Iraq by a blast that destroyed his Bradley fighting vehicle almost a year ago, all the former high school football receiver wanted to do was to be able to hold a football again. Army Sgt. Antonio Autrey checks out the weightlifting equipment at the Center for the Intrepid. Photo by Nelia Schrum  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Now, after almost a year in recovery at the Burn Center here, the 4th Infantry Division soldier has set his sights on bench pressing, with...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 24, 2007 – A new area of Walter Reed Army Medical Center here will provide state-of-the-art medical care for terminal cancer patients in a warm, homelike setting. After countless hours of fund raising, designing and remodeling by various individuals and organizations, the first palliative care suite and patient/family lounge opened Jan. 22. Roderick Mitchell, president of the Pentagon Federal Credit Union Foundation, which spearheaded efforts to raise funds to design and furnish the suite and lounge, presented the rooms to Maj. Gen. George W. Weightman, commander of Walter Reed Army Medical Center and North Atlantic Regional Medical...

U.S. government records charge that dialysis care in New York is among the worst in the country. The U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid reports on the care given to Type 2 diabetes patients with failing kidneys ranked New York state last out of 18 regions in all three quality measures for 2003 and 2004, The New York Times reported Thursday. The measures recorded by the reports were the likelihood that enough excess fluid would be removed from a patient's blood during dialysis, the probability that enough impurities would be removed and the odds of a patient becoming anemic or...

11/7/2006 - PANJSHIR PROVINCE, Afghanistan (AFPN) -- Twenty-four members of the Panjshir Provincial Reconstruction Team, the 405th Civil Affairs Battalion and Task Force Tiger made the four-hour trek to the northernmost district here to assist the province's most impoverished population. A cooperative Medical Civic Action Program, or MEDCAP, was coordinated at the invitation of Panjshir Director of Health Dr. Ghellani Saadat, and held at the Paryan District's Basic Health Clinic Oct. 28. Afghan National Police assisted the team's security element ensuring a smooth and incident-free mission. "This was our fourth medical mission to Paryan since June," said Air Force Reserve...

Story by Multi-National Division - Northeast PAO A Korean doctor treats a patient at the Zaytun Hospital. Department of Defense photo by MND-NE PAO. On a recent hot morning, a 76-year-old woman from a small village near Irbil was ushered into the hospital in a wheelchair pushed by her son. She was greeted with thunderous applause. Mariam Mhiadin had become the 40,000th patient admitted to the Republic of Korea's Zaytun Hospital since it opened Nov. 27, 2004. During the brief ceremony that followed, Republic of Korea Lt. Col. Lee Hae-Seol, commander, ROK Division's Medical Battalion, handed flowers and gifts...

BISBEE — Three or four years ago, Jim Dickson, CEO of Bisbee’s Copper Queen Community Hospital, was not feeling very upbeat. He had had to cut back on employees and hours, shutter his skilled nursing facility and close the hospital’s maternity ward. The reductions, he says, were largely due to a massive influx of patients from Mexico — illegal immigrants or residents of nearby Naco, Sonora — who could not pay for services. Today, however, things are looking brighter for the hospital and its CEO. Federal funds that provide partial compensation for treating undocumented immigrants have finally started to come...

2/9/2006 - U.S. MILITARY GROUP QUITO, Ecuador (AFPN) -- It was a busy day for the 21st Medical Group -- 1,501 patients seen in eight hours during a medical readiness exercise here. The constant stream of Ecuadorians moved through the treatment areas like a quiet, but strong steam engine. There was a sense of calm and orderliness as the Ecuadorian Army security team kept the crowds in control, which helped facilitate the number of people seen Feb. 7 in the small village of Otavalo. U.S. and Ecuadorian Air Force doctors worked side-by-side to treat Ecuadorian patients. In four isolated towns,...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 4, 2006 – Military amputee patients are taking their desire to return to active duty to the mats. Jason Keaton, a civilian instructor with the Modern Army Combatives Program from Fort Knox, Ky., watches as Army Staff Sgt. Orlando Gill (top), patient at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, practices taking control of an opponent. In this case, the opponent is Army Sgt. 1st Class Bryan Greenlee, another program instructor. Photo by Samantha L. Quigley  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Members of the Modern Army Combatives Program from Fort Knox, Ky., have taken their program to Walter...

12/23/2005 - BAGHDAD, Iraq (AFPN) -- The 447th Air Expeditionary Group has teemed with members of the 48th Brigade Combat Team and Charlie Company, 490th Civil Affairs Battalion, to provide medical care near the Radwaniya Civil Military Operations Center. Soldiers constructed the clinic by refurbishing an existing building. The clinic addresses an urgent need of the people living to the South and West of Baghdad for medical care. “The area is poor, rural, and the Iraqi government currently lacks the resources to supply desperately needed medical services,” said Maj. Mark Cuttle, C/490 CA commander. “In the face of this need...

ICE TO DEPORT HOSPITAL TECHNICIAN CONVICTED OF TAKING PICTURES OF WOMAN AWAITING SURGERY Secretly took graphic pictures of hospital patient under anesthesia; faces deportation to Mexico CHICAGO - A former hospital technician, who pleaded guilty last month to secretly photographing a woman under anesthesia and awaiting surgery, was arrested Friday by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents on immigration violations and faces deportation. ICE special agents arrested José C. Rostro, 23, a Mexican national, at his Bolingbrook home after receiving information from law enforcement authorities that he was illegally residing in the United States. Rostro was working as a...

MARINE CORPS RECRUIT DEPOT SAN DIEGO, Calif. (August 19, 2005) -- Marines swapped nurses and hospital food for Hooters girls and hot wings Saturday during a trip that got 29 recovering warriors out of their hospital rooms and back to sampling normal life. Patients from Navy hospitals in San Diego and Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, Calif., caravanned to Pasadena, Calif., where they were the guests of honor at a Hooters restaurant and the nearby Ice House Comedy Club. America's Heroes of Freedom, a private veterans support organization, bought the comedy tickets and the pre-show feast for the Marines and...

WASHINGTON, July 24, 2005 – A group based here at Walter Reed Army Medical Center here has stepped forward to help families of wounded servicemembers with expenses to stay in the area while their loved ones recover in this high-cost area. Out of concern for the overwhelming number of family members of war-wounded servicemembers showing up at the hospital's doorstep needing financial assistance, the Walter Reed command asked the Walter Reed Society to help. "So on March 19, 2004, we created the Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom Family Support Fund," said retired Army Sgt. Maj. Daniel J. Bullis, the society's...

A former Mercy General Hospital nursing employee who molested sedated male patients during pre-surgery preparation was sentenced Friday to 14 years in state prison. Devery Wilkerson, 41, was convicted by a Sacramento County Superior Court jury of sexually assaulting eight men - ranging from age 30 to 80. Wilkerson was assigned to shave the legs, chest and pubic areas of patients before surgery. One patient awoke to find Wilkerson performing oral sex and reported it to the nursing staff. Another patient reported being molested the same day and an investigation turned up six other victims. "Mr. Wilkerson, as a hospital...

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - An Indiana judge ruled Tuesday that Planned Parenthood of Indiana must turn over to the state the medical records of its patients under 14. Marion County Superior Court Judge Kenneth Johnson sided with the Indiana attorney general's office in its quest to examine the medical records of 84 young patients. Planned Parenthood tried to stop the seizure, arguing that investigators were on a "fishing expedition," possibly to identify the partners of sexually active 12- and 13-year-olds. None of the 84 patients has received an abortion, according to Planned Parenthood. The attorney general's office has said that its...

WASHINGTON (Army News Service, May 20, 2005) – As a prelude to this weekend’s Armed Forces Day events, the U.S. Army Parachute Team, “Golden Knights,” jumped in on Walter Reed Army Medical Center May 19. Patients, staff and neighbors cheered on the Golden Knights’ Black Team, who do their best work at 12,500 feet above the earth’s surface, racing to the ground at speeds in excess of 120 miles per hour. About 200 people were at the noon performance. The Golden Knights are in Washington this weekend for the Joint Service Open House at Andrews Air Force Base where they...

Human eggs which could grow into embryos have been created in a laboratory for the first time, scientists announced yesterday. They were created by scraping stem cells off the surface of ovaries and exposing them to a chemical which stimulated growth. The breakthrough suggests limitless supplies of eggs could be grown, solving the problem of the acute shortage of donor eggs for infertile women wanting IVF treatment. But the idea has horrified pro-life groups after scientists admitted they could use the technique to 'farm' embryos for their research. The procedure was tested by a University of Tennessee team, which took...

Terri Schiavo is not the first innocent victim of murder sanctioned by judicial fiat, although the heroic efforts of her parents alerted the world about her heartbreaking death sentence. Almost four decades ago, the fallacious concept of "brain death" was introduced to pry open the legal doors to the killing of another group of unnoticed innocents — people who agree to donate their vital organs at death. People are encouraged to consent in writing to allow another person to benefit from their vital organs, such as the heart or liver, after they die. Potential donors overcome their discomfort about the...

Running out of places to care for patients, London's busiest hospital emergency room shut its doors to all but the most severe injuries from outside the city for the first time in its history last week. Two trauma patients had to be diverted during the shutdown, with one patient sent to a hospital in Toronto and the other to Hamilton. The situation hit amid recent reports some London patients have had to wait as long as three days for a hospital bed to become available. "We were in a crisis situation," said Dr. Gary Joubert, chief of emergency medicine for...

Week of Feb. 19, 2005; Vol. 167, No. 8 , p. 126 Stroke patients show dearth of vitamin D Nathan Seppa From New Orleans, at a meeting of the American Stroke Association Having a stroke puts elderly people at an increased risk of breaking a hip. Scientists have assumed that a major reason is that an impaired sense of balance from a stroke leads to more falls. They've also observed a loss of bone density in the first few months after a stroke, possibly from reduced mobility during this phase of recovery. Researchers now report that people recovering from a...

Thousands of brain-damaged people who are treated as if they are almost completely unaware may in fact hear and register what is going on around them but be unable to respond, a new brain-imaging study suggests. The findings, if repeated in follow-up experiments, could have sweeping implications for how to care best for these patients. Some experts said the study, which appeared yesterday in the journal Neurology, could also have consequences for legal cases in which parties dispute the mental state of an unresponsive patient. The research showed that the brain-imaging technology, magnetic resonance imaging, can be a powerful tool...

By Gene J. Koprowski UPI Science News Published 1/7/2005 10:58 AM CHICAGO, Jan. 7 (UPI) -- Physicians now have a technological solution to an all too common scenario -- a cardiac patient forgets to take his heart medication and winds up in the emergency room. Doctors are sending text-message reminders to patients, via mobile phones and personal digital assistants, telling them it's time to take their prescribed angiotensin converting enzyme or ACE inhibitor, like Prinivil, or other medications."One of our major thrusts is going to be moving healthcare related applications to technologies that are more familiar to the patients," said...

WASHINGTON - The illegal club drug Ecstasy can trigger euphoria among the dance club set, but can it ease the debilitating anxiety that cancer patients feel as they face their final days? The Food and Drug Administration has approved a pilot study looking at whether the recreational hallucinogen can help terminally ill patients lessen their fears, quell thoughts of suicide and make it easier for them to deal with loved ones. "End of life issues are very important and are getting more and more attention, and yet there are very few options for patients who are facing death," Dr. John...

New Medical Council rules say it is ethically acceptable for doctors to have sex with former patients under certain circumstances. Council chief executive Sue Ineson said this was not a softening of the former rules, because the same ideas underpinned them, even though they were not spelled out before. There was still a zero-tolerance position on doctors having a sexual relationship with a current patient. Doctors are also forbidden from having sex with a patient for whom they had provided psychotherapy or long-term counselling or who had in the past been sexually abused. But the rules are "more realistic" about...

 PATIENTS OR TRIAL LAWYERS? KERRY'S CHOICE IS ON TICKET"[T]o Many Doctors, Mr. Kerry Is Carrying Heavy Baggage … His Running Mate, Sen. John Edwards … Edwards, A Former Trial Lawyer, Made A Fortune Suing Doctors And Others For Medical Malpractice."   (Robert S. Greenberger, "Doctors Diagnose Kerry As High Risk," The Wall Street Journal, 8/5/04)______________________________________________________Ignore The Record: Kerry Promises He'll Be Like Nixon In China, Take On Trial Lawyers Kerry Said He Would Push Medical Liability Reform Despite Trial Lawyer Ties, Just As Nixon Opened U.S. Relations With Communist China.  "At a recent town-hall meeting in Grand Rapids, Mich., a...

Week of June 19, 2004; Vol. 165, No. 25 , p. 397 Hepatitis C drugs are less effective in black patients Nathan Seppa Standard drugs for hepatitis C virus are less likely to knock out the infection in black patients than in whites, finds a study in the May 27 New England Journal of Medicine. Hepatitis C is a liver ailment that afflicts roughly 4 million people in the United States. It often goes unnoticed until it causes cirrhosis of the liver or liver cancer. Researchers gave two antiviral drugs, peginterferon alpha-2b and ribavirin, for 11 months, to 81 black...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - With state health care costs soaring, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed more than $1 billion in spending cuts next year for public health programs along with caps in enrollments, new copayments for patients and lower reimbursements for providers. But he appears to have far fewer ideas for reining in the billions spent on employee benefits - the fastest growing part of the state's medical bill. Medi-Cal, the state's version of the federal Medicaid program, would lose about $900 million in funding next year. About half that money would come from a $454 million cut in support for...

St. Albans, Vermont - April 7, 2004 A St. Albans surgeon who alleges someone purposely endangered his patients is resigning. Dr. Ray Long says three of his patients were infected with deadly bacteria in December at Northwestern Medical Center. The incidents came after Long says he was about to blow the whistle on questonable practices by the administration. Today Dr. Long says he is resigning because the hospital will not allow him to take certain measures to prevent infection for upcoming surgeries. Northwestern Medical Center says the hospital already has proper infection control procedures in place. Measures that were confirmed...

St. Albans, Vermont - April 5, 2004 Dr. Ray Long says he was forced to conduct his own investigation after three of his surgery patients were infected with a rare and deadly bacterium in December. "I undertook my own investigation," says Dr. Long. Long says his investigation turned up the rare bacteria in fluid bags meant for his patients at a time when he was questioning policies at the Northwest Medical Center. He suspected the bags were intentionally infected to as part of a plot to harm his patients and ruin his career. "We're talking about different bacteria. We're talking...

Oh, it's good to be the king. You float high above the law and plunder your subjects with impunity. Or so it seems in Routt County, where the local cops bring along a federal drug agent on their raids in hopes that his presence will immunize them from the sticky strictures of the Colorado Constitution. It's time someone told them they answer to state law, not the whims of a federal agent who happens to be hanging around. Last October a drug "task force" of nine, count 'em nine, agents, acting on a tip and armed with a warrant, raided...

Glaxo chief: Our drugs do not work on most patients By Steve Connor, Science Editor 08 December 2003 A senior executive with Britain's biggest drugs company has admitted that most prescription medicines do not work on most people who take them. Allen Roses, worldwide vice-president of genetics at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), said fewer than half of the patients prescribed some of the most expensive drugs actually derived any benefit from them. It is an open secret within the drugs industry that most of its products are ineffective in most patients but this is the first time that such a senior drugs...

Awareness Seen in Vegetative Patients Thursday October 30, 2003 8:06am Chicago (AP) - A small study suggests that some brain-damaged, vegetative patients may have greater awareness than doctors previously thought. The findings could have a bearing on right-to-die cases such as the one involving Terri Schiavo, who suffered severe brain damage in 1990 and is the subject of a family dispute over whether she should remain alive. The researcher who conducted the study said the results could lead to changes in how patients like Schiavo are diagnosed and treated. Other scientists call the work provocative but far from proof, and...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Nearly one in three doctors reports withholding information from patients about useful medical services that aren't covered by their health insurance companies, and the number may be on the rise, a study reports. Study authors say their work offers the first empirical evidence for what many have long suspected: that coverage limitations imposed by managed care are infiltrating doctor-patient communications. ``Patients aren't getting the whole story,'' said Matthew K. Wynia, director of the Institute for Ethics at the American Medical Association and lead author of the article being published in the journal Health Affairs. Wynia and his...

A Norwegian air ambulance crew almost ignored the smell of an on board fire because they thought it was just the patients farting. They noticed a cabbage-like smell which turned out to be a blaze near the front window of the aircraft. An investigation has traced the smell to burning wire insulation. "Everyone who has flown knows that gases arise that need to slip out. It isn't unusual that this happens to our patients," said ambulance chief Geir-Arne Soerensen of Air Transport, the company responsible for the flight. The flames flared up three times, despite attempts to extinguish them and...

LOS ANGELES(AP) - A doctor who had his license revoked for catering to the prescription drug demands of celebrities including actress Winona Ryder took advantage of some of his more mentally unstable and chronically ill clients, a newspaper reported Saturday.

Radioactive patients set off subway alarms 12:55 05 December 02 NewScientist.com news service Americans undergoing radioactive medical treatments risk setting off anti-terrorism sensors in public places, and subsequent strip searches by police, warn doctors at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. A 34-year-old patient who had been treated with radioactive iodine for Graves disease, a thyroid disorder, returned to their clinic three weeks later complaining he had been strip-searched twice in Manhattan subway stations. Christopher Buettner and Martin Surks report the case in a letter to the Journal of the American Medical Association. "Police had identified him...

Nurse recalls trauma of working with accused terrorist Battle Battle all smiles 9/11, nurse says Linda Jackson was as surprised as anyone three weeks ago, when authorities arrested three Portlanders and charged them with conspiring to aid al-Qaida in their fight against the United States. But when she heard the names of the suspects, she had one of those "aha" moments. Jeffrey Leon Battle. Hadn't she called it? Hadn't she said to her fellow employees on Sept. 11 last year, "He has something to do with this"? Hadn't she, in fact, quit her job as Jeffrey Battle's supervisor after the...

<p>Some Kaua'i cancer patients will be able to fly to their doctor for free because of a new agreement between the American Cancer Society and North Shore Airways.</p> <p>The Princeville-based airline will offer an empty airline seat each day at no cost to cancer patients who are registered with the American Cancer Society's Kaua'i office. Patients can take the flights for doctor appointments, medical tests or treatment such as radiation not available on Kaua'i, according to the society's Kaua'i executive director Mary Williamson.</p>

<p>LOS ANGELES (AP) --  A doctor who once headed the Presidential Advisory Council on AIDS and HIV has been accused by state regulators of sexually molesting two patients at his office.</p> <p>Dr. R. Scott Hitt, an AIDS specialist and gay activist, said he touched one patient inappropriately in August 2000 and crossed a boundary with another patient one month earlier, according to a formal accusation filed by the Medical Board of California.</p>

VA Say No to New Patients Due to a glut of patients and a shortage of funds, VA officials have ordered its hospitals and clinics to cease efforts to enroll new patients into its health care system. "I am directing each network director to ensure that no marketing activities to enroll new veterans occur within your networks," according to a July 18 memo sent by VA undersecretary Laura Miller to Veterans Integrated Service Network (VISN) directors. As of Aug. 1 more than 300,000 veterans were waiting for clinic appointments, with some waiting more than six months.