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Hawaii's former health director who died after a plane she was traveling in crashed into the ocean was wearing an infant life vest and the pilot didn't give a safety briefing before takeoff, according to details in a National Transportation Safety Board report. An autopsy determined Loretta Fuddy died of an irregular heartbeat from hyperventilating after she exited the plane, which landed in choppy water off the island of Molokai. The pilot and seven other passengers on the 2013 Makani Kai Air flight survived. Pilot Clyde Kawasaki reported to the NTSB that he heard a loud bang, followed by an...

In shaping a 2015 defense authorization bill, Congress has decided to protect the prized commissary benefit from the most worrisome budget threat to base grocery stores in decades. But military personnel are not likely to escape other key compensation curbs to include a second consecutive annual pay raise cap in January of 1 percent versus 1.8 percent needed to match private sector wage growth. Also, a million recipients of Basic Allowance for Housing are likely to see BAH increases dampened for the next three years until rates, on average, cover 95 percent of local rental costs versus 100 percent today.

<p>AURORA, Colo. -- Dr. Lynne Fenton, the University of Colorado psychiatrist who was treating James E. Holmes, according to a court filing by his attorneys, was disciplined by the Colorado Medical Board in 2005.</p> <p>Fenton was also reprimanded for failing to maintain a medical chart or to enter appropriate entries for the charts relating to herself, her husband or the employee, 7News reported.</p>

Shortages have more than tripled since 2005, according to the University of Utah's Drug Information Service, and by the end of the year more than 300 products are likely to be back-ordered, in short supply or totally unavailable. Some are anesthetics and pain therapies, others emergency room "crash cart" drugs. But most—about 70% in 2010—belong to the class of drugs known as "sterile injectables" that are mainstays of the chemotherapy arsenal, such as paclitaxel or cytarabine.

a cutup of obama "singing" taxman, by the beatles - because let's face it, it's a tax.

The Food and Drug Administration is notoriously allergic to the concept of tradeoffs: FDA bureaucrats see eliminating risk as their highest goal, no matter what benefits might be destroyed in the process. This tendency has manifested itself most tragically in the current drug shortage. About 150 drugs considered “medically necessary,” including anesthetics and medications that treat lethal illnesses such as leukemia, are today in shortage. This problem has been growing since at least 2005, and there are several causes for it — but overly stringent FDA regulations are one reason it has reached such immense proportions. Since the “tainted drugs”...

A Florida woman was jailed after allegedly assaulting her girlfriend with a feces-filled cat litter box, authorities say. New Port Richey police said Kristin Stiehler allegedly attacked Rachel Switzer Wednesday after Switzer refused to give her Roxicodone pills, the St. Petersburg Times reported Friday. Stiehler allegedly broke through their bedroom door, picked up the litter box and went after Switzer with it. Police said Switzer wound up with cat feces on her face, hair and ears, and cat litter coating her hair, the newspaper said. Switzer alleges she also was slapped and choked by Stiehler. Stiehler was being held without...

WAUSAU, Wis. (AP) -- Wisconsin Rep. Jeff Wood has been arrested again for suspected driving while intoxicated. The State Patrol says the 40-year-old Independent from Bloomer was arrested about 6:30 p.m. Wednesday on Interstate 39 near Wausau following a report of a vehicle being driven recklessly in Portage County. The agency says investigators found a prescription bottle of Lorazepam, an anxiety medication, with seven pills in it after stopping Wood's vehicle and noticing he looked sleepy. The prescription of 45 pills had been filled Tuesday. A message left for Wood at the Capitol was not immediately returned. Wood was charged...

Hackers last week broke into a Virginia state Web site used by pharmacists to track prescription drug abuse. They deleted records on more than 8 million patients and replaced the site's homepage with a ransom note demanding $10 million for the return of the records, according to a posting on Wikileaks.org, an online clearinghouse for leaked documents. Wikileaks reports that the Web site for the Virginia Prescription Monitoring Program was defaced last week with a message claiming that the database of prescriptions had been bundled into an encrypted, password-protected file.

The board of Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) has agreed to terms of a deal to take over Wyeth for $68 billion, The New York Times (NYSE:NYT) reported Monday. Pfizer, the largest pharmaceutical company in the world, would acquire Wyeth for a combination of $26 billion in cash as well as loans and stock, the newspaper said, citing people involved in the negotiations. The report said five banks have agreed to lend Pfizer $22.5 billion to finance the deal, making it the first major merger in months that has drawn the support of Wall Street. The acquisition is expected to be announced...

17th century baldness cure is chicken dung says Ye Olde Men's Goode Health By OLINKA KOSTER 30th August 2007 In our age of gyms and jogging, dental floss and deodorants, mouthwash and moisturisers, a chap can waft along with ease every day feeling fit and fragrant. But back in 1654, with Oliver Cromwell ruling England, good health and grooming for men was somewhat more basic. Then, no self-respecting male's medicine chest was apparently complete without liberal supplies of cat's dung, snail's blood and chicken droppings - not to mention arsenic and brimstone. Gruesome as they may sound, they were recommended...

The widely prescribed diabetes drug Avandia is linked to a greater risk of heart attack and possibly death, a new scientific analysis revealed, and the U.S. government issued a safety alert Monday. The Food and Drug Administration urged diabetics taking the pill to talk to their doctors, but stopped short of forcing a sharper warning label on the drug sold by GlaxoSmithKline PLC (GSK) of London. More than 6 million people worldwide have taken the drug since it came on the market eight years ago. Pooled results of dozens of studies revealed a 43 percent higher risk of heart attack,...

Republicans look to ease Canada drug import curbs WASHINGTON -- House Republicans tentatively agreed yesterday to prohibit customs agents from seizing prescription drugs that Americans buy in Canada . The deal would let Americans carry up to a 90-day supply of medication back from Canada without being stopped by customs agents, House and Senate Republicans said. But it would not let Americans fill prescriptions online or by mail order . ``This really breaks the dam, and it shows that it's only a matter of time before we pass a full-blown reimportation bill," said Louisiana Republican David Vitter , who led...

NEW YORK - The nation's teenagers are increasingly trying prescription drugs such as Vicodin and OxyContin to get high, with the pill-popping members of "Generation Rx" often raiding their parents' medicine cabinets, according to the latest national study by the Partnership for a Drug-Free America. The 17th annual study on teen drug abuse, released Thursday morning, found that about one in five teenagers has abused a prescription painkiller — more than have experimented with either Ecstasy, cocaine, crack or LSD. One in 11 teens had abused over-the-counter products such as cough medicine, the study reported. "For the first time, our...

Lancaster, PA, Apr. 18 (UPI) -- Part 1 of 2. Where are the autistic Amish? Here in Lancaster County, heart of Pennsylvania Dutch country, there should be well over 100 with some form of the disorder. I have come here to find them, but so far my mission has failed, and the very few I have identified raise some very interesting questions about some widely held views on autism. The mainstream scientific consensus says autism is a complex genetic disorder, one that has been around for millennia at roughly the same prevalence. That prevalence is now considered to be 1...

Senator John Kerry has proposed a plan to radically reform the U.S. health care system. If he is successful, millions of middle-income families will be enrolled in Medicaid, the federal-state health program for the poor. Millions more will get their insurance through a system of managed competition modeled after the federal employee’s health system and similar to what Hillary Clinton proposed more than a decade ago. Most people would be forced from the private health plans they have today. The ostensible purpose of Kerry’s proposal is to insure the uninsured. By some estimates as many as 44 million people lack...

The Medicare Discount Drug Cards: One Month In by Derek Hunter WebMemo #538 July 15, 2004 Just over a month since its commencement, the Medicare Discount Drug Card program is already showing significant promise in lowering prescription drug costs for seniors. Savings Estimates Continue to Mount A score of studies using data from the Medicare Discount Drug Card (MDDC) drug price database demonstrate that the program is capable of achieving its primary goal: reducing the cost of prescription drugs for seniors, especially low-income seniors. A study by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) finds potential savings of 32...

Rhetoric ELDERLY MAN:  “There’s fourteen drugs I take. If I don’t take it, I would not be here. It’s simple as that.” CHYRON:  Paid for by The Media Fund ANNOUNCER:  “Prescription costs are climbing.” CHYRON:  Up 44%  2000-2003 CHYRON:  Newspaper headline: “Prescription costs skyrocket.” ANNOUNCER:  “Yet President Bush sided with the drug companies, blocking Medicare from negotiating lower prices …” CHYRON:  Bush law blocks Medicare from negotiating for lower Rx prices. The Facts New Medicare Law Will Produce Significant Savings On Prescription Drugs; Government Price Negotiation Would Not Reduce Costs Further According To Nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, Government Negotiation...