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Leaving Haiti: Small Child – A Triple Amputee – Offers MD A Cracker With His Remaining Hand

We found out today that we are going to ship out tomorrow. My feelings are certainly mixed. There is an incredible amount of work to be done here – we have only contributed to the first wave of what is necessary. This may sound strange, but I cannot remember the details of much of what we did the first three days, when we were functioning on hyperdrive in a battlefield setting. My recollections become detailed after the third day, when we were able to see only four or five patients at a time, and we stopped triaging amputees to the operating room.

Now the hospital has been substantially augmented. Teams of foreign (to Haiti) surgeons have left to go home, because the operations to be performed now are largely orthopedic and plastic surgery, as well as specialty cases. Sadly, there are scores of patients with spinal fractures who are paralyzed, and little can be done for them this far out from the initial injury. Children continue to break our hearts. I had a small child who is a triple amputee offer me his cracker with his remaining hand. One can only pray that the memories he carries of this tragedy are erased swiftly, that he is assisted in his rehabilitation, and that his life improves. All of these will, of course, be hard to achieve. Read more »

This post, Leaving Haiti: Small Child – A Triple Amputee – Offers MD A Cracker With His Remaining Hand, was originally published on Healthine.com by Paul Auerbach, M.D..

Trial Lawyers Paid Scientist To Falsify Data So They Could Sue Vaccine Manufacturers

You may have heard about Andrew Wakefield who tried to find a link between MMR vaccines and autism. He has published several papers. Now it turns out he acted unethically in carrying out his research according to a medical regulator.

Doctor Andrew Wakefield’s 1998 study, published in the Lancet medical journal, said there might be a connection between the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) injection and autism.

The suggestion horrified parents and led to a slump in the number of youngsters getting the jab, as well as triggering heated debate in medical circles.

In a ruling Thursday, the General Medical Council attacked Wakefield for “unethical” research methods and for showing a “callous disregard” for the youngsters as he carried out tests.

This included taking blood samples from children at his son’s birthday party for five-pound payments.

Why am I writing about it?

Because we all have to learn from this. Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at ScienceRoll*

Credit Where Credit Is Due: Maryland Medical License Approved In Record Time

licenseSince I finished my residency training, I’ve applied for medical licenses in several states. It has been interesting to see how long it takes different states to process the same credentials. I wanted to give a quick hat tip to Maryland, for being the fastest, lowest hassle state so far. They processed my application in under 4 weeks, accepting my FCVS packet as verification for my medical school, residency training, and USMLE scores. Although the website suggests that the process may take up to 120 days, mine was fewer than 30. Thank you, Maryland Board of Physicians! Job well done.

In my personal hall of shame, however, is the Medical Board of California. I have been waiting since June, 2008 for my license. Yes, it’s been 567+ days. Read more »

Bill Gates Doubles Down On Financial Support For Global Vaccination

Thanks to a tip from FOX Business Network, Bill Gates has just announced that his Foundation is doubling its financial support ($10 billion over the next 10 years) to save children from vaccine-preventable illnesses on a global scale. This is very good news, and probably the best use of Gates Foundation money from an ROI perspective in healthcare.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvAxIQhQU3o

For more information, check out the GAVI Alliance (on Twitter, follow: @amanda4gavi)

Another helpful site: Immunization Action Coalition

Would You Like To Be Fully Conscious During Open Heart Surgery?

Why someone would want to do this, I haven’t a clue.

Swaroup Anand, 23, from Bangalore, is fully conscious as he undergoes open-heart surgery. An epidural to the neck, administered at the city’s Wockhardt Hospital, has numbed his body. Dr Vivek Jawali pioneered the technique ten years ago and has recently released a tutorial on DVD which gives a step-by-step guide to the procedure – sorry, but you can only get a copy if you’re a surgeon or an anaesthetist.

Seems there would be considerable risk of respiratory compromise is the epidural went too high. But according to this video, over 400 cases have been performed, including a bypass with aortic valve replacement!

I don’t know… I’m not sure I could stomach the sound of the bone saw or, worse, if the surgeon said “Oh, crap…”

h/t: Slashdot

Reference:
Chakravarthy MR, Jawali V, Patil TA, Srinivasan KN, Manohar M, Khan J, Jayaprakash K, Das JK, Mahajan V. “High thoracic epidural anaesthesia as the sole anaesthetic technique for minimally invasive direct coronary artery bypass in a high-risk patient.” Ann Card Anaesth. 2003 Jan;6(1):62-4.Musings of a cardiologist and cardiac electrophysiologist.

*This blog post was originally published at Dr. Wes*

Latest Interviews

IDEA Labs: Medical Students Take The Lead In Healthcare Innovation

It’s no secret that doctors are disappointed with the way that the U.S. healthcare system is evolving. Most feel helpless about improving their work conditions or solving technical problems in patient care. Fortunately one young medical student was undeterred by the mountain of disappointment carried by his senior clinician mentors…

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How To Be A Successful Patient: Young Doctors Offer Some Advice

I am proud to be a part of the American Resident Project an initiative that promotes the writing of medical students residents and new physicians as they explore ideas for transforming American health care delivery. I recently had the opportunity to interview three of the writing fellows about how to…

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Latest Book Reviews

Book Review: Is Empathy Learned By Faking It Till It’s Real?

I m often asked to do book reviews on my blog and I rarely agree to them. This is because it takes me a long time to read a book and then if I don t enjoy it I figure the author would rather me remain silent than publish my…

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The Spirit Of The Place: Samuel Shem’s New Book May Depress You

When I was in medical school I read Samuel Shem s House Of God as a right of passage. At the time I found it to be a cynical yet eerily accurate portrayal of the underbelly of academic medicine. I gained comfort from its gallows humor and it made me…

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Eat To Save Your Life: Another Half-True Diet Book

I am hesitant to review diet books because they are so often a tangled mess of fact and fiction. Teasing out their truth from falsehood is about as exhausting as delousing a long-haired elementary school student. However after being approached by the authors’ PR agency with the promise of a…

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