Botox is a neurotoxin used to relax muscles. People take it to relieve pain as well as for cosmetic purposes. However, the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen is arguing that it should come with a much stronger warning label because of 16 deaths and many serious injuries that the drug has been associated with. For….
Continue ReadingArchives for January 2008
Pill Reduces Ovarian Cancer Risk
Oral contraceptives significantly reduce risks of ovarian cancer in women, says a new large-scale study. The pill has been linked to reduction in breast cancer rates as well, but not so large as the reduction in ovarian cancer rates. The risk reduction persists up to thirty years after a woman stops taking the pill, although….
Continue ReadingAnother Study Confirms Lack of Reporting of Medical Error
Doctors are unwilling to report colleagues for making medical mistakes, as we have discussed before. A new study from the University of Iowa shows that a significant number do not report their own, either, even though they believe they should. Lauris Kaldijan, lead researcher for the study, had this to say about it: Kaldjian said….
Continue ReadingMRSA Transmittable Through Some Sexual Activity
MRSA or methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, a “superbug” infection usually contracted in hospitals, is now being transmitted during male-male sexual encounters. This news comes just a few months after MRSA was discovered in some Virginia schools. As the linked pages note, MRSA is highly drug resistant and can be deadly. It comes in many strains and….
Continue ReadingEmergency Room Waits Getting Longer
If the number of emergency rooms go down and the number of medical emergencies rise, it stands to reason that the average waiting time in emergency rooms would get longer, resulting in more problems and even deaths. That is exactly what is happening right now in the U.S, as a new study from Harvard Medical….
Continue ReadingU.S.A. Has the Most Preventable Deaths
Out of nineteen industrialized nations, the U.S. has the most deaths that could have been prevented by access to timely, effective medical care. Ellen Nolte and Martin McKee of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine performed the study, looking at deaths before the age of seventy-five caused by numerous diseases and complications. They….
Continue ReadingWhere are the Illinois Hospital Safety Reports?
By January 1st of this year, Illinois was to have established a system for reporting and reviewing egregious hospital errors–e.g. sponges left inside patients after surgery. But it has not done so. Illinois has also failed to fulfill other elements of the hospital safety legislation the state passed four years ago. For instance, the Illinois….
Continue ReadingHospitals Dangerously Slow in Treating Heart Attacks
It is safer to have a heart attack in an airport or casino than in a hospital. Why? One reason is that many hospitals still rely on old-fashioned defibrillators rather than the newer ones found in public places. The new ones are fully automated, faster and easy to use. Chances of surviving a heart attack….
Continue ReadingStudy Finds Anti-Psychotics Do Not Curb Aggression
Anti-psychotic drugs such as Haldol and Risperdal were developed to treat schizophrenia, but have recently been used for much broader purposes. They have been used to treat aggression in people suffering from everything from attention-deficit disorder to depression to the intellectually handicapped. A new study finds, however, that these drugs are no more effective than….
Continue ReadingThe Pain of Medical Error: Not Just Physical
Guilt, fear, and further isolation plague families of victims of medical error, says the New England Journal of Medicine. Why guilt? Because families feel like they should have kept a closer watch on their loved one, and regret the trust they placed in the health care institution or its workers. This guilt persists even if….
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