Friday - March 12, 2010
Light Up Band-Aid Cures Skin Cancer
This is an amazing claim, but they’ve done the trials and it appears to work! It is miniaturization of an already existing and effective treatment. Important point: this treatment is for non melanoma skin cancer (NMSC) only.
Researchers in Scotland unveiled Friday a new treatment for skin cancer that is almost as easy for patients to use, and doctors to administer, as a simple band-aid.
The Ambulight PDT therapy allows doctors to get patients with increasingly common non-melanoma skin cancer in and out of the hospital in just minutes and leaves virtually no scar.
Dermatology professor James Ferguson, who was involved in the clinical trials at Scotland’s Dundee University, tells CBSNews.com the biggest advantage to the Ambulight is that it’s simply “a lot less painful”.
It uses the same principles as light treatments available for years; covering the cancerous skin patch with a light-sensitive cream which is absorbed only by the cancer cells, then blasting the area with a beam of light that turns the cream into a toxic compound. It effectively kills the cancerous cells without affecting the surrounding tissue.
What makes the Ambulight PDT novel is its size and portability. The light emitting device is about the size of a computer mouse.
Patients have cream applied to the lesion, have a clear bandage placed over the cream, and then fix the Ambulight PDT to the bandage. It can do the rest of the work while the patient remains mobile.
The medicines and light combination involved has been in use in the United States for years, “it’s just a new way of delivering it that happens to be much more comfortable,” Ferguson tells CBS News.
According to Ferguson, both the United States and Great Britain are seeing a huge increase in the number of non-melanoma skin cancers reported each year.
The high-tech device contains a small light that combines with a chemical cream to kill skin cancer cells.
The Ambulight plaster has already been used on 50 patients with a success rate of up to 90%. It is less painful than surgery and leaves no scar.
Muriel Lowe, who had two treatments a week apart, described the result as “fantastic”.
She said: “I have a skin condition that means normal surgery would scar me.
“The doctor told me that cosmetically this would be much better. The treatment is called photodynamic therapy.”
Ambicare, the company that makes the Ambulight device, says
Ambulight PDT is a light-emitting sticking plaster for the treatment of non-melanoma skin cancer (NMSC) Simple and easily applied, the plasters are used in Photodynamic therapy (PDT) which is an established alternative to surgery for many forms of skin cancer.
PDT has become a key treatment for skin cancers, an established and growing health issue in many regions of the world. The incidence of non-malignant skin cancer continues to grow rapidly and now affects 15% of the UK, 40% of the USA, and 75% of the Australian populations during their lifetimes. The number of skin cancer lesions requiring treatment is doubling every ten years, as individuals live longer and are affected by the consequences of excessive sun exposure.
Photodynamic Therapy has become a key treatment for skin cancers and its use is expanding. PDT is being more widely adopted as it shows greater cost effectiveness and excellent cosmetic outcome while reducing secondary issues such as infection.
PDT is a multi-step process involving the application of a photosensitive drug followed by controlled exposure to a selective light source which activates daughter compound of the drug and destroys the diseased cells. PDT treatment is less invasive and avoids the scarring associated with surgical removal of the tumour and the need for an in-patient hospital stay.
Ambicare also has a version of their device that works on acne, by killing the Propionibacteria that causes it. Another version works for skin rejuvenation. Different wavelengths of light I gather.
All in all, a nice step forward for technology. And all based on the old nearly-wiccan homeopathic belief that red light is good for the skin, and that sunlight can cure acne. The cream used for the cancer treatment is usually aminolevulinic acid.
This is just the beginning. PDT may also be effective for treating internal tumors as well. Research continues. Light therapy is being used for many things these days, from curing neonatal jaundice to alleviating seasonal mood disorders. Cool!
Posted by Drew458
on 03/12/2010 at 10:09 AM
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Permalink • Thursday - February 25, 2010
health care summit
No, I can’t be bothered to cover this. I can recognize a steaming cow pat when I step in one. The whole thing is bull. Kabuki theater as Malkin puts it.
Coverage can be found at Michelle Malkin’s, or over at Vilmar’s, or at Right, Wing-Nut. And I share their opinions. Empty noise, posing for the cameras, and Obama being a snotty little dictator.
Don’t waste my time. Flush the bill and figure out how to lower taxes to get the country back to work. The Dems have the majority, and can use the dirty trick called Reconciliation to pass whatever they want. But they know that doing so is a suicide pact. And that about covers it all.
from Contentions, who did a great job live blogging the whole thing:
Question: Why is the 2,400-page legislation Representative Cantor brought with him a “prop,” in the words of Mr. Obama? Answer: Because any argument the president disagrees with is “illegitimate” or a “distraction” or a “talking point” or relies on “props.” Like many others, I have watched Barack Obama quite closely for much of the last two years. And I’m not sure I’ve ever seen him more agitated and condescending. He is, in fact, imperious. One can tell he is used to being coddled for much of his life. He’s used to being referred to as the “Black Jesus” by his aides. He’s used to being told he’s God’s gift to humanity. He’s been told those things and he’s internalized them. And so when he’s challenged — especially when he’s challenged in a forceful and respectful way — he gets upset. He becomes preachy and scolding. And he becomes dismissive.
I am quite surprised by how poorly Obama is coming across. I thought this summit would be essentially worthless. In fact, it is serving quite a useful purpose. It is unmasking Barack Obama. And what we’re seeing isn’t a very pretty sight.
Having been exposed to the president’s actions and rhetoric for close to six hours now, I better understand one of the most interesting facts of recent American politics: the more Mr. Obama speaks, the more unpopular his cause becomes. He is a man who talks a lot — and who has very little to show for it.
Posted by Drew458
on 02/25/2010 at 09:59 PM
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Permalink • Friday - January 29, 2010
I think I have invented a new position here at BMEWS. An Anger Desk. Yeah. That’s me ok.
I may even enter a new category for it.
I don’t know about you folks, but I just happen to like Kelloggs Corn Flakes. I don’t give a tinkers damn how much salt or sugar they put in it.
I like it the way comes outta that box just fine. Oh but no. The freeken health nazis and other we’ll do your choosing for you health quangos have pressured Kelloggs to reduce the salt content by another 30 percent. They also say some 14,000 ppl have died due to high blood pressure, strokes and heart attacks etc. But they don’t say what else those folks had in their diets. Anyway, it’s 14,000 out of how many millions upon millions who have no trouble whatever. So I’m PO’d again coz I hate it when some unelected group of do-gooders insist I eat grass and bark instead of what I like.
Kelloggs says that over years it has already reduced sugar and salt by a lot but only gradually so ppl wouldn’t noticed a sudden change in taste. That way they say, ppl get used to the change without even knowing a change ha taken place and the product will still taste the same. Pretty clever.
Recently, Nescafe altered a recipe for our own good. Right. All the things that gave it flavor were reduced. The taste difference was immediate and very bland. So we stopped buying it. Even tho the label assured us that it was, “New and Improved.” Yeah. In a pigs ass it was.
I guess the thing that bothers me so darn much is that so many things these days seem to be decided for me. And nobody asked first.
Kellogg’s to cut the salt in its cereals by a third following pressure from health watchdogsBy Sean Poulter
Kellogg’s will cut the salt content of its Corn Flakes, Rice Krispies and other brands by up to a third following pressure from health watchdogs.
The company has previously delayed the reduction of salt levels, claiming customers enjoy the taste it offers.
However, it has now bowed to pressure from the Government’s Food Standards Agency and campaigning health groups to change its recipes.
The FSA says the nation is eating too much salt, which carries a serious health threat.
Average daily salt consumption is 8.6g, which is 43 per cent above the recommended limit of 6g.
The figure is linked to 14,200 premature deaths a year from conditions linked to high blood pressure, including strokes and heart attacks.
Kellogg’s said its decision will remove approximately 300 tons of salt a year from the nation’s diet.
The decision to cut the salt in Corn Flakes and Rice Krispies by 30 per cent will feed through to reductions in other big-selling brands such as Crunchy Nut, Frosties, Coco Pops and Rice Krispies Squares.
Here’s what two people commenting on the subject had to say.
I don’t recall ever voting for ‘Consensus Action on Salt and Health’. What consensus? I’m sure I’m far from alone in disagreeing with their ‘consensus’, which rather undermines the meaning of the word, doesn’t it? No doubt like the National Obesity Forum this lot will turn out to be 70% funded by Whitehall, making them essentially a Govt department in all but socially-responsibly Orwellian-sounding name.
Why not just provide an alternative version and leave the original alone? A sad day for democracy when I now don’t even have a choice over what I want to eat.
- Rich, Leeds, UK, 29/1/2010 12:48EXACTLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am fed up of being told what I can have and what not - I am an adult, I can read labels and I can make decision on my own!!
- Karolina, London, 29/1/2010 15:05
Posted by peiper
on 01/29/2010 at 11:58 AM
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Permalink • Saturday - January 09, 2010
THE LATEST FROM NASHVILLE FUNNY MAN, RAY STEVENS.
H/T to Jim Miller, who emailed me this Ray Stevens video.
I think BMEWS can handle this.
What a coincidence that he should send Ray Stevens.
Little by little we are trying to clear out those things that just take up space in the house that are no longer needed. We hope we will be able to put the house on the market this summer, providing we have one of those.
Some of the things the wife is finding turned out to be old photos of family going back to the late 1890s. She found photos of her mother age only 14, and her late brother as well.
So how an album of ours got into that box is a mystery. But I’m glad she found this particular photo of Ray Stevens with my old car, in Nashville.
It was taken outside the offices of Warner Bros. Records, and his office was right across the street on Music Row. Every time I drove into Nashville, the Warner Bros. office was my very first stop. I was very big on everything Warner in those days and they had a terrific line up of country acts. I picked up the latest news and mostly records for the station I worked for in Paducah. There were times I got product even before release. In one case, an act signed to the label was also a close friend and he gave me a tape (reel to reel from the studio) of his next release. In other words, it hadn’t even got to the plant for pressing at that point. Those were really the days and I can’t say I don’t miss em. Music Row was almost a real community then. Actually, in very many ways, it was. And I loved it.
My car had Warner cartoon characters painted all over it and was a sight to see. Elmer Fudd with his shotgun on one side facing aft and on the other, Bugs Bunny running away. And of course the Warner logo on the back and sides as well. It was painted free for me, by one of my radio listeners. When people who don’t know me too well ask me where I was born, I usually tell em, Paducah, Ky. In a way, I was.
Posted by peiper
on 01/09/2010 at 09:17 AM
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Permalink • Monday - January 04, 2010
USA LIFTS BAN ON HIV TRAVEL. VISITORS AND IMMIGRANTS WELCOME.
I think it’s time for me to ask, anyone with some knowledge on the topic since I only know what I’ve read or heard on the news, does this put anyone at any extra risk? Was the US justified in the ban? Does the US have it correct now?
U.S. takes positive step of lifting entry ban on foreign nationals with HIV
By Daily Mail Reporter
04th January 2010The US government has lifted an ban on foreign nationals with HIV entering the country.
For the past 22 years, people who are HIV positive have needed a special waiver to visit, or travel through, the US but the requirement will be dropped from Monday.
THT said some of its staff with HIV have, in the past, been refused entry to the US as a result of the policy.
Lisa Power, THT head of policy, said: ‘It’s ridiculous that for over 20 years people living with HIV have been banned from entering the US simply because of a medical condition.
Whoa .. that’s some kinda medical condition. We already know from past experience that an awful lot of these folks take on new partners without saying a word about, their condition.
And further to the question, exactly from where are these new immigrants gonna come from?
Any guesses?
I know it’s perverse but, I hate making foreign libs happy even more then our home grown ones. I always feel like they’re sticking their collective noses in our business. So if they congratulate us for something, I always think whoops. We got things wrong again.
We shouldn’t be doing things that the left approves of. Just on general principals.
‘Removing the ban is long overdue and we congratulate the US government on seeing economic and medical sense.
‘THT and many others have campaigned against the ban since it was introduced. Blanket entry bans have no justification on public health grounds and only increase stigma.
‘We hope other countries with similar bans in place will now remove them too.’
President Barack Obama announced in October last year that the ban would be lifted.
‘Twenty-two years ago, in a decision rooted in fear rather than fact, the United States instituted a travel ban on entry into the country for people living with HIV/Aids,’ he said.
‘Now, we talk about reducing the stigma of this disease - yet we’ve treated a visitor living with it as a threat.’
The 2012 World Aids Conference will be held in the US in recognition of the lifting of the ban.
Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Your diseased, perverted sodomists; your criminals; your ignorant, thieving, insane, moon god worshipping misogynists. Your Oh Lord I can’t go on.
Posted by sig94 United States
I just HAD to come back and do this. Couldn’t resist. Thanks Sig94
Posted by peiper
on 01/04/2010 at 01:05 PM
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Permalink • Thursday - December 24, 2009
Well, it passed
WASHINGTON—The Senate passed a health insurance overhaul on Thursday morning, 60-39, as both Democrats and Republicans held unified in their positions on the massive bill that mandates coverage for about 9 percent of the U.S. population now without insurance.
All 58 Democrats and two independents supported the $871 billion, 10-year package that aims to cover about 30 million Americans. Thirty-nine of 40 Republicans rejected the bill. Kentucky Sen. Jim Bunning, who is retiring at the end of this Congress, did not vote.
President Obama congratulated the Senate for its early morning action.
“With passage of reform bills in both the House and Senate, we are now finally poised to deliver on the promise of real, meaningful, health insurance reform that will bring additional security and stability to the American people,” Obama said at the White House before leaving with his family for a 10-day Hawaii vacation.
“As I’ve said before, these are not small reforms, these are big reforms. If passed, this will be the most important piece of social legislation since the Social Security Act passed in the 1930s, and the most important reform of our healthcare system since Medicare passed in the 1960s,” Obama continued.
Senate lawmakers moved quickly after the vote to pass one more bill—a $290 billion hike in the debt ceiling needed to prevent a U.S. default on loans—passing it on a 60-39 vote before scattering across the nation ahead of their Christmas break.
This is a disaster. There isn’t much more to be said. I hope your great-grandchildren find a gold mine in their backyards, because they’ll need one to pay for this. Meh, by that point they won’t be allowed to even own an unregistered shovel, for fear of harming Mother Gaia.
Cry, my beloved country.
Posted by Drew458
on 12/24/2009 at 10:23 AM
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Permalink • Wednesday - December 23, 2009
Woman dies after routine medical exam …. just the tip of this medical iceberg
Tomorrow is Christmas Eve. Tomorrow morning I am scheduled to have a routine exam. An endoscopy to be exact. Usually a straight forward thing and I had one many years ago. Of course, back home they put us under and we wake happy. But no matter, I’d prefer not to be sedated anyway. It’s a ‘routine’ that’s done thousands of times every year. Piece of cake. Maybe. Thing is ... I’m not home in the USA where I have (naive?) trust. Accidents happen there everyday.
But I’m here and I read this sort of thing way too often. That’s cause it happens way too often.
CORONER FURIOUS AFTER A WOMAN DIES IN “BURNING AGONY” FOLLOWING NHS INJECTION BLUNDER
By Fay Schlesinger
Daily Mail
December 23rd 2009A grandmother died after ‘gross failures’ by NHS doctors who injected her lungs with a chemical that was ten times the recommended strength, a coroner ruled today.
Rosemary McFarlane, 64, spent ten days in ‘burning agony’ after receiving the lethal dose during what should have been a routine procedure.
The caustic chemical, phosphate buffered saline, burned the inside of her lungs.
The hospital’s usual supplier had run out of the PBS fluid and a pharmacy was asked to provide the solution.
It was bought over the internet by a junior pharmacist, who mistook ‘10x’ on the label to mean ten bottles of the liquid rather than its super-strength concentration, an inquest heard.
At that strength it is used for preserving tissue samples in laboratories and is unlicensed for use on the living.
Coroner Aiden Cotter launched a stinging attack on staff at Heartlands Hospital, in Birmingham.
Addressing the workers at Birmingham Coroner’s Court, he said: ‘I have dealt with far too many deaths from NHS hospitals in recent years.
‘We hold out our arms and trust medical professionals to inject things into us and the thought some people do not check something that could kill us is appalling.
‘You hold our lives in your hands every day when you are at work when people need to act professionally. Too many people are unprofessional.’
He added: ‘There are many people working in the NHS who are hard working and professional, but there are a significant number who are not.
‘The failures made by the doctors and the pharmacy team are gross failures. I consider they have sufficient causal connection to the death of Mrs McFarlane.’
He recorded a narrative verdict with neglect as a contributing factor.
Here’s a comment left by a reader of the Mail article above.
See that word ‘locum’ down there in the letter? Well, that’s what I think about on Christmas Eve. Now the writer of course is referring to GPs. But how about the techs who’ll be doing a procedure like an endoscopy?
Hey .... if someone whispers akbar-snackbar in my hearing, I’m not staying. On the other hand .... while a lot of ice has been melting today, we’ve just had more sleet on top of the snow from two days ago. Usually, we get snow and then it all melts away by the afternoon. But not the last few days. No buses were running here yesterday, and we didn’t see any today till afternoon.
Yesterday, a 12 minute trip took the wife’s cousin 2 hours she claims. I think I can believe her because I’m familiar with the area where traffic was on hold.
The town had NO grit or salt or anything ready for this, and some folks had to abandon their cars. And Winchester not being the most car friendly place anyway, lots of ppl found clamps on their wheels and have to pay to get released.
I am concerned with the amount of foreign nationals employed by NHS in this country who do not have a good command of English - how are they supposed to understand medical records, drug labels and communicate with patients accurately? GP locums are a prime example.
This all boils down to hospital and primary care management with their umpteen government targets to meet, which quite often compromise patient care. Common sense doesn’t seem to prevail in healthcare anymore.
I’ve had to use our local hospital several times this year, and luckily I have had good consultants looking after me. I do ask a lot of questions, which maybe a nuisance to medical staff, but it’s my life in their hands.
Even a junior pharmacist and a doctor should be checking two or three times though that they got it right with such drugs/chemicals. Are we going to hear of over-doses of morphine next?- Anon, Cheshire, 23/12/2009 09:53
So ... the weather and road conditions might force a cancellation of my routine exam.
Stay Tuned and oh yeah .....
I WISH ALL AT BMEWS A MOST JOYOUS CHRISTMAS.
Posted by peiper
on 12/23/2009 at 11:11 AM
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Permalink • Monday - November 30, 2009
JUST WHAT EVERY PATIENT WANTS TO HEAR FROM THE DOC. A LECTURE ON CLIMATE CHANGE
Not that I think this will take off. But it is bizarre, no, it’s STUPID!
First .... Unless it’s some kind of emergency you get exactly ten minutes and often less, when you see a doctor here. That has been my experience anyway. I can’t see them taking time to give a talk on my carbon footprint. But the idea that “experts” are suggesting this dumb idea is beyond the pale. It just show how totally in the Gore camp these idiots have fallen, and the extremes they will dream up to indoctrinate the public. Starting with the very youngest and I have already seen that right here.
Some (experts again) have suggested that doctors should start treating their patients over the phone so as to avoid ppl driving cars into town or wherever the doc is located. Sure, like doctors are going to open themselves to a possible lawsuit for wrongful diagnosis the result of a phone call.
GPs should treat patients by phone to cut NHS carbon footprint, report says
Patients will be encouraged to stay at home and consult their doctor by phone instead of travelling to GPs’ surgeries under plans for a “greener” NHS.
SCHMUCKS!
Doctors should give patients advice on climate change, a leading body of medical experts has claimed.
Nick Britten
Published: 11:53AM GMT 29 Nov 2009The Climate and Health Council, a collaboration of worldwide health organisations including the Royal College of Nursing, the Royal College of Physicians and the Royal Society of Medicine, believes there is a direct link between climate change and better health.
Their controversial plan would see GPs and nurses give out advice to their patients on how to lower their carbon footprint.
The Council believes that climate change “threatens to radically undermine the health of all peoples”.
It believes health professionals are ideally placed to promote change because “we have ethical responsibility…..as well as the capacity to influence people and our political representatives to take the necessary action”.
The Council has been recently formed to study the health benefits of tackling climate change and promotes a range of ideas from reducing your carbon footprint by driving less and walking more to eating local, less processed food.
It wants to raise ‘health’ on the agenda of December’s UN Climate Change Summit in Copenhagen.
They believe that offering patients advice on how to lower their carbon footprint can be just as easy and achievable as helping them to stop smoking or eat a healthier diet.
Other proposals include for all developed nations to pay an extra five dollars a barrel on oil and a tax on airline tickets. This would go into a special fund to develop low-carbon alternatives to existing technologies, they say.
Prof Mike Gill, from the University of Surrey, who co-chairs the Climate and Health Council, outlined the plans for the medical journal The Lancet last week.
He said: “Climate change already affects human health, creating problems that will increase if no action is taken.
“Overall, what is good for tackling climate change is good for health. Who better to spell out this message than health professionals? “We have the evidence, a good story to tell that dramatically shifts the lens through which climate change is perceived, and we have public trust.”
He said the health service was often “muted” on the subject of climate change and needed to make its voice heard more.
He added: “To maximise our influence, we must be much clearer than we have been to the public, to patients, and to politicians about the risks of doing nothing and the benefits to individual and global health of effective action.”
Vivienne Nathanson, British Medical Association director of professional activities said the report “clearly shows that taking action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions can have positive impacts for health.”
She said the BMA was disappointed health had not so far figured significantly on the agenda for the Copenhagen summit and called on world leaders to seek solutions that benefit the environment and individuals.
Andy Burnham, the Health minister, in support of the Lancet report said: “Climate change can seem a distant, impersonal threat [however] the associated costs to health are a very real and present danger. Health ministers across the globe must act now to highlight the risk global warning poses to the health of our communities.”
Posted by peiper
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Permalink • Thursday - November 26, 2009
SOMETHING TO BE THANKFUL FOR …. AMAZING SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY …
I think this is gonna be my only post for today. Grumble. Now that the wife has a cold too (misery just loves company) and has my cough as well, it sounds like a TB ward in here. scuse me. cough,cough.
Blind man fitted with ‘bionic’ eye sees for first time in 30 years
By Liz Hull
Last updated at 3:30 PM on 26th November 2009A blind man who thought he would never be able to read again has had his vision partially restored after being fitted with a ‘bionic’ eye.
Peter Lane, 51, is one of the first people in the world to have electronic receivers implanted into his eye which send signals mounted in a pair of glasses to the brain.
The technology has allowed Mr Lane, from Manchester, to see the outline of objects, such as doorways and furniture, and to read letters through a series of dots of lights for the first time in almost 30 years.
Last night Mr Lane, who suffers from a degenerative genetic disease which caused his sight to fail when he was in his mid-20s, said: ‘After not being able to see anything for so long it was an amazing feeling to see letters and words on a special screen. I was there reading “dad, mat, cat”.
‘I’m just reading small words at the moment, but it’s a start. The doctors have said they’ll get me a screen so I can read at home and I’m hoping I’ll be able to read letters I get in the post by myself eventually.‘I get around inside my flat okay without the glasses because I know where everything is, but outside they give me more confidence and a bit more independence.
‘The images I see move and that takes a bit of getting used to, but I can see cars - they look like cotton wool. It’s exciting to be part of the trial.’
Mr Lane is one of just 32 people taking part in a worldwide trial of the technology which aims to help those with retinitis pigmentosa, a group of genetic eye diseases affecting the retina which cause progressive loss of vision over decades.
Around 25,000 people are affected by the conditions in Britain alone.
It works by fitting a camera in a pair of glasses, which then captures the image and sends the information to a video processor worn by the patient on a belt.
Breakthrough: Mr Lane is taking part in a trial of technology designed to help people with the condition retinitis pigmentosa
The processor converts the image into an electronic signal which is then sent to a transmitter, also fitted to the glasses.
The transmitter, in turn, sends a wireless signal to a wafer-thin electronic receiver and electrode panel implanted on the patient’s retina.
The electrodes stimulate the remaining retinal nerves, sending electrical pulses along the optic nerve to the brain.
Patterns of light and dark spots are then ‘seen’ by the patient, who also wears a battery pack on their belt to power the entire device.
The implant was developed by American company Second Sight and is being pioneered by just 11 doctors worldwide.
Mr Lane, a father-of-two grown up children, was one of three patients to undergo a four-hour operation to implant the receiver into his eye at Manchester Royal Eye Hospital earlier this year.
He had to wait a further two months for his eye to heal before trying out the device.
His sight began to return earlier this month.
Doctors have been thrilled by the progress of all three patients. One of them was able to see fireworks on November 5 for the first time in 40 years, while the other, like Mr Lane, was able to recognise some letters.
The hospital is now arranging for Mr Lane, who had been completely blind, to have a special projector and screen installed at home which will enlarge letters and allow him to read his own mail for the first time in years.
Mr Lane’s brother, John Lane, added: ‘What the doctors have done doesn’t sound possible, but I think it’s great.
‘It’s good we have world experts here in Manchester who are trying to improve things for people like Peter.’
Researchers at the eye hospital said patients’ experiences had been ‘very moving’.
Consultant ophthalmologist Paulo Stangaat said: ‘The patients are progressing much faster than we at first thought.
‘A lot of work still needs to be carried out, but this is certainly very encouraging for both the patient and the scientific community.’
Posted by peiper
on 11/26/2009 at 11:11 AM
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Permalink • Monday - October 19, 2009
ANOTHER BLIND DOCTOR, ANOTHER DEAD PATIENT …. daily death and life
Can’t honestly say that this is the fault of National Health. Actually, I’m not in a position to know one way or another. What do know from reading the papers every day 24/7, is that this happens a lot. Hey, if it only happens once it’s a hell of a lot to the patient/victim and the family.
I also know because I have seen lots and lots of doctors here who resemble this doctor quack. There’s apparently a shortage on this island and so they import em from wherever. That might not be a fair thing to say but sorry, it’s how I see it.
Doctor faces being struck off after woman, 26, dies of cancer ‘he failed to spot EIGHT times’
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 4:17 PM on 19th October 2009Nikki Sams died after Dr Navin Shankar failed to spot her cervical cancer eight times in four years
A doctor who failed to spot the symptoms of cervical cancer in a young woman eight times in four years faces being struck off.
Dr Navin Shankar told Nikki Sams her health problems were ‘nothing serious’, never performed an internal examination and ignored her pleas for a hospital check-up.
The blunders only emerged when she was transferred to another surgery after Dr Shankar was suspended in a separate case of serious misconduct.
Her new doctor immediately ordered a smear test which showed the advertising saleswoman had abnormal cells and more tests found she had a tumour.
Miss Sams had a hysterectomy and months of treatment but died a year later aged 26 after the cancer spread to her lungs, spine and neck.
Her devastated father Michael Sams, 54, who had given up his job to look after her, said a ‘catalogue of unforgiveable errors’ cost his daughter her life.
‘Nikki was so brave, she never complained or said “why me” but she died unnecessarily,’ he told the General Medical Council.
‘It is unbelievable that in this day and age a girl can go to her doctor so many times complaining about all these symptoms and be sent away and told not to worry.
‘I don’t understand how you can exhibit these symptoms for so long and they not be picked up until it’s too late.’
He added: ‘We want to get some kind of answers… We want to know why it went wrong. Only then can we have closure.’
Doctor Navin ShankarDoctor Navin Shankar faces being struck off the medical register
Under Government guidelines, young women are only eligible for regular cervical smear tests when they turn 25 so need them to be ordered by a doctor.
Dr Navin Shankar treated Miss Sams between 1999 and 2005 at the Wigmore Lane Health Centre in Luton.
He appeared before the General Medical Council last week to assess his fitness to practise and determine whether sanctions should be taken against him.
The case has been adjourned for a performance assessment to be carried out but the GMC has already ‘proven’ several complaints made against him.
It found Miss Sams had made direct requests to Dr Shankar and a number of other unrecorded complaints about inter-menstrual bleeding in the same period.
But he failed to keep adequate records of her symptoms.
She also made a request for referral to Luton & Dunstable Hospital, but at no stage did Dr Shankar perform an abdominal or internal examination or send her to hospital.
Mr Sams said his daughter went through the ‘worst pain of her life’ when she eventually had treatment for the disease.
She was given the all-clear after six months and went back to work but doctors found the cancer had returned when she was treated after a car accident.
A series of x-rays showed the disease had spread into her spine, neck and lungs and she was given six months to two years to live.
She died at home a month after being diagnosed with secondary cancer in August 2007. Her father never told her it was terminal so that she did not give up hope.
Posted by peiper
on 10/19/2009 at 10:43 AM
Filed Under: • Health-Medicine • UK •
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Permalink • Thursday - October 08, 2009
One Bill, One Page: KISS
I had a little discussion with Vilmar the other day in the comments of one of his posts. He felt that no GOP solution to health care reform could get a fair shot; it would be buried in the House and ignored by the MSM. Those are fair points, but I have to disagree with his view that the best path for our Republican representatives is to Just Say No. Say NO to the lefty plans, but push a good, simple, cost effective plan of your own. If the word gets spread by the VRWC, then eventually Fox News will have to run the story. And if they run it long enough and loud enough, then the other parts of the MSM will have to notice it too, if only to say how no good it is. But that itself will let the regular folks know such a plan exists.
Here’s a plan, and a bunch of links. Looks pretty good to me.
1. Leave employer-provided insurance as it is and give individuals a $2,500 tax credit to equalize tax treatment for individuals who buy their own insurance.
2. Allow individuals to buy insurance across state lines.
3. Extend COBRA for up to 30 months, allowing people to keep their insurance if they leave a job.
4. Remove government regulations limiting insurers from offering premium breaks for healthy lifestyle choices.
5. Enact real malpractice reform (limit punitive damages to $250,000 and all noneconomic damages to $750,000).
6. Provide help to encourage insurance pools for the hard to insure.
That’s it. Over 10 years Anderson’s plan would spend $75B and include $345M in tax cuts. The Baucus bill (one version of it, at least) would spend $856B and include a net increase of $352B in tax hikes and $47B in fines. Both the Anderson and the Baucus plans would insure 95 percent of Americans.
There is something to be said for simplicity — and a lot to be said for achieving the same results as Democrats are promising without a massive tax hike, a government takeover of health care, another massive hit to the budget, and thousands of pages of new federal regulations.
A short essay on the subject is here at Commentary Magazine.
The proposed bill itself, put together by The Weekly Standard‘s Jeffrey Anderson, is available here. ONE PAGE. Jeffrey discusses the need for a plain talking basic reform bill that enhances freedom in his essay Keep It Simple.
The American people haven’t been shy about expressing their views on health-care reform. In the polls and at public events nationwide, they’ve made it clear that they don’t want a behemoth bill that would fundamentally transform a health-care system that works well for most Americans and which offers a level of care that is largely the envy of the world. But they are also understandably concerned about health care’s rising costs, its lack of portability, and the ten percent of Americans who are uninsured. They want to see these pressing problems be addressed, but in a sensible and moderate way.
The bill proposed by Senator Max Baucus does not answer Americans’ call. The Baucus bill is the real health-care bill, the bill on which the Obama administration is implicitly pinning its hopes. But it defiantly turns a deaf ear to the American people.
Republicans cannot lead merely by stating abstract principles. They must advance specific proposals--ones that are easily understandable and can be expressed in plain language to the American people. The Republican bill should be as short and simple as possible. It should be targeted to address Americans’ specific and pressing concerns. And it should make health insurance more accessible, affordable, and portable--without breaking the bank, threatening the quality of care, or jeopardizing the preexisting insurance of millions.
It always feels so good when a professional journalist writes something that supports my opinion, even if this essay comes out a few days later than I needed it. Simple Solution fans will immediately notice that this plan is a minor extension of the Ann Coulter Plan, but with money numbers crunched and added.
We don’t NEED a 1200 page government mega-bill, and we don’t NEED a government take-over of the health care industry. Do it the American Way: less government, more freedom, and lower taxes. Golly, that sounds like a core plank in the Republican Platform, doesn’t it? So help spread the word, and maybe, just maybe, eventually, our elected reps will have to notice it.
A big h/t to Right, Wing-Nut! who sums it all up nicely:
Over twenty years the “Small Bill” becomes revenue neutral, while the Baucus Plan puts us in a $2.9 trillion dollar hole.
Where are the Congressional/Senate Republicans on all this? Grab this plan and plaster it all over the airwaves; show Americans how you can get it done for 1/20 the cost and without handing over health care to the bureaucrats in Washington. Offer an alternative, watch the public response, and then see the Democrats try to pass a bill that thwarts the will of the people, and exposes their underlying purpose here: Not to reform health care, but to nationalize it, and bring a huge chunk of the economy under Washington’s control.
It would be the last bill this majority ever passes ...
Posted by Drew458
on 10/08/2009 at 11:27 AM
Filed Under: • Government • Health-Medicine •
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Permalink • Tuesday - October 06, 2009
Not unsympathetic to elderly ill BUT … this shows mindset and what ails National Health
This actress will not be at all familiar to Americans I’m sure. Doesn’t matter. I’m not even posting the entire article, although I would recommend you read it as it does have interest. Kind of scary too and leaves ppl with the impression that every hospital in the UK might be like this. But that isn’t true.
Anyway ... The Mail had a very misleading headline, reminded me of Tiger’s term for dumb things. “STUCK ON STUPID.”
The headline implied the old lady had to plan an escape from the hosp. Bosh. Not so although I don’t doubt her stay was not a walk in the park.
Royle Family was a popular sit-com.
I read the entire article but found no “plan.” What we did find however, was a mindset that says things should come to me without asking and I’m entitled. A stroke is nothing to make light of. She’s an old lady but has family around her and she certainly has some spare change due to her profession. True, she has most likely paid into NHS all her life. Or at least since national health began here. She was made a promise and it should be kept. Don’t have a problem with that. BUT ....
The Royle Family’s Liz Smith was so appalled by her poor care in hospital she hatched a plan to escape...
By Angela Levin
Last updated at 10:19 AM on 06th October 2009When Liz Smith suffered three strokes in just two days, not surprisingly she thought she was dying.
‘I was sure my end had come,’ says the 87-year-old actress, best known for playing Nana in the TV sitcom The Royle Family.
‘But still, I managed to tell my son Robert that I wanted to be buried in a wood without a coffin, so I’d have a green funeral.’ She bursts into laughter at the thought.
Liz has become something of a national treasure, recognised for her hilarious facial expressions and her deadpan delivery.
But, nine months since her strokes, speech - specifically language - is a real problem.
Liz often struggles to say the right word, ending up using a word that sounds similar to the one she wants - for example, ‘familiar’ when she means ‘family’.
This condition is called aphasia and is a common result of a stroke, explains Dr Peter Coleman of the Stroke Association.
For a few months, a nurse came every day to help me. I was also given a Zimmer frame and a special stool with arm rests to use in the kitchen.
‘But in the four months I’ve been home, I haven’t had one visit from my GP, which I think is disgraceful.
Luckily, my children are great and visit me on alternate days.’
‘My next ambition is to get rid of the Zimmer frame. I can walk a little by myself, but I’m waiting for social services to bring me a stick.’
The one thing she doesn’t want to give up is her new wheelchair. ‘I can just be taken out without making an effort,’ she enthuses.
I am pleased I didn’t die and that I have a bit longer.’ Her fans would agree.
‘But in the four months I’ve been home, I haven’t had one visit from my GP, which I think is disgraceful.
She makes it appear as though she is the ONLY patient her GP sees during the day. Without going into a long song and dance, fact is that if she needed her doctor, a call would have brought him or her. They make house calls here FREE when a person is too ill or unable to get to the practice.
The wife’s mother was bedridden for years here and whenever a doctor was needed, one came. But there not enough of them and there are not enough hours in the day for a doc to man the office and also check in on people just to see how they are doing. It’s not disgraceful. It’s a mind set that ignores everything else in the world except ME.
But this is the corker far as we’re concerned.
I can walk a little by myself, but I’m waiting for social services to bring me a stick.’
She has family there. Her children are in attendance, and she’s waiting for SS to “bring me a stick.” Why? Why can’t one of her kids just go out and buy one? In fact, based on the wife’s experience when her mother needed one, she went to the Red Cross. You give a donation (no set amount) and they take you through a storehouse and you get what you need if it’s in stock. When you’re through with it you simply return it.
Or buy one. The reason my wife went to the Red Cross was because the wait for a cane was going to be some weeks. So she found another source.
I still can’t get over the fact that national health here even covers aspirin. WHY? But people expect it I guess. Things were PROMISED and now the service is trying to deliver. One problem however is ... there sure do seem to be a heck of a lot of managers drawing pay.
Posted by peiper
on 10/06/2009 at 08:39 AM
Filed Under: • Health-Medicine • UK •
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Permalink • Saturday - October 03, 2009
Healthcare is not a right
So, I’m doing some research for my next Toastmaster’s speech. My premise is that you do not have a ‘right’ to healthcare, or any ‘right’ to the labor of others—be they cotton-pickers, house slaves servants, or doctors.
It’s an argument that I thought was settled back in the 1860’s… but Democrats have a thing for slavery.
So, whilst surfing for info and/or quotes to plagiarize flesh out my speech to the 5-6 minutes required, I stumbled upon the fact that somebody used this line of attack 16 years ago. During the Clinton healthcare debacle.
I’ll give the pull-quote:
The Declaration of Independence applies to the medical profession too. We must reject the idea that doctors are slaves destined to serve others at the behest of the state.
That’s it! One sentence summarized the 5-6 minute speech I’m working on. That one sentence trashes the entire idea of gov’t healthcare.
This is a brilliant speech. Please go read it.
A couple more quotes:
Observe that all legitimate rights have one thing in common: they are rights to action, not to rewards from other people. The American rights impose no obligations on other people, merely the negative obligation to leave you alone. The system guarantees you the chance to work for what you want—not to be given it without effort by somebody else.
And now?
You are entitled to something, the politicians say, simply because it exists and you want or need it—period. You are entitled to be given it by the government. Where does the government get it from? What does the government have to do to private citizens—to their individual rights—to their real rights—in order to carry out the promise of showering free services on the people?
The answers are obvious. The newfangled rights wipe out real rights—and turn the people who actually create the goods and services involved into servants of the state.
Health Care Is Not A Right
by Leonard Peikoff (January 23, 1998)
Delivered at a Town Hall Meeting on the Clinton Health Plan
Red Lion Hotel, Costa Mesa CA
December 11, 1993
Yes, my Toastmasters speech will include some quotes from this speech.
Posted by Christopher
on 10/03/2009 at 08:06 PM
Filed Under: • FREEDOM • Government • Health-Medicine •
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Permalink • Sunday - September 13, 2009
Healthcare Bill is Unconstitutional
Funny thing ... if I was a legislator, the absolute first thing I’d check about a bill, any bill, was whether is was constitutional. That seems to be the LAST thing anybody checks anymore, leaving that up to the Supreme Court, years later, only when somebody makes a case and gets it to bubble all the way to the top. Pretty fishy behavior IMO.
A retired lawyer reads the ENTIRE health care bill ... and finds it unconstitutional in so many ways, so many times. Why are you not surprised?
The first thing to go will be the masterfully crafted balance of power between the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches of the U.S. Government. The Congress will be transferring to the Obama Administration authority in a number of different areas over the lives of the American people and the businesses they own. The irony is that the Congress doesn’t have any authority to legislate in most of those areas to begin with. I defy anyone to read the text of the U.S. Constitution and find any authority granted to the members of Congress to regulate health care.
This legislation also provides for access by the appointees of the Obama administration of all of your personal healthcare information, your personal financial information, and the information of your employer, physician, and hospital. All of this is a direct violation of the specific provisions of the 4th Amendment to the Constitution protecting against unreasonable searches and seizures. You can also forget about the right to privacy. That will have been legislated into oblivion regardless of what the 3rd and 4th Amendments may provide.
If you decide not to have healthcare insurance or if you have private insurance that is not deemed “acceptable” to the “Health Choices Administrator” appointed by Obama there will be a tax imposed on you. It is called a “tax” instead of a fine because of the intent to avoid application of the due process clause of the 5th Amendment. However, that doesn’t work because since there is nothing in the law that allows you to contest or appeal the imposition of the tax, it is definitely depriving someone of property without the “due process of law.
So, there are three of those pesky amendments that the far left hate so much out the original ten in the Bill of Rights that are effectively nullified by this law. It doesn’t stop there though
Go read the rest of the post over here. It’s part of a continuing series at this fellows blog, Michael Connely dot com.
Thank you Carole.
Posted by Drew458
on 09/13/2009 at 06:14 PM
Filed Under: • Government • Health-Medicine •
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Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:
It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.
- Keep a firm grasp of Right and Wrong
- Stay involved with government on every level and don't let those bastards get away with a thing
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- Keep talking to each other, whether here or elsewhere
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Oh, and here's some kind of visitor flag counter thingy. Hey, all the cool blogs have one, so I should too. The Visitors Online thingy up at the top doesn't count anything, but it looks neat. It had better, since I paid actual money for it.
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