BMEWS
 
Sarah Palin is allowed first dibs on Alaskan wolfpack kills.

calendar   Saturday - May 23, 2020

Ingenious But Morbid

“Pandemically Perfect”

Cardboard Box Company In Columbia Designs Fold Out Instant Hospital Bed

Fold It The Other Way And It Becomes A Coffin

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Worried his country’s health system might at some point be over-taxed, Rodolfo Gomez, whose company ABC Displays usually produces marketing material, designed the cardboard bed-coffins.

“We saw what was happening in Ecuador, that people were taking dead family members out onto the streets...what’s happening also is that funeral services are collapsing with the pandemic,” said Gomez, 44. “So we started to develop a bed that could be converted into a coffin.”

The beds have metal railings, wheels with brakes and can be inclined up and down. They can support up to 150 kg. (330 lbs.). He said the biodegradable bed-coffins cost between $92 and $132.

Gomez hopes their low cost will mean local and provincial governments can outfit rural or under-funded hospitals cheaply. Converting them to coffins if a patient dies will also reduce possible contamination, he said.


Company manager Rodolfo Gómez said he was inspired to find a way to help after watching events unfold recently in nearby Ecuador.

Families in the coastal city of Guayaquil waited with dead loved ones in their homes for days last month as COVID-19 cases surged. Many could not find or were unable to afford a wood coffin, using donated cardboard ones instead.

“Poor families don’t have a way of paying for a coffin,” Gómez said.
...
At least one doctor was skeptical of how sturdy a cardboard bed might be. He also warned that any corpses should first be placed in a sealed bag before being put in a cardboard coffin to avoid potentially spreading the disease.

The plastic bag might be Ok for a funeral viewing, but after that ... cardboard burns quite well. Cremation is probably the best solution here.

The metal handles are probably the most expensive part of this creation. They work as bed rails, and also as coffin handles. Taking a really harsh and low-cost view, they could probably be cleaned and reused on the next bed-box.


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Posted by Drew458   United States  on 05/23/2020 at 12:56 PM   
Filed Under: • InternationalMedicalNeat Inventionspandemic and epidemic diseases •  
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calendar   Friday - January 17, 2014

ambulance crew too busy … having a break … can’t come now … man dies.

I was going through my usual shutdown routine, it’s late, I don’t even have the time to check my bmews inbox.
I caught this at the last minute, it is not the first time I have read or heard similar.

I don’t know if things could have been better in the old days. I’d think not but then read things like this.  Might not be so worrisome if this were a one time affair.  Well, yeah you’d have it in the back of your mind I guess. But when it happens more than 2wice or 3 times. In one case the crew when the wrong way and got themselves lost.  Does not inspire much confidence.

Take a look.


‘This is the 4th time I’ve rung for an ambulance for my husband… it’s too late now, he’s gone’:


Woman’s desperate 999 call after her husband became ill and died

Fred Pring died of heart failure waiting almost an hour for an ambulance
Retired gardener’s wife Joyce had begged the emergency service for help
By the time paramedics arrived the 74-year-old had died

By Liz Hull

A woman made four increasingly desperate 999 calls after her husband became ill with chest pains, eventually telling the operator: ‘It’s too late now, he’s gone.’

Fred Pring, 74, died of heart failure while waiting almost an hour for an ambulance after paramedics initially refused to attend because they were due a break, an inquest heard yesterday.

In a string of harrowing calls the retired gardener’s wife Joyce, 63, had begged the emergency service for help for her husband.

By the time paramedics arrived more than 50 minutes after the first call it was too late.

Delays in A&E meant paramedics had had to wait up to 99 minutes to hand over patients to hospital staff, and there were no ambulances available.

When a crew was found they refused to attend because they were due a break.

READ THE REST HERE


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Posted by peiper   United Kingdom  on 01/17/2014 at 06:36 PM   
Filed Under: • MedicalUK •  
Comments (3) Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

calendar   Friday - November 02, 2012

is a drug to cure baldness really on the way?

Yeah well, way too late for me.  That’s one of so many damn problems one encounters in my generation. These things will one day come to pass, but too late for us.  Hey, I confess it. I HATE being bald on top.  There were some guys that didn’t actually look all that bad minus hair. Telly Savalas is one and another late actor was Yul Brynner. I didn’t think they looked bad at all.  But I know I do and that’s the truth.  At least as I see it.
So anyway I happened to spot this and thought I’d share it. Maybe some of you lucky younger guys who’ve lost it will have something like this in your future. 

How eye drops could stop you going bald - thanks to an unusual side effect

Glaucoma eye drops found to stimulate eyelash growth
Early clinical trials suggest drug could help follicles to produce a third more scalp hair than usual

By Jenny Hope

A drug that helps to stop blindness could soon be used to combat baldness.

Lumigan eye-drops are an established treatment for glaucoma, a condition caused by excess fluid in the eye.

But it has a side-effect that has excited scientists – it can stimulate the growth of eyelashes.

Now research suggests the active ingredient in Lumigan, called bimatoprost, could have the same effect on the scalp.

Preliminary trials are underway to see whether bimatoprost can reverse hair loss in both men and women.

If successful, the drug could get a new lease of life as a baldness treatment. Lead scientist Professor Valerie Randall, from the University of Bradford, said: ‘Bimatoprost is known to stimulate eyelash growth and is already used clinically for this purpose.

‘We wanted to see whether it would have the same effect on scalp hair, as the two types of follicle are very different.

‘Our findings show that bimatoprost does stimulate growth in human scalp hair follicles and therefore could offer a new approach for treating hair loss disorders.’

Findings from the laboratory research appear in The FASEB Journal, published by the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology. The drug was tested on living scalp tissue obtained from volunteer donors undergoing cosmetic surgery.

Follicles treated with bimatoprost grew a third more hair than untreated samples in just nine days.

Scalp follicles were found to contain exactly the same molecular receptors responsive to bimatoprost as eyelash follicles.

‘This means that – so long as the drug can be applied in such a way that it can reach the follicle – it should stimulate hair growth in patients,’ said Professor Randall.

Results from the next phase of the clinical trials currently taking place in the United States and Germany should be available before the end of the year.

They involve 220 men with male pattern baldness and 172 women with female pattern baldness.

Participants are undergoing six months of treatment with either a solution of bimatoprost, applied to the scalp, or an inactive placebo (dummy treatment).

A comparison with the well-known baldness treatment minoxidil is also being assessed.

Professor Randall acts as a consultant to Allergan Inc which manufactures Lumigan.

The well-known effect of Lumigan on eyelashes also comes with its own side-effect, it causes darkening of eye colour and eyelid skin, which may not be reversible.

It is not known if this side-effect will occur on the scalp.

SOURCE


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Posted by peiper   United Kingdom  on 11/02/2012 at 09:24 PM   
Filed Under: • Amazing Science and DiscoveriesMedical •  
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calendar   Sunday - September 16, 2012

according to the headline, mentally ill can serve in govt. I thought they did that now.

OK, maybe I’m out of line and unfeeling. I’ll have to leave it to the readers here to tell me.  But this seems like a very bad idea to me.

Now I do understand that mentally ill can cover almost anything and some things won’t be like the sky is falling.  However, is it reasonable to accept as members of parliament who will make important decisions for their country.  Jury duty the same.

Oh well, I guess when voters get upset about things and gripe about the loony tunes in office, now they won’t be using just a figure of speech but the real thing.


Mentally ill to be allowed to become MPs, serve on juries and be company directors

MPs have voted to end ‘discrimination’ which stops those suffering from mental illness serving in public life as a rare private members bill is backed by the House of Commons

By Rosa Prince, Online Political Editor

Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister, and Ed Miliband, the Labour leader, were among those who gave their backing to the Bill, which was introduced to the Commons by the Conservative backbencher Gavin Barwell.

It repeals the practice of barring those who have suffered from severe mental health issues from serving on juries or as company directors. MPs who have been institutionalised for psychiatric reasons for more than six months will no longer be forced to stand down from Parliament.

In a rare show of unity in the House of Commons, the Mental Health (Discrimination) Bill was passed without a vote. Private Members Bills such as Mr Barwell’s usually fail to win support, and are talked out of time when they reach the Commons.

But after the Government and Opposition sung behind the new law, the bill was passed with politicians on all sides of the health praising the reform.
Mr Clegg said: “It’s ludicrous in this day and age that a person can’t contribute to public life if they’ve had issues with their mental health.

“Discrimination like this has no place in modern society and it is right that these rules are repealed. These long overdue reforms will send out a positive message that the stigmatisation of people who have mental health problems should not be tolerated.”

Mr Miliband added: “These changes will help bring public understanding and attitudes towards mental health into the 21st Century.
“They will send a message that discrimination against people with mental ill health has no place in modern Britain.
“If people with experience of mental ill health play a full part in public life, our country will be a better place for it.”

Charles Walker, a Conservative MP who has previously spoken movingly about his battle with mental illness, was among those who supported the new law. “I am delighted to say that I have been a practicing fruitcake for 31 years,” he told MPs.
“What we’re seeing is an absolute sea-change in the reporting of mental health problems. There’s still some distance to go but things are improving and they are improving quickly.”

The legislation repeals part of the 1983 Mental Health Act which forces MPs and members of the devolved assemblies to stand down if they have been sectioned for more than six moths.
It also relaxes the rules on jury selection and company directorships as they apply to mental illness.
Mr Barwell said: “It is high time we dragged the law of the land into the 21st century. My Bill’s purpose is very simple: to tackle the last legal form of discrimination in our society.

“To our shame the law of the land still discriminates against those with a mental health condition.
“An MP or a company director can be removed from their job because of mental ill health even if they go on to make a full recovery. Many people who are fully capable of performing jury service are ineligible to do so.
“The law as it stands sends out a clear message that if someone has a mental health condition, their contribution to public life is not welcome. That is an affront to a decent civilised society.”

telegraph

Oh yeah?  How about that other affront?  You know the one. The one where ppl get beaten up and the criminals are not even referred to as such, and get off free because they are judged not to be a threat and were let off due to their supposed religion.  How about torture/murder even of babies and the guilty serve a couple of years and are out free AND,
their identities are now private to protect, them.  Wanna talk about that one?
The list must be a mile long.
I think the question is, if someone had suffered “severe” mental illness, how safe is it to trust them ?  To what extent did the severity extend?

Now this really is a bit bigoted of me but, the fact that such left wingers as Milliband and Clegg support this make it a bad idea, even if the sponsor is a conservative. (in name? don’t know)

OK to be fair about this.
Perhaps if someone had a problem when they were 20, and today they’re 50, even if the problem at 20 was severe, would it be at all fair to judge
them 30 yrs later.
I guess there are always two sides and too often I get stuck on one.

But I do stick by my rant with regard to an affront to society based on so many of the get out of jail free decisions being made. And what greater affront then for the victim of a burglary to hear a judge extoll the bravery of the burglar, and then NOT send him to the pokey.


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Posted by peiper   United Kingdom  on 09/16/2012 at 04:39 PM   
Filed Under: • Medicalwork and the workplace •  
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calendar   Saturday - November 12, 2011

A Shot In The Arm For The Economy?

Nearly Half A Billion Spent On Smallpox Vaccine

Exactly ZERO cases of smallpox in USA

Pharma Company is Big Obama Donar of course!



It occurs to me that if a) there was no corporate tax, then b) then no companies could make political contributions, and c) there would be no charges of corrupt crony capitalism.
But there would still be graft. Payouts for friends, political appointments, sweetheart deals ... it never ends. But the level of cronyism under the current administration is just beyond comprehension. Hundreds of billions of dollars worth. It never ends. It never even slows down.


$433M Smallpox Drug Contract to Company Tied to Dem Donor

Scientists are questioning a $433 million government contract for a smallpox drug they say the country doesn’t need, amid concerns over the way the project was secured for a firm tied to a Democratic donor.

The Los Angeles Times reported over the weekend that U.S. officials took unusual steps to award the contract to Siga Technologies. Democratic donor Ronald Perelman has the controlling share of the company.

The article cited emails showing the Obama administration replaced the lead negotiator on the project following complaints from Siga—Siga was apparently concerned about the government’s objections to how much money Siga would make off the deal.

Earlier, in December, the government also reportedly blocked other companies from bidding on the contract in a second round.

Siga ultimately won the contract in May, but some questioned the price of the drug—approximately $255 per dose—and the practicality of the project.

The government already has a smallpox vaccine on reserve. Siga’s pill is meant to help people diagnosed too late for the vaccine to be effective, according to the Times.

Reporting from Washington — Over the last year, the Obama administration has aggressively pushed a $433-million plan to buy an experimental smallpox drug, despite uncertainty over whether it is needed or will work.

Senior officials have taken unusual steps to secure the contract for New York-based Siga Technologies Inc., whose controlling shareholder is billionaire Ronald O. Perelman, one of the world’s richest men and a longtime Democratic Party donor.

When Siga complained that contracting specialists at the Department of Health and Human Services were resisting the company’s financial demands, senior officials replaced the government’s lead negotiator for the deal, interviews and documents show.

When Siga was in danger of losing its grip on the contract a year ago, the officials blocked other firms from competing.

Siga was awarded the final contract in May through a “sole-source” procurement in which it was the only company asked to submit a proposal. The contract calls for Siga to deliver 1.7 million doses of the drug for the nation’s biodefense stockpile. The price of approximately $255 per dose is well above what the government’s specialists had earlier said was reasonable, according to internal documents and interviews.

Once feared for its grotesque pustules and 30% death rate, smallpox was eradicated worldwide as of 1978 and is known to exist only in the locked freezers of a Russian scientific institute and the U.S. government. There is no credible evidence that any other country or a terrorist group possesses smallpox.

Siga’s drug, an antiviral pill called ST-246, would be used to treat people who were diagnosed with smallpox too late for the vaccine to help. Yet the new drug cannot be tested for effectiveness in people because of ethical constraints — and no one knows whether animal testing could prove it would work in humans.

Hey, remember when the media had shit-fits 24-7 over some no-bid contracts awarded to Halliburton and Blackhawk for work in the Iraq war zone, even though no other companies existed that could perform the work in the time and scope necessary? Do you think they’ll wind up their alarm sirens and start screaming over this one, when at least a dozen other companies could have made this drug that may not even work and is probably not even needed? [crickets] [more crickets]

Remember when those same media “watchdogs” went turbo-monkey-poo over “no WMDS” in Iraq, and how Iraq was considered the most likely evil nation to even have a bio-terror capability?

So? So what will they say now? [even more crickets]


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Posted by Drew458   United States  on 11/12/2011 at 09:21 PM   
Filed Under: • GovernmentCorruption and GreedMedicalWar On Terror •  
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calendar   Tuesday - June 21, 2011

Huh?

I Blame Bush Scott








----- Original Message -----
From: Tim E
To: DREW458@BARKING-MOONBAT.COM
Sent: Tuesday, June 21, 2011 3:00 PM
Subject: Request for a removal of a link

Dear Drew,

I am the director for MesotheliomaSymptoms.com and recently I discovered an article on your site that has a lot of links to our site (http://www.barking-moonbat.com/index.php/weblog/gop_vs_epa/).  While I appreciate the mention, I would much rather our links be on sites that are directly related to our audience of people suffering from a terminal cancer. 

Because of this, I would like to ask you to either remove the Mesothelioma links from the article, or remove the article all together.  Please feel free to call me directly if you have any questions about this at xxx-xxx-xxxx or email me.

Best Regards,

Timothy E
Director

------ Reply -----
From: Drew458
To: Tim E
Subject: RE: Request for a removal of a link

Dear Tim,

Let me get this straight. Your website, which is all about distributing information about mesothelioma symptoms, finds it objectionable that you’ve been linked to as a source of mesothelioma symptom information, because someone who might not already have the disease might be interested in it, might wonder about it, and click the link to your website?

So you feel your website is some kind of exclusive insider’s country club? Yet you don’t run the site as a subscription service, nor do you pigeonhole your pages within a relatively closed network like WebMD. No, you are a public site, open to all and sundry. Oh, your subject matter is about a terminal illness. That’s sad, but that doesn’t make you any different than anyone else’s web site.

Your own About Us page states

The web resource MesotheliomaSymptoms.com is sponsored by Seeger Weiss LLP. The site has pulled together as a single resource everything related to asbestos in order to promote education and awareness for victims, their families, and the general public.(emphasis mine)

Well, my blog is about as general public seeking education as it gets.  Yet you find it bothersome that a single hyperlink helps the general public find your pages, while at the very same time your pages encourage readers to follow and befriend you on Facebook and Twitter, which is as open a form of linking as exists. It’s hard for me to follow that chain of logic.

Hang on, it actually turns out that you aren’t really a medical information organization at all, you’re a law firm. Good golly. Not much different than that one on the afternoon TV ad with the gravelly voiced announcer pushing mesothelioma patients to sue.

Let me ask you, since your home page mentions how “as many as 3,000 Americans a year are diagnosed with mesothelioma” and considering that there are likely thousands of websites (Google returns almost 20 million hits on “mesothelioma” - your site does not show up in the first 4 pages; however Google only returns 1.47 million hits on “mesothelioma symptoms” and your site does get the 1st and 2nd non-paid slots) ... how many hits have you received from my blog? How many are you receiving daily? Especially since this particular post is from more than two months ago, and at an average of 4 posts a day, is now utterly buried in the archives at this point.

The whole concept of the internet is the free and open dissemination of information across a massively multiconnected network; getting links from other places is what makes it tick. If you find this kind of open networking distasteful, why are you even online?

You can’t make the argument that our post was at all unsympathetic or derisive to the malady at all. If anything, it was making the point that mesothelioma was deserving of more funding.

So you have left me rather confused. Everyone else on the internet is only too happy to get linked to; there is no bad publicity. But you object to it, even when such a linking is sympathetic to your cause. That makes no sense to me ... unless your whole site really isn’t really about promoting education and awareness, but about promoting more business for your law office.

Oh, and it wasn’t “a lot of links”, it was one. And what makes you think that a vast number of my thousands of readers don’t already have this disease? I’ve never asked them about it.

Drew

image

I run one lousy guest post, and this is what I get. Sheex.  Yeah, I pulled his stupid assbiscuit link. Mostly. Well, you can’t say I didn’t edit that post to remove a direct hyperlink to his website.


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Posted by Drew458   United States  on 06/21/2011 at 11:30 PM   
Filed Under: • Blog StuffJudges-Courts-LawyersMedical •  
Comments (5) Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

calendar   Saturday - February 19, 2011

Death Panels? It’s a tough call

Soul Test



Please go read this sad bit of news. A child is dying in a slow and horrible way.

React.

Then go read this short blog post.

React. Then start reading the comments there. Duane’s got a very good discussion going on. It actually stays on topic for more than the first 10 comments, and avoids the mud slinging for a really extended time period. Read the first dozen comments or so. Pick your side. Think about what you’d like to add.

Then stop, and go read another news article on the same situation.

Has this new information changed your reaction? It turned mine around completely. But maybe I’m strange.

Now discuss, here, or back at Duane’s. Because you WILL have something to say. That’s my prediction, not an order. But how can you not? And don’t forget to mention if you have or have had children of your own. I think that may play a role here, but then again, it might not.


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Posted by Drew458   United States  on 02/19/2011 at 11:43 PM   
Filed Under: • Media-BiasMedicalNanny State •  
Comments (9) Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

calendar   Monday - January 03, 2011

pssst. hey there. need money from the state? threaten suicide and win the lotto

How’s this for a lark boys and girls?
Want money from the state?
Threaten suicide.
BINGO! 
You Win.

Well, not exactly a lark when you read the story.
I understand that there truly are people born with the wrong parts.
But does it have to take three marriages to three (I assume) unsuspecting women to come to terms with that?
You have to wonder about this fruit loop. Expression used in this instance to describe it’s thinking if genuine.

While I’m at it, what’s with the phrase, “gender realignment” all about? Why can’t they say what it is? A sex change operation.  Realignment I believe implies something a bit different. Doesn’t it?

She (he?) I guess now a she, accuses the NHS of leaving him half man and half woman because at age 40, the estrogen injections didn’t grow breasts. Every man’s dream. 
So what does that say about very unfortunate women who have had breasts removed due to cancer? Are they half women?  Judging by his train of thought, they may be.  Of course this character, who still looks like a male (and not a pretty one) in drag, believes she has a right of some kind to public money to make him/her as womanly as his deluded imagination will allow.

She’s a worker in a charity shop. Uh huh.  Probably not even full time and just hasn’t the money. But the taxpayer does. 

HALT! STOP! Give me your money or I’ll kill myself.

I guess that’s one way to collect your dream.


Transsexual’s fight for implants lands the taxpayer with a bill for £18,000

By Andrew Levy

image

A transsexual has won the right to have £8,000 breast implants – following a battle funded by £10,000 of legal aid.
Miranda Lee, 40, had gender realignment surgery costing £60,000 in 2009, paid for with NHS money.

The process was due to be completed with the breast augmentation, but she was then told the money would not be made available.
Miss Lee, who complained that she had been left ‘half man, half woman’, attempted suicide and has been on anti-depressants.

She decided to fight the decision and was granted legal aid in June.
Her case was heard by an NHS review panel last month, and it has now ruled in her favour.
The charity shop worker, from Southend, Essex, said she was delighted at the U-turn but wanted compensation for the stress of her ‘inhumane and insensitive’ treatment.
‘The way my case was handled was appalling,’ she said. ‘These people haven’t a care in the world about people. It’s all about money to them.’
Miss Lee, born Raymond Harwood, first felt she was the wrong sex when she was 16 but went on to marry three times and have two children.

Her last marriage ended in 2000 and in 2005 she went to her GP about gender realignment.

She began living as a woman in 2007 and had a series of operations at Charing Cross Hospital in London from July 2009, including having her male genitalia removed and her voice altered.

She was already receiving hormone therapy in the form of estrogen to help her develop breasts but this was not working, meaning she needed implants.

The East of England Specialised Commissioning Group, which had paid for the sex change out of a £700million annual fund raised from contributions from the 13 primary care trusts in the region, refused to approve the procedure.
Although it pays for a range of care, it said breast augmentation as part of a sex change was not part of its remit.

THERE’S MORE HERE

Just a couple of reader quotes from the Mail.

This is absolutely nuts! I’ve seen my local PCT struggle to cope with resources for people with genuine physical health problems yet a guy who cannot grow breasts is demanding surgery. There are thousands of natural girls out there who also can’t grow breasts! It’s not something that defines someone as female. I’ve got male friends with boobs! People like this make me angry that people will die through their selfish need to suck resources!

type 1 diabetic , uk, 03/1/2011 12:42

I find this unfair on women who like my self didn’t form a chest or have lost them due to illness or weightloss. I tryied in 2009 to have breast inplants on the NHS as I’m 23 and lost 6 and half stone which lead to me losing my chest, I got turned away from them though I suffer depression and “was” constantly wanting my chest back. Now I’ve decided to save up and buy my self a pair in the future, But I still find it wrong that the real women who have the right for a chest get turned away.

- I’m Here, Wales, 03/1/2011 11:22


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Posted by peiper   United Kingdom  on 01/03/2011 at 05:47 PM   
Filed Under: • MedicalUK •  
Comments (2) Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

calendar   Saturday - August 28, 2010

Frogs To The Rescue?

Frog skin antibiotics may help fight superbugs



Powerful new antibiotics developed from the skin of frogs could take the fight against superbugs to a higher level. Frog skin is known to have plenty of potent germ-fighting compounds because of the hostile surroundings they inhabit. But these substances are often poisonous to humans. Now a team at the United Arab Emirates University have thought up a way of altering the chemicals to remove their toxicity.

They have already identified 100 new antibiotics including one that could fight the hospital superbug methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacteria.

Frog skin is an excellent potential source of such antibiotic agents,” said Dr Michael Conlon, a biochemist at the university in Abu Dhabi.

“They’ve been around 300 million years, so they’ve had plenty of time to learn how to defend themselves against disease-causing microbes in the environment.

“Their own environment includes polluted waterways where strong defences against pathogens are a must.”

Scientists are testing skin secretions from more than 6,000 species of frogs for antibiotic activity. They say they have purified and determined the chemical structure of about 200, leaving a potential treasure trove of antibiotic substances awaiting discovery.

Fillet of a fenny snake,
In the cauldron boil and bake;
Eye of newt and toe of frog,
Wool of bat and tongue of dog,
Adder’s fork and blind-worm’s sting,
Lizard’s leg and owlet’s wing,
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.

Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.


Maybe those three old witches were onto something after all!





image

Is this where I get to say “I toad you so”?




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Posted by Drew458   United States  on 08/28/2010 at 04:19 PM   
Filed Under: • Medical •  
Comments (2) Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

calendar   Sunday - January 31, 2010

another sign of big brother as big govt. goes after soft and easy target. cigarettes, again.

I quit long ago but really, this is just another example of nanny state thinking and by ppl I bet who might have never been smokers themselves.

The health Nazis of course would love to ban fags altogether.  But then what?  Where next will they steal money and on what product that they will overtax in the name of protecting ppl.

I have no doubt, even with no medical background whatever except as a patient, that smoking is bad for folks.  I’m all in favor of doing the best we can to try and reach kids young and educate them.  And it does work, I’ve seen it.  But taking the logos off fag packets isn’t going to discourage any kid from lighting up that first deadly bomb. You know how it works. Remember?  Some kid offers you a fag, you accept and get sick.  Now then, some kids will never try it again. But some will, and it starts there.  Or at least that is one place it starts.

Another place is in the home, right?  If one or more parents smoke then the act becomes something quite natural to the kid(s) and at some point he or she will swipe one of mom’s.  I think it’s near impossible for a smoking parent to tell Jr. not to start smoking coz they’re bad for him.
So I guess at some point if they can get away with it, even tho they say they will not go this far, will be a total ban on fags in homes where there are children. 

Cigarettes could be sold in plain unbranded packets in latest bid to sweep away smoking from Britain

By Daily Mail Reporter

Cigarettes are set to be sold in plain packaging without logos in a bid to further strip smoking of its ‘glamourous’ image.

The Government will unveil the latest stage of its effort to half the number of smokers in Britain by 2020, which could result in a ban on people smoking in private places where children are present.

Andy Burnham, the Health Secretary, will signal his support for the moves as he launches the government’s ‘tobacco control strategy’ tomorrow.

Ministers are also considering a ban of the sale of smoking products in vending machines which can help children to bypass strict laws banning their sale to under 18s.

While no final decision on a plain packaging rule have been taken, Mr Burnham, speaking to the Sunday Telegraph, said: ‘It’s something I will be looking at closely.’

However, the Government is not expected to go as far banning all smoking in homes and cars WHERE CHILDREN ARE NOT PRESENT.

The move could deter youngsters from copying celebrity smokers such Amy Winehouse and James Morrision.

I haven’t a clue who that Morrison is, but I have seen that goofball Amy Winehouse. Now then if kids are fans of hers then the authorities have more to worry about then her being a copyable pop icon. That very last line alone shows how stupid the govt. is on the issue.
Read that last line again.  Spot the obvious dumb error? 
These ppl aren’t thinking straight.  But they have the power to make others follow their dictates.  Now that makes me see red.

The rest of the article is at the link.

LINK FOR MORE


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Posted by peiper   United Kingdom  on 01/31/2010 at 08:00 PM   
Filed Under: • Daily LifeHealth and SafetyMedicalNanny StateUK •  
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calendar   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 2009

A 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 FOR MORE ON THIS STORY

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.

image


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Posted by peiper   United Kingdom  on 12/23/2009 at 04:11 PM   
Filed Under: • Health-MedicineMedicalPersonalUK •  
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calendar   Thursday - August 13, 2009

I’d call it Malice

Kevin and Polykahr point out the not-quite obvious on Obama’s health care plan:

Heinlein’s (or, if you insist, Hanlon’s) Razor:

Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity, but don’t rule out malice.

Then there’s Grey’s Law:

Any sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice.

And Rick Cook’s admonition:

The key to understanding the American system (of government) is to imagine that you have the power to make nearly any law you want. But your worst enemy will be the one to enforce it.

Read the one here

Then read the other one here



... yeah, what they said. 


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Posted by Drew458   United States  on 08/13/2009 at 01:16 AM   
Filed Under: • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat LeftistsMedical •  
Comments (3) Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

calendar   Wednesday - July 15, 2009

In keeping with the Health Care theme: Elderly face £20,000 bill for social care. That’s about

OK Lyndon, explain this for me too. I think I’m reading it correctly but sometimes you know, things do get lost in translation.

Both Drew and Vilmar have had really awful things to say about national health. And for that matter so has everyone posting comments here at BMEWS.
But hey ... IT’S ALL FREE. Right?  What’s to complain about?  free-free-free.  And all of it with the compliments of the taxpayer. Well, those who do.
Ah ... hang on.  I think I just caught the fly in the ointment.

What a mess .......  Meanwhile, here in the UK ....

Elderly people in England could be required to pay up to £20,000 to guarantee basic social care and support if they need it at the end of their lives, under Government proposals released today.


The compulsory insurance scheme
is one of three options for funding a new National Care Service, designed to end the current “cruel lottery” under which some elderly people have to sell their homes and use up most of their savings to pay for care, while others pay nothing.

Launching a consultation on the future of social care with a statement in the House of Commons today, Health Secretary Andy Burnham said he wanted to create a system which was “fair, simple and affordable” to all.

He has already ruled out full state funding from general taxation, on the grounds it would place too great a burden on people of working age, and retaining the “pay for yourself” system, which is unfair to those who need years of care for conditions like Alzheimer’s.

And he today called on the public to give their views on three possible solutions:

A “partnership” approach, under which the state would pay around a quarter to a third of the cost of basic social care and support, leaving individuals to find the remainder;

A voluntary insurance scheme, under which the state would pay the same proportion, but would also make it easier for individuals to take out insurance - at an estimated cost of around £20,000 to £25,000 at today’s prices - to cover the rest;

Compulsory insurance for all, costing around £17,000 to £20,000 at today’s prices and providing free care for all who need it.

The National Care Service would offer assistance with needs like dressing, washing and moving around at home, but individuals who need to go into residential care would continue to pay the cost of accommodation and food themselves, whether they had taken out insurance or not.

However, new national arrangements would allow for bed and board costs to be deferred and paid as a lump sum after the individual’s death.

The Department of Health is also consulting on whether insurance costs should be deferred until after death, paid in instalments or handed over in a single lump sum when an individual reaches retirement age.

Under all three options, those with little or no savings or assets would continue to receive free care.

THERE’S MORE HERE

When the late MIL became too ill to care for herself, the wife and I moved here to help and at first were sort of like baby sitters. She (mil) for part of the first year (2004) was still able to make it to the kitchen to get her own tea and toast and cereal, which was her staple every morning.  She dressed herself and was able to use the loo on her own.  Then later on she had a fall, and it was all downhill from there.  That’s when we became real Care Givers as it’s called here.
At some point in the second year she finally became bedridden full time, and there wasn’t a way in the world the wife could cope alone and especially changing diapers. 
So ... the wife had to spend down a good part of her mother’s savings before she became eligible for (FREE) care in home. Prior to that, the old lady (unknown to her) was paying for care workers to come in and bathe her once a day but at first that was all that was needed. At first, it was just one care person with the wife helping out. Or maybe the other way round.  But later on after another fall and then a near fall when she misjudged distance and missed sitting properly on her portable potty in her room, she decided she was too frightened to ever again attempt to get out of bed. Period!  And the old bag didn’t, right to the end.
So it became necessary to have two care givers come in and eventually they had to come here twice a day.  Once in the morning and once in late afternoon
for diaper changes.  Somehow my wife worked out doing the other changes.  Usually at bedtime but sometimes it was necessary to do an extra one as well.

As time went on she got worse which is what necessitated two people to move her around changing the diapers and bathing her. 

The tole on the wife’s own health wasn’t fun to watch and what it did to her back was pretty bad too.  I recall once telling Drew and Wardmom that I thought the wife was committing suicide by mother, and I never altered that view.

But a care home was out of the question, even if the wife wanted it.  There just was not the money for it.  Having shared all this I should mention also that her mother had paid into the system for most of her working life.  I say most because national health didn’t arrive here till after WW2.

When the old dear (but not to me) needed a hearing aid, national health paid for it. The thing I thought was rather over the top was that national health also paid for the batteries in the thing.  ??  National health even paid for her aspirin. 

I’ll have to be honest with you.  While I haven’t been a fan of socialized medicine, and still not as it’s run, it was a big help to her mother and by extension to us as well, as we were already spending some of our own savings to prop things up here. 

OK, that’s it except for this little tag.
If we ever make it back to the states we are looking at a potential health ins. problem.  At my age, and the wife is in her 60’s with a birthday in five days thus adding another year, we don’t think we’ll be able to get ins. worthy of the name back home.  And can ya blame the Ins.companies for that?  I don’t.
So we are on our own.  Scary when ya get to a certain age.  That age being mine and the wife.  And I think you guys know the cost of being ill even with ins.


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Posted by peiper   United Kingdom  on 07/15/2009 at 10:40 AM   
Filed Under: • Medical •  
Comments (8) Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

calendar   Sunday - April 26, 2009

Open Borders Nightmare

Shut The Gates!! OOPS, too late




Swine flu fears prompt quarantine plans, pork bans



GENEVA – Canada became the third country to confirm human cases of swine flu Sunday as global health officials considered whether to raise the global pandemic alert level.

Nations from New Zealand to Spain also reported suspected cases and some warned citizens against travel to North America while others planned quarantines, tightened rules on pork imports and tested airline passengers for fevers.

Nova Scotia’s chief public health officer, Dr. Robert Strang, said the east coast Canadian province had confirmed four “very mild” cases of swine flu in students ranging in age from 12 to 17 or 18. All are recovering, he said.

“It was acquired in Mexico, brought home and spread,” Strang said.

The western province of British Columbia confirmed two further cases.

The news follows the World Health Organization’s decision Saturday to declare the outbreak first detected in Mexico and the United States a “public health emergency of international concern.”

A senior World Health Organization official said the agency’s emergency committee will meet for a second time Tuesday to examine the extent to which the virus has spread before deciding whether to increase the pandemic alert beyond phase 3.

The same strain of the A/H1N1 swine flu virus has been detected in several locations in Mexico and the United States, and it appears to be spreading directly from human to human, said Keiji Fukuda, WHO’s assistant director-general in charge of health security.

Mexico’s health minister says the disease has killed up to 86 people and likely sickened up to 1,400 since April 13. U.S. officials say the virus has been found in New York, California, Texas, Kansas and Ohio, but so far no fatalities have been reported.

Symptoms of the flu-like illness include a fever of more than 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37.8 degrees Celsius), body aches, coughing, a sore throat, respiratory congestion and, in some cases, vomiting and diarrhea.

The virus is usually contracted through direct contact with pigs, but Joseph Domenech, chief of animal health service at U.N. Food and Agriculture Agency in Rome, said all indications were that the virus is being spread through human-to-human transmission.

No vaccine specifically protects against swine flu, and it is unclear how much protection current human flu vaccines might offer.



Friggin wonderful. Guess I won’t be buying any imported chimichangas for a while. Batten down the hatches. This is going to spread to every corner of the US in a matter of days.

UPDATE: WE ARE IN THE SHITTER NOW: :

Sun Apr 26, 4:58 pm ET

WASHINGTON – The U.S. declared a public health emergency Sunday to deal with the emerging new swine flu, much like the government does to prepare for approaching hurricanes.

Officials reported 20 U.S. cases of swine flu in five states so far, with the latest in Ohio and New York.


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Posted by Drew458   United States  on 04/26/2009 at 08:52 PM   
Filed Under: • Medical •  
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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:
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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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