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TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2009
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NEWS ABOUT: patients

patients stories: 16 news summaries
OPINION

 Reform? 
 We Need a Revolution 


Aug 12, 09 5:02 PM CDT
(Newser) - Diane McWhorter’s experience with a doctor caring for her elderly mother has her hoping for more than health care reform. “Socialized medicine, hell,” she writes on DoubleX. “How about a cultural revolution?” Her mom’s doctor, due for a vacation, dumped her on a “hospitalist”... More »

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physician • patients • illness • doctor • hospital • health care reform • medical care • Obama administration

 New Superbug Stalks Hospitals 

Thousands killed by drug-resistant pathogen

Nov 18, 08 7:53 AM CST
(Newser) - A deadly new superbug is stalking the world's hospitals, health experts warned today. The pathogen Acinetobacter baumannii is a burgeoning threat and proving extremely difficult to control, with a third of outbreaks resistant to front-line antibiotics, according to a study in the Lancet. Of 24,000 US cases in a... More »

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health • hospitals • patients • superbug • antibiotics • infectious diseases • Acinetobacter

OPINION

 Night Docs Need Electronic 
  Info System to Save Lives

Inadequate handoff details can cost lives

Aug 1, 08 2:10 AM CDT
(Newser) - The night-float hospital system, in which one resident works the night shift so that others can sleep, was created so that patients could receive care from rested, focused doctors. But there are rarely mechanisms in place to ensure the night workers have all the patient information they need when they... More »

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health care • patients • doctor • hospital • health workers

Son of Bermuda Leader Facing Sex, Fraud Rap

19 counts against LA doctor include raping, molesting patients

Jul 23, 08 11:00 AM CDT
(Newser) - The son of Bermuda’s premier, a 37-year-old Los Angeles doctor, is facing 19 felony charges, the AP reports, including raping and molesting patients. Kevin Antario Brown, son of Premier Ewart Brown, is also under investigation for “multiple health care fraud schemes,” the LA Times reports. Bail was... More »

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Los Angeles • rape • sexual abuse • patients • Bermuda • Kevin Antario Brown • Ewart Brown

Web Health Records Raise Privacy Fears

Top docs say Internet health ventures could bring 'seismic change'

Apr 17, 08 11:07 AM CDT
(Newser) - Medical researchers worry that Internet giants’ ventures into personal health records could turn the system on its head, threatening individual privacy, the New York Times reports. Two experts warn that companies like Microsoft and Google, whose new services put patient information on the web, aren’t subject to standard healthcare... More »

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health care • Microsoft • patients • health research • Google Health • health records

Meat Cleaver Murder Hunt Hits Roadblocks

Cops can't check patient files; top suspect has alibi

Feb 15, 08 12:03 PM CST
(Newser) - Yesterday police thought they had found the man who viciously stabbed a Manhattan psychologist to death. But after 9 hours of questioning, the prime suspect in the murder of Kathryn Faughey was released after his alibi checked out. Frustrated investigators turned to Faughey’s patient records, only to learn that... More »

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New York City • crime • murder • privacy • patients • psychology

US, UK Zero in on Illegal Prescription Drug Abuse

'These drugs are coming from inside our homes,' expert warns

Feb 10, 08 1:09 PM CST
(Newser) - American and British officials have launched campaigns to curb the illegal use of prescription drugs. The target of the British effort is doctors who "mis-prescribe" high doses of painkillers and sleeping pills that officials say are proving dangerously addictive, the Guardian reports. Across the Atlantic, Washington is spearheading... More »

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drug addiction • United Kingdom • patients • prescription drugs • doctor • painkiller • Heath Ledger • sleeping pills • benzodiazepine tranquillizers • over-the-counter drugs

Antidepressant Studies Distort Drugs' Usefulness

New study says negative reports often go unpublished

Jan 16, 08 9:37 PM CST
(Newser) - Roughly half of the medical studies involving antidepressants that found little or no effect on patients have gone unpublished or had their findings mischaracterized as positive, a new study reveals. The emphasis on publishing only studies with glowing reviews gives patients and doctors a false sense of the effectiveness of... More »

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FDA • antidepressant • pharmaceutical companies • Pfizer • New England Journal of Medicine • patients • doctor • Zoloft • Wyeth • Effexor

Hospital Fined for Year's Third Botched Brain Surgery

Rhode Island state officials order new safety procedures

Nov 27, 07 5:57 AM CST
(Newser) - State health officials fined Rhode Island Hospital yesterday and ordered it to change procedures after a surgeon began operating on the wrong side of a woman's head, the Providence Journal reports. A patient died after a similar incident four months ago. Yesterday's incident is the third botched neurosurgical procedure this... More »

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surgery • medical malpractice • patients • brain • doctor • Rhode Island • brain surgery

Nursing Home Owners Acquitted in Katrina Deaths

Jury finds couple innocent of negligent homicide after 35 patients drowned

Sep 8, 07 8:49 AM CDT
(Newser) - The owners of a Louisiana nursing home were acquitted of negligent homicide and cruelty yesterday in the deaths of 35 patients who drowned in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. The charges were based on the couple's failure to evacuate the home as the storm approached; the defense argued that the... More »

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Hurricane Katrina • Louisiana • homicide • patients • nursing homes • Mangano

Electric Stimulation Revives Man
in Near-Coma

Case brings hope,
raises questions

Aug 1, 07 8:35 PM CDT
(Newser) - Electric stimulation may help improve the brain function of patients in a minimally conscious state, a case study reported in Nature reveals. A 38-year-old man who was mute and barely conscious for nearly 6 years is able to name objects, perform precise movements, and eat without the aid of a... More »

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medical breakthrough • health • patients • brain • medical research • brain damage • neuroscience • Terry Schiavo

Skipping Meds Can Be Deadly

Half of patients undermine health
by skipping doses,
quitting medication

Jul 31, 07 5:31 AM CDT
(Newser) - Half of all patients with chronic illnesses don't take their medication as prescribed, says a new report, undermining their health and hastening their death. Patients with illnesses like heart disease and asthma often skip doses, misunderstand prescriptions or drop medication as soon as they feel better. The result is  more... More »

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medicine • health • elderly • heart disease • patients • blood pressure • prescription drugs • chronic illness • prescription

Hospitals Make Progress Against Infections

Cheap measures help caregivers prevent thousands of deaths

Jul 27, 07 12:00 PM CDT
(Newser) - Infections picked up in hospitals kill nearly 100,000 people in the US every year and are on the rise, but some institutions seem to have found a remedy: simple hygiene. The Times visits the VA hospital in Pittsburgh, which has slashed the rate of virulent bacterial infections by using... More »

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health • hospitals • hygiene • patients • infection • sanitation

Docs Accused Of Hurrying Death To Harvest Organs

"They were waiting like vultures,"
the patient's sister said

Apr 12, 07 11:24 AM CDT
(Newser) - A 47-year-old man was wrongly declared brain dead by two doctors apparently eager to harvest his organs, reports the LA Times. "They were waiting like vultures, so they could scoop them up," says the patient’s daughter, Melanie Sanchez. A third doctor determined that her father, who had... More »

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health • organ harvesting • hospitals • science • patients • organ donor • transplant • organs • doctor

Doctors Are Sorry, Not Sued

New laws allow doctors to apologize

Apr 12, 07 9:33 AM CDT
(Newser) - Lawmakers in nine states want doctors to be able to say they're sorry. So-called  "I'm-sorry" laws, already on the books in 27 states, allow doctors to apologize to patients when they make mistakes, or as expressions of sympathy, without fear of litigation. More »

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health care • health • law • medical malpractice • medical errors • patients • doctor • litigation

Docs Too Quick to Cry
Depression

Study finds almost any negative emotion seems to prompt medication

Apr 3, 07 6:58 AM CDT
(Newser) - Shrinks are too quick to term patients clinically depressed, says a new study reported in the Washington Post. Researchers argue that a quarter of "acute grief reactions," the standard symptom of depression, may in fact constitute normal responses to stress; they blame the bloated psychopharmaceutical industry, in part,... More »

MORE ABOUT:
medicine • health • depression • psychiatry • disease • patients • stress • mental illness • grief

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