• In tough economy, many people are cutting back on health care

In tough economy, many people are cutting back on health care
GRAND RAPIDS — Every month, Deb Vickers faces a tough decision: Which of the drugs her doctors prescribe to keep her muscular dystrophy under control should she do without?
She’s supposed to take 23 prescription drugs and nutritional supplements each day, one five times a day, plus use three inhalers and a breathing machine. All that costs about $1,200 a month more than her insurance Read the rest of this entry »

Chinese dairy knew milk fault weeks before recall

BEIJING (AP) — A Chinese dairy that sold milk powder linked to kidney stones in infants and one death knew weeks before it ordered a recall that the product contained a banned chemical, the Health Ministry said Saturday.
The official Xinhua News Agency reported Saturday that the dairy, Sanlu Group Col, was ordered to stop production as the number of sick babies rose to 432.
A Health Ministry statement gave no indication why Sanlu Group Read the rest of this entry »

Man who raped schoolgirl after fleeing hospital sent to Broadmoor

A mentally ill man who raped a schoolgirl after escaping from a low-security psychiatric hospital had previously been allowed to amass a collection of pornographic and horror DVDs, a court heard yesterday.
Darren Harkin, 21, who attacked the 14-year-old girl the morning after absconding, was also taken by staff to the cinema to see horror films and had been allowed unsupervised leave.
Judge Nicholas Cooke QC said Harkin, who was initially detained Read the rest of this entry »

Robert J. Oakes Joins Health Benefits Direct's Board of Directors

Health Benefits Direct Corporation is a technologically innovative contact center based insurance agency that operates an interactive online marketplace enabling consumers to shop for, compare, and apply for individual health insurance, family health insurance, life insurance and other related products for the individual and family insurance market. Its streamlined Quick-to-Call sales platform, supported by proprietary online technology, dialing applications Read the rest of this entry »

Support there for a family’s worst nightmare

The death of a baby is an experience that is sadly shared by many in the community.
Tragically, more than 50,000 babies are lost in Australia each year from miscarriage and stillbirth, and more than 17,000 babies are born prematurely, many of them often struggling for life.
National Babies Day, to be held on Friday, encourages community members to remember those babies who have passed away too soon, and to celebrate the lives of healthy babies Read the rest of this entry »

Seve remains serious but stable in hospital

By h.b. – Oct 26, 2008 – 7:53 AM
Oct 24, 2008 – 4:56 AM
The popular golfer underwent a third brain operation on Friday.
Seve Ballesteros remains in a serious but stable condition in the La Paz Hospital in Madrid after being operated on for a third time on Friday.
The latest procedure to release pressure in the head and to remove more traces of a tumour deep in his brain, was said to be successful and without complications, and ran from 1030 Read the rest of this entry »

8 Sep, 2008, 0000 hrs IST,Rajrishi Singhal, ET Bureau

In 2005, the Food and Drug
Administration of the USA was faced with a peculiar situation. A patient got
confused between a diabetic drug called Amaryl and a medicine meant for those
with Alzheimer’s, called Reminyl. This confusion resulted in his premature
death and compelled FDA to rename the Alzheimer’s medication to Razadyne.
Pharmaland is full of such stories where nomenclatural confusion has resulted in
unforeseen fatalities. According Read the rest of this entry »

When sea otter numbers fell, eagles switched diet

Crashing sea otter populations in the Aleutian Islands in the 1990s forced bald eagles to adapt by changing their diets, but the predators changed so successfully they ended up producing more eggs and more young.
That’s a conclusion of a team of researchers with the U.S. Geological Survey whose new study in the magazine Ecology describes how the top-end predators are linked with kelp, fish, seabirds and urchins in the Aleutians.
“It’s like an Read the rest of this entry »