Category Archives: Medical

Debt Collector Is Faulted for Tough Tactics in Hospitals

By doris | Published: April 28, 2012

Full Story at NYTimes.com Hospital patients waiting in an emergency room or convalescing after surgery are being confronted by an unexpected visitor: a debt collector at bedside. This and other aggressive tactics by one of the nation’s largest collectors of medical debts, Accretive Health, were revealed on Tuesday by the Minnesota attorney general, raising concerns [...]

Also posted in Bill, Business, Financial, Health, Hospital, Investigating, Lawsuit, Payment, Tactics | Leave a comment

Jailed for $280: The return of debtors’ prisons

By doris | Published: April 23, 2012

Full Story at CBSNews.com (MoneyWatch) How did breast cancer survivor Lisa Lindsay end up behind bars? She didn’t pay a medical bill — one the Herrin, Ill., teaching assistant was told she didn’t owe. “She got a $280 medical bill in error and was told she didn’t have to pay it,” The Associated Press reports. [...]

Also posted in Arrested, Bill, Cancer, Health, Law, United States | Leave a comment

3-year-old girl recovering after swallowing 37 high-powered magnets

By doris | Published: March 5, 2012

Full Story at news.Yahoo.news.com A 3-year-old with curious eating habits is recovering after swallowing 37 high-powered magnets. KPTV reports that after she ate them, the magnets formed a dangerous ring inside Payton Bushnell’s digestive track, snapping her intestines together and ripping holes in both her small intestine and stomach. “They saw a circle had formed [...]

Also posted in Children, Health, Hospital | Leave a comment

Alaska teen nearly recovered from spinal injury

By doris | Published: January 9, 2012

Full Story at msnbc.com KODIAK, Alaska — As the holiday season comes to a close, Aaron Cooper has many things to be thankful for, most importantly his life. Four years ago in Fairbanks, Alaska, Cooper, a 2007 Kodiak High School graduate, was involved in a life-threatening snowmachine accident. The veteran rider was practicing freestyle tricks [...]

Also posted in Children, Crash, Injury | Leave a comment

Calif. death, 76 illnesses linked to ground turkey

By doris | Published: August 2, 2011

Full Story at news.Yahoo.com WASHINGTON (AP) — The government is scrambling to find the source of a salmonella outbreak likely linked to ground turkey that has killed one and sickened dozens more. Finding the source of an outbreak hasn’t been easy; the government has been chasing the illnesses for months. The Agriculture Department, which oversees [...]

Also posted in Business, Contamination, Death, Goverment, Salmonella, Victims | Leave a comment

Baby boomers worry about finances, health costs

By doris | Published: July 29, 2011

Full Story atnews.Yahoo.com WASHINGTON (AP) — The “golden years” may lose some luster for many baby boomers worried about the financial pressures that come with age. Many of the nation’s 77 million boomers are worried about being able to pay their medical bills as they get older, a new poll finds. The concern is so [...]

Also posted in Financial, Hearing, Insurance | Leave a comment

First ladies go to Betty Ford funeral; service starts

By doris | Published: July 12, 2011

Full Story at msnbc.com PALM DESERT, Calif. — First ladies, past and present, and others who called the White House home remembered Betty Ford on Tuesday, not just for her decades-long work against substance abuse but for contributing to a political era when friendship among lawmakers helped them govern. Former first lady Rosalynn Carter called [...]

Also posted in Home, White House | Leave a comment

Lawsuit ties tainted wipes to twin’s brain damage

By doris | Published: July 11, 2011

Full Story at msnbc.com For nearly four years, a bacterial infection that left a Seattle-area newborn with severe brain damage while his twin brother developed normally has remained a medical mystery, traumatizing his family and stumping local and national disease experts. Myles Massey, now 3, can’t speak or walk, must be fed through a stomach [...]

Also posted in Children, Disease, Doctor, Family, Health, Infection | Leave a comment

Man robs bank to get medical care in jail

By doris | Published: June 21, 2011

Full Story at news.Yahoo.com Some people who need medical care but can’t afford it go to the emergency room. Others just hope they’ll get better. James Richard Verone robbed a bank. Earlier this month, Verone (pictured), a 59-year-old convenience store clerk, walked into a Gaston, N.C., bank and handed the cashier a note demanding $1 [...]

Also posted in Bank, Business, Jail, Theft | Leave a comment

Johnson & Johnson settles U.S. bribery charges

By doris | Published: April 9, 2011

Full Story at money.cnn.com NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — The Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday charged Johnson & Johnson with bribing doctors in several countries to prescribe its drugs and medical devices. The company has agreed to pay $70 million to settle the charges, without admitting or denying the allegations.

Also posted in 9/11, drugs, Health | Leave a comment

Jailed Mississippi sisters freed for kidney donation

By doris | Published: January 7, 2011

Full Story at CNN.com (CNN) — After 16 years behind bars in Mississippi, two sisters were released Friday on the condition that one donate a kidney to the other. Gov. Haley Barbour suspended the sentences of Gladys Scott, 36, and Jamie Scott, 38, who were serving life sentences for armed robbery. Gladys agreed to donate [...]

Also posted in Arrested, Criminal, Health, Home, Judge, Leaving | Leave a comment

Chile list says which miners should go first, last

By doris | Published: October 8, 2010

Full Story at msnbc.msn.com SAN JOSE MINE, Chile — Before 33 trapped Chilean miners can begin their passage to the outside world, still more people will join them down below to make their journey as smooth as it can be. These men — an elite group of three paramedics with the Chilean navy’s special forces [...]

Also posted in Accident, Company, Jobs, Miners, Rescue, Victims, Volunteers | Leave a comment

Croatian girl wakes up from a coma speaking fluent German

By doris | Published: April 25, 2010

Full Story at nydailynews.com Although a Croatian teen had only just started studying German at school, the 13-year-old has been able to communicate fluently in German since waking up from a 24-hour coma, The Telegraph reports.

Also posted in Children, Health, Home, School | Leave a comment

Suit says dentist left drill bit in woman’s head

By doris | Published: January 29, 2010

Full Story at msnbc.com TAMPA, Fla. – A lawsuit claims a dentist’s drill bit was left in a Tampa woman’s head for nearly a year. The lawsuit says Donna Delgao’s surgeon left an inch-long piece of steel in a wound after dental surgery in 2008. The tool lodged in her right maxillary sinus. It was [...]

Also posted in Law, Victims | Leave a comment

Sleepless night preceded Jackson’s death

By doris | Published: August 26, 2009

Full Story at CNN.com Maybe it was anxiety over his upcoming comeback concert series in London, England. Perhaps his body was trying to process too many different medications. The reason may never be known, but a sworn affidavit makes clear that the King of Pop couldn’t get rest the night before he died on June [...]

Also posted in Entertainment, Jackson, Past Away, Stars | Leave a comment

Report criticizes Yahoo over prescription-drug ads

By doris | Published: August 23, 2009

Full Story at CNN.com Two small research firms, Legitscript.com and KnujOn.com, say that during a three-month period in the spring and early summer of 2009, Yahoo routinely accepted ads from dozens of online pharmacies that dispensed drugs without a valid prescription. The allegation is included in a new report by the two firms, which said [...]

Also posted in Business, Internet, Prescription Drugs, Yahoo | Leave a comment

Unsung heroes work hard to cut hospital-acquired infections

By doris | Published: July 10, 2009

Full Story at CNN.com Still, patients became sick with bacterial infections after checking in. Some died. “I never saw anything change. I saw things getting worse,” Torress-Cook said. Torress-Cook eventually joined Pacific Hospital of Long Beach, in California, where as director of epidemiology and patient safety, he changed the rules and slashed the number of [...]

Also posted in Consumer, Environment, Health, Treated | Leave a comment

BET Awards to pay tribute to Jackson

By doris | Published: June 26, 2009

Full Story At CNN.com Now, both the King of Pop and the Godfather of Soul are gone. Sunday night’s 9th Annual BET Awards is sure to be filled with tributes to Jackson, whose videos and performances were a staple for the network in his heyday. BET has already paid tribute to the singer, going wall-to-wall [...]

Also posted in Legal, Past Away | Leave a comment

Stair-climbing wheelchair comes to a halt

By doris | Published: May 26, 2009

Full Story At  msnbc.com WASHINGTON – The nation’s first stair-climbing wheelchair hit the market with a bang but disappeared with a whimper, a casualty of price that raises a big question: How much will society agree to pay for high-tech help for the disabled? Johnson & Johnson quietly sold the last iBOTs this spring, shuttering [...]

Also posted in Disabilities, Health, Safety, Technology | Leave a comment

Q&A: Electronic Health Records And You

By doris | Published: May 24, 2009

Full Story At  CBS News (CNET) Chuck Morton’s family suffered three disruptive data breaches when its bank, its credit union, and a credit card processor were penetrated by hackers on separate occasions. The laborious process of closing and reopening accounts took them weeks. So it’s little surprise that Morton, who lives in Greensboro, N.C., and [...]

Also posted in Change, Computer, Consumer, Health, Internet | Leave a comment