The Health News USA July 19 2017

Overview

• A new study suggests that the survivors of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York City on September 11, 2001 and first-responders who were on the scene that day – may have an increased risk for heart and lung diseases. The World Trade Center attack exposed thousands of people to intense concentrations of hazardous materials that have resulted in reports of increased levels of asthma, heart disease, diabetes and other chronic physical and psychological disorders, researchers note in the journal Injury Epidemiology.
• According to lead researcher Martin Makary, a professor of surgery at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, medical errors are rampant in the US. Makary’s data shows the number at two to three times higher than previously thought, a whopping 250,000 a year.
• Michelle Carter sent her boyfriend, Conrad Roy III text messages encouraging him to take his own life. She has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter. Their text messages were meant only for each other. But now hundreds of one young couple’s intimate written exchanges have been exposed during the Carter’s trial.

News on Health Professional Radio. Today is the 19th of July 2017. Read by Tabetha Moreto. Health News

http:www.reuters.comarticleus-health-sept11-risks-idUSKBN1A228Z

Survivors of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York City on September eleven, two thousand one  – and first-responders who were on the scene that day –  may have an increased risk for heart and lung diseases, a new study suggests.  The World Trade Center attack exposed thousands of people to intense concentrations of hazardous materials  that have resulted in reports of increased levels of asthma, heart disease, diabetes and other chronic physical and psychological disorders, researchers note in the journal Injury Epidemiology.  For the current study, researchers examined data on eight thousand seven hundred and one people who were at the World Trade Center site  on the day of the attacks and didn’t have asthma, diabetes or heart and lung diseases.

After up to eleven years of follow-up, people injured that day were at least twice as likely to develop heart disease as people who didn’t sustain injuries, the study found.  Dust and debris exposure was associated with thirty percent higher odds of developing asthma and lung diseases, the study also found.

“This study is unique in that it focuses on responders and survivors who had intense exposure to environmental pollution and trauma on September eleven two thousand and one  in New York City, but not afterwards,” said senior study author Dr. Robert Brackbill of the World Trade Center Health Registry and the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

Dust exposure, post-traumatic stress disorder and being a rescue worker, as well as current smoking  were associated with a higher risk developing lung diseases that were not cancer or asthma, the study also found.  Dust exposure on its own, however, wasn’t associated with an increased risk of asthma.  Limitations of the study include the high proportion of participants who dropped out over time, the authors note.  Researchers also lacked data on the severity of injuries or how people were treated.

http:www.foxnews.comhealth20170717are-distracted-doctors-risking-patients-safety.html

As much as people would like to wholly trust their doctors, medical errors do occur more often than is comfortable.  The numbers indicate that these errors may account for thousands of deaths each year.  … According to lead researcher Martin Makary, a professor of surgery at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine,  medical errors are rampant in the US. Makary’s data shows the number at two to three times higher than previously thought, a whopping two hundred fifty thousand a year.

In addition, the FDA attests that errors related to medication cost at least one life every day and injure over one million annually.  Regardless of the numbers, doctors and hospitals should put patient safety at the top of their list.  In cases of potential risk, they should err on the side of caution every time.  Doctors have a human side, meaning that they will make a mistake at some point.  However, patients and concerned loved ones find it alarming when a doctor pulls out his phone during surgery, of all places.  Could the distraction of cellular devices be causing many such medical errors?  

In Doctor Christopher Spillers’s case, the correlation is likely.  His patient, Roseanne Milne, came in for a routine heart procedure but never made it through the surgery.  

According to investigations, the doctor used his cell phone to text, call, and surf the Internet over fifty times!  Spillers also took a photo of an anesthesia monitor during another occasion and posted it on Facebook.  While the doctor saw no harm in his actions, Milne’s daughter did.  According to her, “It was absolutely the worst day of my life. I was devastated. I couldn’t believe I was losing my mother that night.”

While experts cannot give an exact number for medical errors related to cell phones, devices clearly risk patient safety.  Doctors should do everything within their power to stay alert and decrease infections during surgery.  Staying off their devices will ensure this level of excellence.  Hospitals and doctors should work together to put a strategy in place and enforce it.   After all, patient safety is at stake.

http:edition.cnn.com20170612healthtext-message-suicide-case-teenagersindex.html

Their text messages were meant only for each other  But now hundreds of one young couple’s intimate written exchanges have been exposed as the dramatic focus of a trial that could land a woman in jail years after her boyfriend killed himself.  The blockbuster case played out this week in a Massachusetts courtroom lays bare the special challenges that text messaging unlike a phone or face-to-face conversation poses for teenagers,  nearly sixty percent of whom cite texting as their primary form of smartphone communication, experts say.

“Messages that are delivered electronically are very powerful,” said Barbara Greenberg, a teen, adolescent and child psychologist.  “Kids aren’t aware of how powerful their messages are and how their messages might impact others.  “Prosecutors in Massachusetts have described a torrent of text messages that defendant Michelle Carter sent to her boyfriend, Conrad Roy III, encouraging him to take his life.  Roy, age eighteen, died after inhaling carbon monoxide as he sat in his pickup.

A judge on Friday found Carter, now twenty, guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the two thousand and fourteen death.  Some teenagers view texting as a “safer” way to talk about sensitive topics,  said Michele Ybarra, president and research director at the Center for Innovative Public Health Research and an adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins University.

“You can sort of broach the topic, and it doesn’t have to be this huge thing,” Ybarra told CNN.  “And you can send it to the other person when they aren’t necessarily in the same room.”

Teenagers also view texting as more private than it actually may be, Ybarra and her research colleagues have found.