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• 13 Newborn Deaths, One Hospital, Same Day

  Yeah, you read that headline correctly. Apparently that unlucky number of recently born babies died in the same day at a hospital in Turkey and officials there are attempting to investigate the cause. BBC.com reports that all the children were premature and that an infection may have been at least a partial cause. But here's the part of the story that shocked me. Read More... Posted Sep 23 2008, 08:02 AM by Jen Chaney with | with no comments Filed under: hospitals, turkey, medical issues, premature babies, premature infants, infant mortality, Jen Chaney, newborn deaths, infant deaths

• Babble Talk: Could Your Child Have Sensory Processing Disorder?

  I am still somewhat new to this whole motherhood thing. So I was not familiar with sensory processing disorder until I read this interesting essay in which writer Vivian Manning-Schaffel explains SPD  -- it's a condition that causes children to over- or under-respond to certain stimuli -- and notes that one in 20 people has this it. My initial reaction? This sounds like another case of overdiagnosing, or possibly placing a convenient label on behavior just because it strays ever-so-slightly outside the norm. But the deeper I read into Manning-Schaffel's piece, the more convinced I was that SPD is a legitimate disorder. Read More... Posted Jun 19 2008, 12:34 PM by Jen Chaney with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: health, autism, medical issues, babble talk, Vivian Manning-Schaffel, childhood conditions, sensory processing disorder, SPD, overstimulation

• Clean Hands: Purell Ain't Getting It Done

  We had a nice but icky discussion last week about how healthcare professionals weren't exactly scrupulous when it comes to washing their hands between patients (and door touching, etc.) and that patients are being encouraged to ask them to wash up. And there was some talk of hidden hand santizer pumps that they might be using outside the patient's room, which made a few of us (and by "us" I mean "me") feel better and like they could go on living in denial about their doctor's dirty hands.  Well, a study out of Nebraska got down and dirty and concluded that Purell ... Read More... Posted Jan 30 2008, 02:38 PM by Madeline Holler with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: research study, hospitals, doctor visits, health care, hospital, hand sanitizer, health risks, health news, nurses, medical issues, do the right thing, health and well-being of children, health and well-being of parents, illness, health and safety, hygiene, doctors, hand-washing, purell

• 1-Year-Old Coping With Artificial Heart

  They still use artificial hearts? Something about it sounds so early 80s to me. But I'm glad they're still around and, most likely, have vastly improved since the first one was implanted (and eventually rejected) by a guy in the U.S. now decades ago. Here's why I'm glad: an 14-month-old in the U.K. is surviving on one as he waits for a heart transplant. Little Ollie the only person in Britian to be kept alive on one. He's been attached to it for more than 67 days.   Read More... Posted Jan 10 2008, 01:02 PM by Madeline Holler with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: medicine, what this country needs, medical ethics, organ donor, medical, medical breakthrough, medical issues, childhood illness, U.K., heart disease, U.K. moms, virus, heart transplant, artificial heart

• Kids and Needles: Help for a Pointed Affair

  We put off our daughter's first blood test for six months because A. we are lazy, ignorant, unfeeling people, and B. we just could not understand, or stand to deal with, the thought of inserting a needle into her arm and leaving it there for, what? 30 seconds? Give her a singular shot and she practically explodes. Read More... Posted Dec 11 2007, 10:32 AM by Mike Adamick (Cry It Out!) with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: medical, medical issues

• Two-Headed Boy to Lose Left Head

  Doctors say it's never happened before. A set of conjoined twins was born with one body and two heads. The twins share one set of organs -- no duplicates -- and will undergo surgery later this year to remove one of the heads (the left one, if you're curious). There's a "moral and medical right" to "forfeit" one of the heads, the doctors argued -- and I'm sure there is. I just wish they would have shared it, because it's eating me alive. Why the left head? If they're twins, what's his name? Does the left head talk? Eat? Breathe? If you're the parent, and the heads prove equally functional (something not mentioned here) but you still have to select one to go, how do you decide?  Posted May 14 2007, 10:29 AM by Mike Adamick (Cry It Out!) with | with 6 comment(s) Filed under: twins, medical ethics, media, medical issues

• Parents Install Webcam in Child's Hospital Room

  Parents of a young patient at Children's Hospital in Boston apparently thought it would be a good idea to install a webcam in their child's hospital room. A nurse found the camera and it caused a bit of a kerfuffle. Dr. Samuel Blackman, an oncologist at the hospital, wrote about the incident on his invite-only blog saying that the camera was put up by the parents so that a relative could "keep in touch." But as is bound to happen with a camera turned on its subject 24/7, the camera captured unsavory moments like the child throwing up and having a bloody nose. On his blog Dr. Blackman asked, "How far can a parent or relative go in taping the healthcare of their loved one?" I sure would like to know. We were told by our San Francisco ultrasound technician that we were in no way allowed to record the experience of finding out the gender of our first baby with our DV camera. It had to do with legal/liability issues. I can understand wanting to be close to a child that is in the hospital for an extended stay, but just going ahead and installing a NannyCam in the hospital room? As expected, the Boston family was told they could video their own child, but not other patients or staff. Posted Mar 27 2007, 08:28 AM by Stefania Pomponi Butler (CityMama) with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: medical issues, boston, nannycams