Health
Texas doctor’s patients end up maimed, dead as medical board fails to stop him
Dr. Christopher Duntsch began his medical practice in 2010, The Texas Observer reports, and by the time the state revoked his license in 2013, a series of botched surgeries had left two of his patients dead and four paralyzed. The real tragedy of the story, according to the Texas Observer, is how preventable it was:…
Read MoreBack Home: The enduring battles facing post-9/11 veterans
“In the 12 years since American troops first deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq, more than 2.6 million veterans have returned home to a country largely unprepared to meet their needs. The government that sent them to war has failed on many levels to fulfill its obligations to these veterans as demanded by Congress and promised…
Read MoreEven Small Amounts of Precipitation Dump Raw Sewage into Potomac River
Don’t believe the signs city officials have posted at the four outfall spots that dump raw sewage into the Potomac River. The truth is much worse.
Read MoreNew York Promised Help for Mentally Ill Inmates — But Still Sticks Many in Solitary
“In New York, inmates diagnosed with ‘serious’ disorders should be protected from solitary confinement. But since that policy began, the number of inmates diagnosed with such disorders has dropped,” according to a ProPublica report.
Read MoreLocked in Terror
The Fresno Bee reports: “The Fresno County Jail has been a place of terror and despair for mentally ill inmates who spiral deeper into madness because jail officials withhold their medication. About one in six jail inmates is sick enough to need antipsychotic drugs to control schizophrenia, bipolar disorders and other psychiatric conditions, but many…
Read MoreIn Afghanistan, redeployed U.S. soldiers still coping with demons of post-traumatic stress
“A diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder is not a barrier to being redeployed. Not when the Army needs its most experienced soldiers to wrap up the war. Instead, the Army is trying to answer a new question: Who is resilient enough to return to Afghanistan, in spite of the demons they are still fighting?”
Read MoreInspection, enforcement of Pennsylvania amusement parks fall short
Pennsylvania has more amusement park rides than any other state, and its governer has stated its rides are unmatched in safety because of the state’s rigorous inspection program. But an investigation by PublicSource shows that the state agency that oversees amusement parks does not track the safety inspection reports that parks are required to file…
Read MoreSponges, tools and more left inside Washington hospital patients
KUOW in Seattle reports that about 30 times per year, a sponge or surgical instrument is left inside a patient at a hospital in Washington state. Foreign ojects left behind are among the state’s most common medical mistakes. Medical experts told KUOW such an event should never happen, at that the system in place to…
Read MoreIndustry muscle targets federal ‘Report on Carcinogens’
A Center for Public Integrity reports that increasingly, industry is targeting James Huff’s former employer and its parent, the Department of Health and Human Services — in particular, HHS’s Report on Carcinogens. Two lobby groups sued the agency after two widely used chemicals were listed in the report. In a victory for industry, lawmakers mandated…
Read MoreUSA Today examines players in the risky supplement game
USA Today launched the first part of its investigation titled Supplement Shell Game: The People behind risky pills. The first article examines Matt Cahill, who has spent time in federal prison and now faces another federal charge after creating a series of products over the past 12 years — one of which contained a pesticide…
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