Health
After several reports of abuse, HI long-term care facilities goes unsanctioned
“In a state where nursing homes are rarely sanctioned, federal regulators did not penalize one of Hawaii’s premium institutions for its failure to protect defenseless elderly women from a sexually abusive caregiver. They also didn’t sanction a nursing home even after a nurse’s failure to follow physician orders resulted in the puncturing of a man’s…
Read MoreFDA’s failure to respond causes millions to be exposed to deadly bacterium.
The story of tainted medical wipes and other disposable medical supplies in our hospitals first caught the media’s attention when a child from Houston, TX apparently died from the bacterium Bacillus cereus, a cousin to Bacillus antracis, or anthrax. However, with deeper investigations done, it turns out the FDA was aware that the plant, owned…
Read MoreHospital negligence responsible for another death.
Tim Darragh, of The Morning Call reports that in January of this year, a patient at Lehigh Valley Hospital was have thought to have extremely high blood sugar, when it fact it was 100 times lower than the targeted range. As a result, the patient was given over 10 hours of insulin drip before bedside…
Read MoreInspections show Idaho nursing facilities filled with flaws
In this report by the Times-News of Twin Falls, Idaho, journalist Ben Botkin reveals alarming statistics when it comes to the care provided by nursing facilities. In “2010, more than 57 percent of Idaho nursing homes provided unnecessary drugs to patients, according to inspection reports filed by the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare.” Inspection…
Read MoreTexas tap water turning plumbing radioactive
KHOU-TV’s Mark Greenblatt finds so much radiation in the water of Central Texas cities, that even the pipes that carry it set off Geiger counters, and citizens are afraid to drink it. Greenblatt also uncovered a 10-year old state scientific report calling the water serious health risk”, but Texas officials all but ignored it. The…
Read MoreSurgeon with nine malpractice suits continues operating
In this investigation by the Duluth News Tribune, reporters Brandon Stahl and Mark Stodghill revealed that one of the “highest-paid physicians at St. Luke’s,” neurosurgeon Stefan Konasiewicz, had a lengthy track record of complaints and malpractice suits. Konasiewicz cut and failed to repair a young woman’s aorta during a spinal surgery that resulted in her…
Read MoreMore ties to researchers omitting findings in lieu of royalties.
“Since 2002, Medtronic and a group of doctors with financial ties to the medical device company were aware that a new biological agent used in back surgery was linked to sterility in men. But that crucial information was not revealed in medical journal articles written by those doctors, including surgeons who would receive millions of…
Read MoreLion meat, found in some US butcher shops, is unregulated. Are you eating illegally?
After PRI’s Ike Sriskandarajah found lion meat on the shelf at his neighborhood butcher and followed the trail to a dark corner of the exotic meat trade. Follow his investigation from his local butcher shop, to the harsh realities of “exotic mean with transcripts and the use of Document Cloud. Find out how “no federal…
Read MoreKids held in detention centers receive heavy doses of antipsychotic drugs
A Palm Beach Post investigation finds that kids who have been placed in state juvenile facilities have been receiving heavy doses of antipsychotic drugs, which are meant to have a tranquilizing effect on the brain. The pills were passed out to children in the facilities “for reasons that never were approved by federal regulators.” The…
Read MoreUniversity of Wisconsin closely tied to prescription painkiller market.
After a large wave of deaths in 2006 due to overdosing on prescription pain medicine, the CDC authored a critical study linking deaths from those drugs to an increase of up to 500% in the number of prescriptions written. In that same medical journal, two researchers from the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and…
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