Articles about Health & Medicine
Leading Off (1/30/11)
DISD Teacher Calls for “Sick Out” Last week the Dallas ISD school board voted to close 11 campuses and extend teachers’ work day by 45 minutes without additional compensation. Now an anonymous teacher is trying to organize a “sick out” protest for February 29.
Mom Will Give Son Kidney: When Jace Glenn was four weeks old, he had both his kidneys removed. He has been on dialysis ever since, awaiting an age when he would be old enough to undergo a kidney transplant operation. Now three, all he needs is a donor. He found one in his mom.
Police Officer Saves Women From Car Sinking In Lake: Saturday night, Ngac Do and Nhi Tran took a wrong turn on Dalrock Rd. off I-30 and drove their Honda Civic into Lake Ray Hubbard. A police dash cam caught the rescue.
Meet Ruby, a Diabetic Alert Dog
Ruby is alerting Faith that her blood sugar is not within the 100-180 range. Photo by Type 1 Diabetes Foundation
Often, while in the middle of a deep sleep, I start dreaming about food—sandwiches, doughnuts, steak, peanut butter cups, gnocchi. It doesn’t matter what it is, I dream about it all. Slowly, I start to wake up. And that’s when I realize my blood sugar is low. I stumble into the kitchen, and in a half-conscious state, dig through the pantry and eat. The next morning, I go back to the kitchen and am ashamed of what happened during my “midnight feeding.” It’s amazing what combinations of food seem like a good idea when I’m half-awake. (Apparently, peanut butter goes with everything.)
This is just what life’s like for me, a type 1 diabetic. I was diagnosed when I was 3. Two-year-old Faith Wilson was diagnosed when she was 9-months-old. She doesn’t dream about food when she’s low. She doesn’t wake up. Life for her, her siblings, and her parents has been a nightmare. But things got just a bit easier a year ago when the Wilsons got Ruby, a British Lab.
Larry Hagman Diagnosed With Cancer
Larry Hagman
It appears that Tim won’t be meeting Larry “J.R.” Hagman tomorrow night at the Cattle Baron’s Ball. Larry just told TV Guide that he has been diagnosed with cancer. The good news is that the doctors have told him that it is “highly treatable.”
An inside source reports that due to this development Larry will be unable to attend the party, but will be part of the new “Dallas” series that starts production next week.
Ironically, CBB is one of the country’s most successful fund raisers for the American Cancer Society.
Leading Off (10/3/11)
Peter Gent, North Dallas Forty Novelist, Dies: The former receiver for the Dallas Cowboys who penned the behind the locker room door exposé of football’s rough and tumble youth, North Dallas Forty, died Friday. He was 69.
Perry Tries to Downplay Racist Name of Family’s Hunting Camp: So who had a worse weekend, Tony Romo, who threw three interceptions to lay the ground for the worst collapse in Cowboys history, or Rick Perry, whose family’s hunting camp, we learn, has been long known by a racial slur? Perry spent much of the weekend denying the report.
UT Southwestern Professor Shares Nobel Prize for Medicine: Bruce Beutler, who will soon rejoin the faculty of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, has been awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine along with Frenchman Jules Hoffman and Canadian Ralph Steinman for their work on immune system defenses. His most important discoveries were made, in part, during a previous stint at UT Southwestern, when he discovered a molecule that plays a role in the nervous system’s first line of defense against disease.
Ron Anderson’s Role at Parkland is Changing
The Morning News is reporting that Ron Anderson’s 29-year stay as Parkland Memorial Hospital’s president/CEO is ending, but the board wants to keep him on in some capacity. Anderson’s current position officially ends Saturday, Dec. 31, 2011.
According to Parkland’s board chairwoman Lauren McDonald, Anderson is not being fired. Rather, he will be given a newly created position in January.
Leading Off (8/22/11)
Wilmer-Hutchens Reopens School District, Keller Charges for Buses: Most area public schools begin the year today, and if you live in Keller, then that means you will now have to pay for bus service. If you live in the Wilmer-Hutchins area, then you will have school district again for the first time since 2005.
More Woes for Parkland: A new federal report on Parkland Hospital discovered numerous instances of unsanitary and neglectful conditions, which may put the hospital at risk for losing hundreds of millions of federal health care dollars. The threat of cutting funding, health experts say, is extremely rare, highlighting just how bad investigators believe the situation is at the hospital. Meanwhile, Parkland chief, Dr. Ron Anderson, just happens to be in negotiations for a new contract, and after three decades on the job, it is hard to imagine he will continue to lead the hospital for much longer.
Man Beaten To Death By Homeless Man He Let Live in Backyard: Gilbert Spira began letting a group of homeless people he was friendly with camp in his backyard as a way of deterring burglars. But then one of those men beat him to death. After the crime, the other homeless people restrained Spira’s assailant until police arrived There is no word on a motive.
Plano In The News: Ranks No.12 In The U.S. For Life Expectancy
Our friends in Plano live longer, grabbing the No. 12 spot in the nation. According to the stats in The Daily Beast, the West Coast dominates. San Jose takes the No. 1 spot. Bridgeport, CT, not exactly paradise, ranks 4. If there is a lesson here, it eludes me.
Nolan Ryan is in Hospital for Heart Tests
Houston Chronicle is reporting that Nolan Ryan experienced chest discomfort at his home in Georgetown Sunday morning. He is hospitalized and set to undergo heart tests.
Baylor vs. UT Southwestern: Great Medical Minds Advertise Alike
The two ads below were passed along by a FrontBurnervian. On the left is a Baylor hospital ad that’s running in the Byron Nelson program this weekend. On the right is a UT Southwestern Medical Center ad that’s part of a campaign that’s been running for, I’m told, many weeks. Coincidence?
Mayoral Candidates Support Parkland
As I noted a couple days ago, I’m involved in an intricate conspiracy with Parkland Hospital and UT Southwestern to discredit the Dallas Morning News. Today, my fellow conspirators and I are prepared to share a bit more about the extent to which this effort has spread across city. As you’ll see from this letter of support for Parkland and UT Southwestern, which is signed by close to 300 people, including all four mayoral candidates (and Rep. Dan Branch, George Bramblett, Mary McDermott Cook, Robert H. Dedman Jr., Nash Flores, Howard Hallam, Lyda Hunt Hill, Walt Humann, Hunter Hunt, Lee Jackson, Veletta Forsythe Lill, Bob Kaminski, Earle Nye, Jim Oberwetter, Caren Prothro, and Jim Turner, among others), the Dallas Morning News — or, if you prefer, the Morning News or the DMN or the News — is screwed.
All kidding aside: most of the people who signed that letter are rich, and some of them even know what they’re talking about. I would love to know what sort of phone calls Jim Moroney is getting about his paper’s coverage of Parkland and UT Southwestern.
Update (3:49): I overlooked the names John Eagle and Carl Sewell on that letter. Both men are far too savvy to consider pulling their companies’ auto ads over such a thing. Right?
Sonograms Before Abortions
Governor Perry will likely sign a bill requiring women seeking abortions to have a sonogram and hear a description of the fetus. Not sure why the Wall Street Journal story about this carries a Dallas dateline, but it gives me an excuse to post and link. Let’s kill each other in the comments, shall we?
Got a Special-Needs Kid? Go to This Event
If you have a child with special needs, you know how hard it can be to accommodate those needs. The sea of doctors, schools, and therapists can be tough to navigate.
“How about when you first get a diagnosis? ‘Oh my goodness. Where do I go?’ ” said Meredith Roever. “You go through the pages of Dallas Child magazine, and you see a hundred different providers. ‘Oh my gosh. Am I going to get on the phone and start calling all these people and interviewing these people and finding out what they do?’ ”
Roever and Hollee Mills, co-presidents of the Park Cities Learning Disabilities Association, thought it would be great to put all of these providers in the same place at the same time. That’s why they came up with the Learning Difference Resource Expo. For four hours tomorrow, you’ll have a chance to meet representatives from about 40 providers of services related to autism, ADHD, Down syndrome, and dyslexia.
“We’re so excited,” Roever said of the event’s scope. “When Holly and I were talking about this, we said, ‘Wow. Do you think we could get 20?’ ” As it turned out, they’ve had to turn providers away. But no parents will be turned away tomorrow, and no one will be charged an admission fee. Pretty sweet deal, right?
Baylor Outdoes Anderson in Parking PR
It’s no secret that cancer treatment is big business, that MD Anderson in Houston is the field’s 800-pound gorilla in Texas, and that Baylor’s just-opened Charles A. Sammons Cancer Center is aimed partly at keeping patient bucks out of H-Town and right here in Dallas.
So it was interesting to see Baylor take a shot at Anderson right out of the chute, disclosing that Sammons had decided to offer free valet parking to disabled (including radiation oncology) patients instead of charging them $15, the standard valet fare. A story in the Morning News (sorry; it’s paywall-protected) said Baylor had modeled the $15 rate after the price at Anderson, but quickly switched gears “to do the right thing” … after a lymphoma patient complained to the paper.
Jeb Hensarling Hates Public Health Care — Except When He Uses It
On January 18, the Dallas Congressman made this statement on the House floor before voting to repeal Obamacare:
“The American people don’t want it. It’s personal. Here’s my story, two days ago, I was in San Antonio, Texas, and my mother had a large tumor removed from her head. They wheeled her away at 7:20 in the morning, and by noon, I was talking to her along with the rest of our family. It proved benign, thanks to a lot of prayers and good doctors at the Methodist hospital in San Antonio. My mother’s fine. I’m not sure that would be the outcome in Canada, the U.K., or anywhere in Europe.
“No disrespect to our President, but when it comes to the health of my mother, I don’t want this President or any President or his bureaucrat or commissions making decisions for my loved ones. Let’s repeal it today, replace it tomorrow.”
More than a week ago, I called Hensarling’s office and asked two questions: (1) Is his mother on Medicare? (2) How much did she pay out-of-pocket for the procedure?
Dallas Sixth Vainest City in the Country
According to the latest survey that combines three sort of random figures to come up with another sort of random ranking. And we lost to Hartford! COME ON.
Home |
Masthead |
News from D |
About Us |
Contact Us |
Subscribe |
Advertise |
Privacy Policy |
Customer Service |
Awards | Archives | Reprints | d custom | Jobs | Advertiser's Index
Awards | Archives | Reprints | d custom | Jobs | Advertiser's Index