Tag: health care

New York’s Proposed Minor Consent Law ‘Dangerous’ and ‘Misleading,’ Critics Say

New York state lawmakers are weighing legislation that would allow any child or teen under 18 to seek out and consent to medical treatment — including vaccines, dental procedures, hospitalization and even surgery — without parental consent, as long as the minor appears to have the mental capacity for making that decision.

Assembly Bill A6761, introduced by New York Assemblymember Karines Reyes (D-Bronx), also would allow Medicaid funds to pay for procedures and drugs administered to children.

Proponents of the legislation, such as the American Civil Liberties Union of New York, say the measure is about ensuring all youth have access to quality care.

But critics, including John Gilmore, founder and executive director of the nonprofit Autism Action Network, said the bill is dangerous.

“The bill’s biggest problem,” Gilmore told The Defender, “is that it allows any medical procedure to be done to children of any age without parental knowledge or consent. That’s the kicker.”

Gilmore said the bill has another problem, too: The “active summary” statement on the official New York Assembly website says it “allows homeless youth to give effective consent to certain medical, dental, health, and hospital services.”

But Gilmore said that statement is “deliberately misleading” because the bill’s text applies to more than just “homeless” youth seeking “certain” services.

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Colon cancer patient died after surgical robot burned hole in organs: lawsuit

A grieving widower is suing a medical manufacturer, claiming that its device burned a hole in his wife’s organs during a procedure to treat her colon cancer, eventually leading to her death.

Harvey Sultzer, husband of the late Sandra Sultzer, filed a lawsuit on Feb. 6 against Intuitive Surgical (IS) claiming his wife suffered health complications following a procedure completed by their surgical robot.

Sandra underwent an operation at Baptist Health Boca Raton Regional Hospital in September 2021 to treat her colon cancer using the da Vinci robot, a multi-armed, remote-controlled device, according to the lawsuit.

The device is advertised “to enable precision beyond the limits of the human hand,” being “designed to provide surgeons with natural dexterity while operating through small incisions,” allowing for minimally invasive procedures.

The lawsuit claims that the device burned a hole in her small intestine, which required Sandra to undergo additional medical interventions.

After the procedures, Sandra continued to suffer abdominal pain and had a fever until she died in February 2022 as “a direct and proximate result of the injuries she suffered,” the lawsuit claims.

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Surprising Remedies for Measles Might Have Saved Many Lives

As newly emerging cases of measles have been reported in the United States, and Europe is also facing an outbreak, health authorities worldwide are calling for vaccination, drawing attention to this old but still unresolved contagious disease.

However, when measles swept the world in the last century, it was not a vaccine that saved millions of lives.

An Old, Severe Illness

Almost all children contracted measles in the first half of the 20th century.

Prior to the 1960s, an estimated 30 million cases and 2.6 million deaths due to measles occurred annually worldwide.

Young children have been the most affected, as seen in 1906 when 85 percent of reported deaths were children under age 5. From 1912 to 1922, an average of 6,000 measles-related deaths in the United States were reported each year.

Although measles was declared eradicated in the United States in 2000, new cases have emerged during the past decades. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) documented 1,274 cases in 31 states in 2019, reaching a peak in cases during the last decade.

Despite massive global vaccination in the current era, in 2015 alone, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported around 134,200 deaths attributed to measles.

Similar to SARS-CoV-2

Dating back to the 9th century, the Persian physician Abū Bakr Muhammad Zakariyyā Rāzī (Rhazes) documented measles. In 1757, Scottish doctor Francis Home determined that measles was caused by an infectious agent, marking a significant advancement in understanding the disease.

Soley found in humans, the measles virus is a negative-strand RNA virus, similar to SARS-CoV-2, meaning that the genetic material of both viruses needs to be “flipped” before functioning.

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Medicine Has Been Fully Militarized

Iam thinking of a certain industry. See if you can guess what it is.

This industry is huge, constituting a large portion of the nation’s GDP. Millions of people earn their living through it, directly or indirectly. The people at the top of this industry (who operate mostly behind the scenes, of course) are among the super-rich. This industry’s corporations lobby the nation’s government relentlessly, to the tune of billions of dollars per year, both to secure lucrative contracts and to influence national policy in their favor. This investment pays off richly, sometimes reaching trillions of dollars.

The corporations supplying this industry with its materiel conduct advanced, highly technical research that is far beyond the understanding of the average citizen. The citizens fund this research, however, through tax dollars. Unbeknownst to them, many of the profits gained from the products developed using tax dollars are kept by the corporations’ executives and investors.

This industry addresses fundamental, life-or-death issues facing the nation. As such, it relentlessly promotes itself as a global force for good, claiming to protect and save countless lives. However, it kills a lot of people too, and the balance is not always a favorable one.

The operational side of this industry is emphatically top-down in its structure and function. Those who work at the ground level must undergo rigorous training that standardizes their attitudes and behavior. They must follow strict codes of practice, and they are subject to harsh professional discipline if they deviate from accepted policies and procedures, or even if they publicly question them. 

Finally, these ground-level personnel are handled in a peculiar manner. Publicly, they are frequently lauded as heroes, particularly under declared periods of crisis. Privately, they are kept completely in the dark regarding high-level industry decisions, and they are often lied to outright by those at higher levels of command. The “grunts” even significantly forfeit some fundamental civil liberties for the privilege of working in the industry.

What industry am I describing?

If you answered, “the military,” of course you would be correct. However, if you answered “the medical industry,” you would be every bit as right.

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NIH panel to launch urgent investigation amid evidence Alzheimer’s can SPREAD between people: Nearly 8,000 Americans received injection that transmitted memory-robbing condition

An NIH panel is set to convene an urgent meeting amid fears thousands of Americans could be at risk of catching Alzheimer’s.

A bombshell UK study published Monday found evidence of at least five people ‘catching’ the memory-robbing disorder from a now-banned hormone treatment.

Health experts in the US — where nearly 8,000 children were injected with the therapy in the 1960s and 1980s — now fear cases may have gone undetected on this side of the Atlantic.

A spokeswoman for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) told DailyMail.com: ‘Given this new information, the committee will convene to discuss the issue and re-analyze data for any possible associations with Alzheimer’s or dementia-related conditions.’

DailyMail.com understands the meeting will take place in early February among the Public Health Service Interagency Coordinating Committee on Human Growth Hormone and Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease.

It was set up in the hours after the UK study was released and aims to re-assess US data for signs that patients developed Alzheimer’s disease.

It will also look at rates of early-onset Alzheimer’s, when the disease develops before the age of 65 years, among receivers of the faulty growth hormone treatments.

Minutes from previous meetings show the committee has suspected that at least one American died from Alzheimer’s in their 60s after receiving the jab as a child.

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California to offer 700,000 illegal immigrants free healthcare as deficit soars and population shrinks

California is ushering in 2024 with free healthcare for more than 700,000 migrants living illegally in the Golden State as the state is faced with a looming $68 billion deficit.

The program, which was announced in May by Gov. Gavin Newsom, will provide health insurance for approximately 700,000 illegal immigrant residents aged 26-49.

California has been providing free health insurance to illegal immigrants who are under 26-years-old since 2019.

The program will begin on Jan. 1, 2024 and will provide more illegal immigrants with health insurance under the state’s Medi-Cal coverage.

When he proposed the bill two years ago, Newsom called the expansion “a transformative step towards strengthening the healthcare system for all Californians.”

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Ohio’s Republican governor vetoes trans care restriction and sports ban

Ohio’s governor vetoed a bill Friday that would have restricted both transition-related care for minors and transgender girls’ participation on school sports teams.

Gov. Mike DeWine’s veto makes him one of only two Republican governors to veto a restriction on gender-affirming care, alongside Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson in 2021, and one of only three Republican governors to veto a trans athlete bill after Utah Gov. Spencer Cox and Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb last year.

In a press conference on Friday following his veto, DeWine said the “gut-wrenching” decision about whether a minor should have access to gender-affirming care “should not be made by the government, should not be made by the state of Ohio,” rather it should be made by the child’s parents and doctors.

Prior to vetoing the bill, DeWine told The Associated Press that he visited three Ohio children’s hospitals to learn more about transition-related care and spoke to families who were both helped and harmed by it. 

“We’re dealing with children who are going through a challenging time, families that are going through a challenging time,” he said. “I want, the best I can, to get it right.”

The Ohio General Assembly, which is controlled by a Republican supermajority, can override the governor’s veto with a three-fifths majority vote.

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GEORGIA PRISONERS CAN BE DENIED VITAL HALFWAY HOUSE PLACEMENT DUE TO MEDICAL CONDITIONS

In August of 2021, Gus, a prisoner in Georgia, found himself entangled in red tape when seeking vital medical care for his Hepatitis C. His decision to begin the treatment would cost him dearly. Despite having no choice but to go to the doctor, Gus says the move rendered him ineligible for transfer to a transitional center (TC)—a sort of state-run “halfway house.” The decision extended his time behind bars by roughly a year, as those in transitional housing can receive extra credit toward their sentences.

Since the Georgia Department of Corrections (GDC) would not continue his treatment if he moved to a transitional center, Gus says he had to choose between his freedom and life.

Gus was released from prison on August 4. And, without spending the last year or two in a TC, he left his institution unprepared, unhoused, scared, and destitute—except for the $25 the state gives imprisoned people upon release.

In Georgia, some incarcerated people seeking transfers to transitional centers may face a troubling predicament: they may need to choose between access to vital medical treatments and the opportunity for successful rehabilitation. Transitional centers are pivotal for individuals reintegrating from incarceration into society. There are only 12 transitional centers in Georgia, which contain roughly 2,300 TC beds. Only two of those centers are accessible to women. These reentry centers provide a structured environment that offers steady employment, educational programs, and opportunities to develop necessary life skills. In addition, those participating in transitional center programs have an easier time getting driver’s licenses, securing community resources, and obtaining housing before their release.

Denying medical care to incarcerated people with chronic medical needs, who also need placement at these centers, can significantly reduce their chances of successful reintegration. This practice has raised concerns among both incarcerated people and advocates, who argue that denying necessary healthcare services undermines reentry efforts and perpetuates a cycle of incarceration.

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