Smoke masks. Eye drops. No outdoor exercise. This is how Californians are trying to cope with wildfires choking the state, but experts say an increase in serious health problems may be almost inevitable for vulnerable residents as the disasters become more commonplace. Research suggests children, the elderly and those with existing health problems are most at risk.
The razor had a familiar thrum. Only this time, I wasn’t the one doing the shaving. I was watching as my sister’s remaining hair fell away. She was putting on a brave face, joking with the hairdresser. Her defiant look said: “Leukemia’s not going to get me.” But in her eyes, I also saw terror. I wanted to rescue her, but there was nothing I could do.
Gun violence has become a part of everyday life in America and of the work lives of doctors, nurses and first responders, too. After the National Rifle Association told doctors to "stay in their lane" in response to a policy proposal from the American College of Physicians for reducing gun-related injuries and deaths, there was a backlash. Health care professionals shared heart-wrenching stories about treating people harmed by firearms.
There are 10 more confirmed cases of acute flaccid myelitis, a polio-like illness that mostly affects children, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 90 in 27 states this year. There are also 162 possible cases under investigation, 23 more than last week.
Leaders of Somerville Hospital’s parent organization met face-to-face Tuesday with the husband of a woman who died after collapsing outside their locked emergency room door in 2016, admitting to “multiple failures” during the emotional sitdown and apologizing for their role in the death. “I’m very sorry for what happened to your wife,” chief executive Patrick Wardell told the widower of 34-year-old Laura Levis, who died after suffering a fatal asthma attack outside Somerville Hospital.
Carly Goldstein says the text messages lit up her phone at all hours of the day and night. “You are smoking hot in the way that I enjoy,” a supervisor texted her in July of 2015. “I would give a pinky to have you for 24 hours,” he wrote a few months later.