Spanish surgeons said Monday that they had performed the world's first double-leg transplant, giving an accident victim two new legs. Experts said it will be a month at least before the team will know if the procedure was a success. If the legs should be rejected, however, that will probably happen almost immediately, they said. The still-unidentified patient lost both legs above the knee in an accident. An earlier attempt to fit him with two artificial legs failed because the patient did not have enough of his own legs remaining to use the prostheses successfully. The current operation was approved last year, but surgeons had to wait until they found a suitable donor. Pedro Cavadas, MD, of La Fe Hospital in Valencia began the operation Sunday night, spending nearly 14 hours connecting bones, nerves and muscles in the delicate procedure. Cavadas was the first surgeon in Spain to perform a face transplant, and the first anywhere to include a new tongue and jaw in the procedure.
You can't blame Cleve Killingsworth, not entirely, for pocketing his absolutely obscene $4.2 million severance package from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, the giant insurance company that he left last year under circumstances that remain unexplained. But there was a glimmer of justice in Attorney General Martha Coakley's announcement last week that an amount equal to that hefty sum will be returned to Blue Cross customers. Killingsworth keeps his money, but the customers are no longer left with the tab. Blue Cross customers are not going to see a windfall from this agreement; it works out to about $1.50 per customer, on average. But Coakley said it sends a message of restraint.
Americans believe they will receive better services in a "hospital" than in a "medical center," according to a phone survey conducted by two local consulting firms. More than 1,000 people were asked four questions about whether they believed they would have better outcomes in a hospital or medical center during the survey conducted by Rivkin & Associates LLC and Bauman Research & Consulting LLC, both based in Glen Rock.When asked "which would have a wider range of services," 61% said a hospital and 31% chose a medical center. Six percent said there would be no difference, and 2% didn't know or refused to answer. Fifty-two percent said a hospital provides "patients with better quality medical care" while 32% said a medical center. Twelve percent thought the care would be the same; 4% weren't sure. Asked "which would be on the cutting edge of medicine, using the most up-to-date technologies and procedures," 53% chose a hospital while 37% picked a medical center. Just 8% thought there would be no difference.
For many urban dwellers, the country conjures up images of clean air, fresh food and physical activities. But these days, Americans residing in major cities live longer, healthier lives overall than their country cousins -- a reversal from decades past. Many cities that were once notorious for pollution, crime, crowding and infectious diseases have generally cleaned up, calmed down and spread out in recent years, while rural problems have festered. Rural residents are now more likely than other Americans to be obese, sedentary and smoke cigarettes. They also face higher rates of related health problems including diabetes, stroke, heart attacks and high blood pressure, according to County Health Rankings, a research project that recently issued its second annual report of state-by-state comparisons of health measures in every U.S. county.
The All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi recently installed a new entry system. However, local monkeys soon worked out how to use the motion-censor doors and have since been running amok in the wards. They have terrorised patients, stealing food, playing with medical equipment, and attacking staff. Authorities have taken steps to scare off the monkeys. They have hired two larger monkeys to chase them away.
Doctors save lives, but they can sometimes be insufferable know-it-alls who bully nurses and do not listen to patients. Medical schools have traditionally done little to screen out such flawed applicants or to train them to behave better, but that is changing. At Virginia Tech Carilion, the nation's newest medical school, administrators decided against relying solely on grades, test scores and hourlong interviews to determine who got in. Instead, the school invited candidates to the admissions equivalent of speed-dating: nine brief interviews that forced candidates to show they had the social skills to navigate a health care system in which good communication has become critical. The new process has enormous consequences not only for the lives of the applicants but, its backers hope, also for the entire health care system. It is called the multiple mini interview, or M.M.I., and its use is spreading. At least eight medical schools in the United States -- including those at Stanford, the University of California, Los Angeles, and the University of Cincinnati -- and 13 in Canada are using it.