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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Road Walker who wrote (338231)	5/21/2007 11:15:51 AM
From: longnshort	Respond to of 1578204

If Cuba's health care is so great why did Castro fly in doctors from Spain ? No one but idiots buy Moore's Bullshit

To: Road Walker who wrote (338231)	5/21/2007 9:44:41 PM
From: steve harris	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1578204

"Mediocre" in Arkansas archildrens.org secure.archildrens.org LITTLE ROCK, AR (Apr. 27, 2007) -- Nine days after arriving at Arkansas Children’s Hospital (ACH), 7-year-old Adrian Saucedo underwent emergency surgery today to receive a pediatric heart pump known as the Berlin Heart. His condition had worsened over the past 36 hours, necessitating mechanical support. todaysthv.com A doctor at Arkansas Children's Hospital says that an 8-year-old boy from Mexico who needed a new heart had a transplant Monday at the Little Rock hospital. Adrian Saucedo of Piedras Negras, Mexico, received the heart in surgery that began just after 3 a.m. The boy got out of surgery seven hours later and remains medically sedated and on a respirator. Dr. Elizabeth Frazier says the new heart started on its own after warming in the boy's chest. The next 48 hours will be critical for Adrian's survival. But the doctor says that the heart starting on its own was a good sign.

To: Road Walker who wrote (338231)	5/22/2007 7:04:22 AM
From: Brumar89	Respond to of 1578204

Samizdata quote of the day Natalie Solent (Essex) Health • Slogans/quotations He [Michael Moore] travels to London to show off the beauty and brilliance of the British National Health Service. He talks to an unstressed doctor who has a four bedroom house in Greenwich and a £100,000 salary from the NHS. He films empty waiting rooms and happy, care-free health workers. He even talks to Tony Benn about how this wonderful marvel came into existence in 1948. What he hasn’t done is lie in a corridor all night at the Royal Free watching his severed toe disintegrate in a plastic cup of melted ice. I have. - James Christopher, reviewing Michael Moore's film Sicko in the Times. samizdata.net

To: Road Walker who wrote (338231)	5/22/2007 1:29:51 PM
From: longnshort	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1578204

A jaw-dropping waiting time for surgery ANDRÉ PICARD From Tuesday's Globe and Mail May 22, 2007 at 9:27 AM EDT Diane Nesenbrink was goofing around, as teenagers are wont to do, when she opened her mouth wide to chomp on a chicken leg. She heard a loud crack and her jaw locked open. Panicked and in pain, the 13-year-old pushed with all her might to get her mouth shut, but with little success. "I looked like a Pac-Man with his mouth open ready to gobble things up ... except I couldn't move my mouth," Ms. Nesenbrink recalled. That incident, 27 years ago, marked the beginning of the Stratford, Ont., woman's lifelong ordeal with jaw joint problems. "My doctor told me it was all in my head," she said. "But I couldn't chew, I couldn't smile and I was in pain." It was Ms. Nesenbrink's dentist who finally diagnosed her condition: temporomandibular joint syndrome. The TM joint connects the lower jaw to the skull just under the ear; it is composed of muscles, nerves and bones, and when they are damaged - by trauma, teeth grinding, arthritis or other conditions - it can lead to serious problems. About one in seven people suffer from TMJ disorder, but most problems are minor or temporary, and can be easily managed. But in rare cases - about 1 per cent - like that of Ms. Nesenbrink, the jaw joint needs to be surgically replaced. "It's the same idea as a hip or a knee - the joint gets damaged and needs to be replaced," Gerald Baker, head of the division of oral and maxillofacial surgery at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, said in an interview. But patients who need a new hip or knee have been deemed a political priority and are guaranteed joint replacements within nine months - with the "medically acceptable" wait for consultation pegged at no more than three months and the subsequent wait for surgery no more than six months. "The jaw joint is an important joint as well, but we've been forgotten," Dr. Baker said. In fact, his patients wait an average of more than two years for surgery. Even critical cases - where patients suffer excruciating pain and are unable to move their mouths - wait at least three months. "We see patients who are in dire straits: Talking, eating, chewing, smiling are all difficult, if not impossible," Dr. Baker said. "The condition can be debilitating." Compared with those who need new hips or knees, patients requiring jaw joint replacement tend to be younger, principally women aged 30 to 50. The treatment population is about 90 per cent women because the underlying cause of severe jaw joint problems is often autoimmune disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus or psoriasis, which principally affect women. There are about 50 Ontario patients on the waiting list for TMJ replacement, and as many from the rest of the country. Mount Sinai is the only centre that offers total jaw joint replacement for Ontario patients. The program has a budget of only $210,000 annually, which has not risen in more than a decade. Considering that each jaw prosthesis costs $15,000 to $20,000, that budget doesn't go far. Jaw joint replacement cases from the rest of Canada are done principally at Credit Valley Hospital in Mississauga, and there are small programs in Montreal and Edmonton. (A number of patients are also shipped to the United States, where the surgery costs about $100,000 U.S.) It is not unusual for patients with severe TMJ syndrome to have undergone a dozen operations before getting an artificial joint. Ms. Nesenbrink said she underwent a number of operations, including having her jaw joint rebuilt with cartilage and bone from a rib, before getting a plastic and metal jaw joint in 1999. She received a new prosthesis last October. "An artificial joint has a lifespan of seven to 10 years, so we have to do revisions, and that makes our wait list even longer," Dr. Baker said. Ideally, he said, patients with severe TMJ syndrome should be getting joint replacement earlier as this would avert many other costly operations. "Doing it sooner is a good investment and it helps patients avoid the vicious cycle of chronic pain," Dr. Baker said. But the starting point is simply having the jaw joint recognized as just as important as hips and knees. "We want to be included in the wait time strategy for artificial joints," Dr. Baker said. "That's all." * Print * E-mail * Comments (4) * Share * License Search the News Search News Stock * Print * E-mail * Comments (4) * Share * License * minusplusText Size Join the conversation This conversation is semi moderated 4 reader comments \| Join the conversation * Health care is really meant, for the most part, excepting... * The only people that praise the Canadian healthcare... * IAM:So true. Having lived under both systems I'd take... * How Canadians are willing to accept these wait-times... Follow this writer * Add ANDRÉ PICARD to my e-mail alerts Globe Insider Top Health Stories * Get off my swing set, Grandma! * A jaw-dropping waiting time for surgery * New cancer imaging tool unveiled * Superbug poses dire threat to Africa * Go to the Health section Top Stories by Section * Report on Business: Nortel to pay $1-million in costs * National: Hard-luck 'Mr. Nobody' becomes Mr. Somebody * World: UN relief convoy caught in Lebanese cross-fire * Sports: Mitchell stays in Toronto * Arts: Celine Dion plans world tour * Technology: Trouble making friends online? Buy them * Life: Adopting? Time to break out the pump Popular Discussions Comments * 198: Harper drops in on Afghanistan * 195: Dodge says single currency 'possible' * 172: Tory whip defends manual on disrupting committee meetings * 100: Carter says Bush remarks were ‘misinterpreted' close Share this article * Add to del.icio.us * Add to Ma.gnolia * Submit post to digg.com * Seed this post at Newsvine * Technorati links to this post close What are tags? A tag is a keyword or descriptive term supplied by our editorial staff used to associate related articles with one another. Tags make it easier for you to find other stories that share the same theme or topic with the article you’re currently reading. close Globe Insider E-mail Alerts Have all subsequent stories by this writer e-mailed to you. * Add ANDRÉ PICARD to my breaking news e-mail alerts Globe Insider * Manage my alerts * What are e-mail alerts? close What are e-mail Alerts? E-mail alerts deliver the news to your inbox as it happens. 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To: Road Walker who wrote (338231)	5/22/2007 1:35:27 PM
From: longnshort	Respond to of 1578204

nice healthcare here. Cruel twist leaves women's lives in the balance A Canadian man willingly spread HIV to several unknowing partners. Now, one of them faces deportation back to Kenya By LISA PRIEST AND MARINA JIMÉNEZ Monday, May 14, 2007 Page A10$ With a report from Johanna Boffa A Kenyan woman who came to this country in search of a better life, only to become infected with the AIDS virus in a sexual assault by a Canadian man, faces possible deportation for being a burden on the health-care system. The 29-year-old, who cannot be named due to a court-ordered publication ban, was infected more than five years ago by Adrien Sylver Nduwayo, who is now serving the toughest prison sentence in Canada - 15 years - for intentionally infecting others with the human immunodeficiency virus that causes AIDS. In the process, the Vancouver-area nurse and mother of two has become a victim not only of Mr. Nduwayo's crime but of the immigration system. That's because some HIV immigrants with significant health needs, such as requiring many months of costly antiretroviral therapy, can be deemed a burden on the health-care system. This victim of crime could face a one-way trip back to Kenya, where access to antiretroviral medication is uncertain. Advertisements Click Heread1 Register ad1 "It's just not right," the woman said. "It was a deliberate spread, it was very devastating. It still upsets me to think about it." But had she been a refugee as Mr. Nduwayo once was, she would have access to the best the Canadian health-care system has to offer. By the late 1990s, he had become a Canadian citizen. Individuals seeking permanent residence in Canada who are assessed as likely to pose an excessive demand on Canadian health and social services - determined as costing $20,285 or more in health and social services over a five-year period - are considered inadmissible on health grounds, according to Mélanie Carkner, spokeswoman for Citizenship and Immigration Canada. In fact, in sentencing Mr. Nduwayo, Mr. Justice John Truscott of the B.C. Supreme Court noted that the Kenyan woman "is not allowed to emigrate to Canada as a skilled worker, and may not be allowed to stay in the country the next time she has to apply for a work permit. Even if she can remain in the country, she may not be able to continue working as a nurse." The Kenyan woman knows she is in legal jeopardy. "I don't know what the decision is going to be for my immigration," she confirmed in a telephone interview. "... I went to see two lawyers who said: 'There is no way you would be allowed to immigrate.' " With her dreams of travelling the world as a nurse gone, her day-to-day struggle is focused on survival. There are weekly doctor appointments, tests for liver and pancreas function and drugs to keep the disease - which would otherwise kill her - at bay. At one point, her CD4 count was as low as 190; in a recent interview she said it was up to 260. CD4 cells are an important type of white blood cell and are part of the body's defence against infection. HIV attacks CD4 cells and uses them to make more copies of HIV. In doing so, the CD4 cell becomes unable to do its job of protecting the body. Though a normal count in a healthy, HIV-negative adult can vary, it usually hovers between 600 and 1,200 CD4 cells per cubic millimetre of blood. It is a horrific predicament and cruelly paradoxical, given that she emigrated disease-free from Kenya, where AIDS is endemic. Although it is impossible to know precisely how much transmission occurs on Canadian soil, one researcher estimates as many as one-third of infected people in Ontario from Africa and the Caribbean actually contract HIV here. "People from HIV-endemic regions are the fastest-growing group in terms of prevalence," said Robert Remis, a University of Toronto professor who leads the Ontario HIV Epidemiologic Monitoring Unit. "They [provincial and federal authorities] have been slow to recognize this as an important public health issue." Prevalence of HIV in Ontario among people from Africa and the Caribbean increased by 82 per cent in the five years from 1999 to 2004. About 15 per cent of Ontario's 24,250 HIV-infected persons are now among people from these countries - the second-largest group after gay men. Nationally, the figure is about 12 per cent, although people from HIV-endemic countries account for just 2 per cent of the population.