A mother from Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, said that bullying nearly killer her 9-year-old autistic boy after he got impaled by a plank of wood with a rusty nail sticking out of it. The ER surgeons successfully removed the foreign object and gave him antibiotics to prevent an infection.

Autistic Boy Was With His Parents When He Got Impaled by Prank

Natasha Smith is a 30-year-old Mansfield mother with a heartbreaking message about the consequences of bullying. The English woman said that Romeo, her 9-year-old autistic son, almost lost his life after being picked on by school bullies.

When he was a tyke, Romeo has been diagnosed with autism. As his mother pointed out, the condition makes Romeo an easy target for his classmates or neighborhood kids who do not understand the condition.

With tears in her eyes, Smith recalls the dreadful day she had to take her son to the hospital. She went, as usual, to pick out her son from school. Given his condition, Romeo is prone to passing fancies, such as stopping in the middle of the road to observe buildings or to look at people.

Natasha, more than familiar with Romeo’s behavior, went ahead, more than certain that the boy will catch up. However, a feeling of dread overcame Natasha when she arrived home and realized that the autistic boy was nowhere in sight.

She asked Craig, Rome’s dad, to go out and search for him. The man found Romeo strung up a tree, with several children around, taunting him with sticks.

Conclusion

After the two took him down from the tree, one of the boys threw a wooden plank toward him before running away. Unfortunately, the wood plank had a rusty nail attached to it which got stuck in Romeo’s head.

The ER physicians managed to remove the plank from Romeo’s head. He was discharged later that day with an antibiotics prescription.

Image source: Pixabay 

Alicia Barber is a 27-year-old mother of two from the United States. Barber’s story recently became viral, as the woman took to social media to raise awareness on Harlequin ichthyosis, a very rare and, in some cases, fatal condition that affects children. Due to his condition, Barber goes to great lengths to care for her one-year-old son.

 Only 1 in 100 Patients Are Diagnosed with Harlequin Ichthyosis

Barber declared that her life took a totally different turn when baby Jamieson was born. During a recent press appearance, the 27-year-old mother told the reporter that her doctor told her about Jamieson’s condition when she was 7-months pregnant.

At that time, the doctor recommended an abortion, explained to Barber that children diagnosed with Harlequin ichthyosis have no more than two percent chances of surviving their first year of life.

However, the woman decided to keep the child, and, against all the odds, Jamieson lived. Still, Barber declared that life with baby Jamieson is no bed of roses.

Harlequin ichthyosis occurs once at 300,000 births. Patients with this condition have scaly skin, and sudden movements can make the skin crack, leaving them vulnerable to infections.

Medical researchers noted that patients are also prone to dehydration and have trouble maintain constant body temperature.

Barber said that as part of her weekly routine, she needs to bathe baby Jamieson in bleach.

More specifically, the woman washes his skin with a Clorox bleach solution and then, using a special mitt, she exfoliates the scaly patches of skin.

The woman said that this is a painstaking process and that she needs to give Jamieson morphine so that he can tolerate the pain.

Conclusion

Unfortunately, Barber had her fair share of criticism after posting a picture of Jamieson on Facebook. She said that most of the people accused her of leaving the baby too long in the sun.

Still, the woman adores her son and, quite recently, she took to social media and other online channels to raise awareness on harlequin ichthyosis.

Image source: Wikipedia

A team of surgeons from the University of Oxford’s Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences reported a great rate success in robot-assisted ophthalmological surgery. During a clinical trial that began in 2016, the team managed to perform microsurgery on the retina using the PRECEYES Surgical System.

Retina Surgery with Robotic Assistant Considered Major Breakthrough

Dr. Robert MacLaren, the study’s leader, declared that the recent success in using robotic during ophthalmological surgeries could pave the way for more theoretical microsurgical techniques.

The clinical trial conducted by MacLaren and his cohort from the Nuffield Department of Neurosciences began in 2016. For the purpose of this novel medical experiment, twelve patients were selected – nine of them required retina membrane removal surgery, while the other three needed treatment for under-retinal hemorrhage.

According to Dr. MacLaren, the type of surgery performed on the nine participants is quite common. However, in microsurgery, nothing is easy, given that the doctor has to operate in a very narrow space while looking through an electron microscope.

The study’s leader explained that in traditional, human-only, surgery, the doctor has to make a small incision to insert a tiny flashlight. After that, the surgeon uses a very fine scalpel to remove the membrane that covers the retina.

As for the robot-assisted variant, the human-operated machine makes a 1 mm incision below the pupil. It will then use the same incision to remove the membrane covering the retina. MacLaren’s team also used PRECEYES to tackle under-retinal hemorrhages.

Conclusion

Of course, all the surgeries were considered successful. Based on MacLaren’s notes, the robot-assisted retina surgery took a little longer to complete compared to the traditional one. He explained that the surgeons were not used to controlling the robot with a joystick and had to proceed with care.

The encouraging results could pave the way to surgeries otherwise considered impossible.

Image source: Pixabay

 

Researchers assumed some vitamins might help you stay away from cancer, and a recent study confirms this. They have identified a correlation between a lower risk of colorectal cancer and a high concentration of vitamin D.

This disease occupies the third place among the most common cancers in the US, claiming over 50,000 victims in only a year. Therefore, a possible way to ward off the disease could be a huge achievement.

 

More Vitamin D Might Mean Fewer Risks of Colorectal Cancer

 

Researchers got interesting results as they compared colorectal cancer incidences with levels of vitamin D. They then calculated an optimal amount of the vitamin necessary to keep the cancer away.

This way, they saw this amount is bigger than the one indicated by medical guidelines. Usually, these guidelines only look at healthy bones, ignoring other possible benefits of the vitamin.

People who had fewer vitamin D than necessary for bone health were exposed to other risks. Five and a half years after they started the study, these people had 31 percent chances to develop colorectal cancer. In contrast, those who had vitamin D levels over the guidelines had a risk of only 22 percent.

 

There Have Been Many Debates on this Vitamin

 

However, we should take these results with a grain of salt. The study was observational and identified a correlation between vitamin D and colorectal cancer. Therefore, there is no cause and effect here. The smaller cancer chances might have a different cause, while other factors might influence these vitamin D levels.

However, the study still addresses an important issue. Researchers are still debating what vitamin D levels are optimal and how people should get them.

In previous studies, researchers followed different methods to measure the vitamin in the blood, so the results were really different. This might have caused previous results to be irrelevant for the colorectal cancer correlation.

This observational study was published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

 

Image Source: Health.mil

Thinking about where to go on vacation? Well, if you’re up for a challenge, you could take up the St. Louis University’s offer. As unusual as it sounds, a team of SLU students will pay anyone willing to get sick. More specifically, if you want to earn $3,500, you’ll have to get exposed to influenza.

Hotel Influenza Set Up to Test New Vaccines

Dr. Daniel Hoft, a teacher at St. Louis University, recently declared that his team’s ‘Hotel Influenza’ project just got greenlighted. And now, he’s expecting volunteers. Here’s what you need to know about SLU’s clinical trial.

As Dr. Hoft pointed out, setting up a vaccine study is a costly and lengthy endeavor. Clinical trials such as Hotel Influenza are a better way to gather information at a faster rate, without having to punch a hole in the wallet.

For the purpose of the project, Hoft and his SLU team booked a 24-room hotel. The establishment has been outfitted with everything one needs to study disease.

Participants willing to enroll in SLU’s “human challenge” will need to spend the next ten days in the hotel. There are perks to saying ‘yes.’

For instance, each participant will have his own room, access to a private bathroom, and, of course, tons of comfort food. Apart from that, when they’re not probed by the SLU team, they’ll be able to kick it back in the hotel’s lounge, reading, watching TV, or surfing on the web.

Conclusion

At the beginning of the trial, each participant will receive a placebo or flu shot. After that, they’ll be infected with influenza via a nasal spray.

Of course, they’ll receive around-the-clock care from SLU’s crackerjack nursing team.

In the end, the participant will leave the hotel disease-free and with a $3,500 cheque in the pocket.

Image source: FreeStockPhotos

On the topic of ‘odd,’ here’s the story of a man from Florida who ended up in the hospital last week because a cockroach borrowed itself in his right ear, refusing to come out. The man even claimed to hear the critter dying in his ear.

Florida Cockroach Man Said His Home’s Infested

Meet Black Collins, a 25-year-old Tallahassee resident with quite a story to share.

Some time ago, Collins moved into a new apartment with his husband and dog. However, their new house left much to be desired.

According to Collins, saying that his home has a bug problem would be an understatement. The Florida man revealed that there were so many cockroaches inside the apartment, that he could actually see them crawling out at night from a light socket and underneath the mattress.

In a recent Facebook post, Collins complained about having to spend most of the night picking up dead roaches from the floor, while his husband was trying to get some sleep after his surgery.

Things took a turn for the worst when a nasty critter decided to pay Collins a night visit. As the man recalls, he was in bed, fast asleep, when he felt something crawl up his ear. He described the experience as having a Q-tip shoved inside your ear.

He immediately woke up, got dressed, and drove to the hospital. Collins said that a doctor poured lidocaine in his ear to kill the cockroach. He said that the whole thing was painless but very strange as he could hear the cockroach’s ordeal.

Conclusion

Collins told a member of the press that he heard the cockroach dying. He said that the last thing he heard before the doctor went in to remove the critter was a muffled squeal and then silence.

Image source: Wikipedia

First, there was the ice bucket challenge and the Tide Pod Challenge. And now, another fad hops on the Internet challenges carrousel. Called the Deodorant Challenge, the latest thing to make teenagers go gag-gaga has already made its first victim in the United Kingdom, as a deeply concerned mother reveals.

Deodorant Challenged Sends UK Teen to Hospital for Surgery

Jamie Prescott, a Bristol resident and the mother of a 15-year-old daughter, recently posted a warning on her Facebook page.

As Prescott reveals, the role of her post is to raise awareness on an emerging Internet trend called the deodorant challenge.

The Bristol mom accompanied her post with graphical images depicted her daughter’s wounds.

According to the woman, this new fad involves emptying a can of deodorant on someone’s arm or leg.

It might sound silly, but the consequences of this action are far-reaching, as the University of Utah’s Health blog reveals.

The purpose of this challenge is to hold on as long as you can while someone sprays deodorant on you.

Normally, this wouldn’t be much of an issue, but prolonged exposure to aerosol deodorant can land you in the emergency room first-, second-, and third-degree burns.

University of Utah dermatologist David Smith declared that the pressurized gas inside a can of deodorant could severely damage the skin. Moreover, exposure to aerosol deodorant can actually freeze the skin, producing frostbite-like wounds.

Conclusion

Following her exploit, the Bristol teen is now forced to go almost every day to the local hospital for surgery. More than that, according to Prescott’s post, the child might require skin grafts.

Smith argued that the so-called deodorant challenge isn’t that new, the first cases being reported in 2015.

Prescott ended her post by saying that her daughter’s arm wounds haven’t healed even after three weeks of treatment.

Image source: Flickr

Surgeons from Connecticut’s Danbury Hospital established a new medical record, after removing a massive ovarian cyst which completely covered a woman’s digestive track. The surgery, which took five hours to complete, was deemed a success. Patient received a clean bill of health and was allowed to return home.

Ovarian Cyst Grew in Two Months, Surgeons Declared

Last week, the Danbury Hospital admitted a 38-year-old with a distended abdomen. A close examination revealed that the patient had a massive ovarian cyst, a benign tumor, which completely covered her digestive tract.

Dr. Vaagn Andikyan, the surgeon who performed the operation, declared that the female patient was severely malnourished as the tumor made it impossible for her to gain weight. Still, given the fact that the ovarian cyst weighed 130 pounds, the woman had to use a wheelchair to go around the house.

The lab analysis revealed that the tumor sprouted approximately two months ago and continued to grow at a rate of 10 pounds per week. When the patient was admitted, she also complained of severe pain in the lower abdomen.

During a press interview, Dr. Andikyan confessed that this was the biggest ovarian cyst he ever saw in his entire career. Before the woman was admitted to the hospital, the doctor never saw tumors bigger than 25 pounds.

The patient was rushed into the OR where Andikyan and a team of two dozen doctors, nurses, and OR technicians worked side-by-side to remove the massive formation. Five hours into the surgery, the doctors were not only able to remove the gargantuan ovarian cyst but also to reconstruct the woman’s abdomen and to save the other ovary.

Conclusion

According to Dr. Andikyan, the surgery was uneventful. As for the patient, the woman who preferred to keep her anonymity is expected to make a complete recovery. She was discharged from the hospital a few days after the surgery.

Image source: Mountain Home Air Force Base

Once a revered figure who opposed and criticized the Nazi regime’s master-race obsession, Hans Asperger was found to actively support the national-socialist party’s methods of ‘sanitizing’ the population.

Newly-found document shows that Hans Asperger, the psychologist who identified the syndrome named after him, sent ‘mentally-unfit’ children to a Vienna where they were systematically murdered in the name of an abominable ideal.

Hans Asperger Considered One of the Founders of Modern Child Psychology

In a recent paper, Herwig Czech, a medical historian and member of Vienna’s Medical University, states that Hans Asperger, the child psychologist whose World War II studies broadened our understanding of autism, was ‘just another cog’ in the Nazi regime’s murder machine.

The paper, which was recently published in the Molecular Autism journal, shines a different light on Asperger’s personality and academical career.

Widely known as a champion in the fight against Nazi eugenics, new documents, including Asperger’s journal and case files reveal that the man who vehemently refused to join the party sent thousands of ‘mentally unfit’ children to the infamous Am Spiegelgrund clinic in Vienna, where they would perish.

As Hitler’s offensive move forward, a different type of warfare ravaged the Fatherland – the quest for race purity, an ideal that will ultimately lead to millions of people being slaughtered in death camps and clinics such as Am Spiegelgrund.

Czech’s research reveals that the revered scientists would perform a ‘selection’ of children who might be a burden to the society and, thus, unfit for the master-race.

Conclusion

Some 5,000 children diagnosed with mental conditions were shipped to the Vienna-based clinic where the medical staff would employ various methods to euthanize them. Czech’s paper reveals that the preferred method was administering a sedative overdose, patients being declared dead within a couple of days. In most cases, pneumonia was the cause of death.

Image source: Wikipedia