Ethic Soup

Three-year-old Cancer Patient Auctions His Art To Pay Hospital Bills

Liam Myrick of St. Louis is just three years old and he has a tumor on his kidney, a stage four neuroblastoma.

A VULNERABLE PRESCHOOLER

He's undergoing excruciating chemotherapy. About a week ago, Liam had a bone marrow stem cell transplant and must stay in his room at the St. Louis Childrens' Hospital and visitors must wear masks, so as not to infect the vulnerable preschooler.

Liam began painting artwork as part of his therapy. His mother, Shawna, said  that when Liam started painting "he didn't care about the fact that in a couple hours they're going to come in, poke around and it's going to hurt. He just lives for the moment," reported News 13 of Orlando, FL.

EXPENSIVE MEDICAL CARE

His parents are already facing more than $500,000 in bills for his hospital care.

So, to celebrate Liam and his art, the Myricks are auctioning his paintings on Facebook to help defray the costs of his medical expenses.

Kids Smoke More When They See Other Kids Smoking Say Researchers

Young people who smoke daily light up more cigarettes if they see other young people smoking. Surprise!

NEW RESEARCH ?

Most of us have known this fact for years. That's why parents don't want their kids to associate with kids who smoke. They are a bad influence. Afterall, most kids desperately want to be just like their peers. Being different is awful for them.

Yet, Zeena Harakeh, a social scientist from Utrecht University, Netherlands, recently researched the subject of what encourages young smokers to light a cigarette. Surprisingly, she came up with an unexpected finding.

WANNA CIGARETTE OR WATCH ME ?

Dr. Harakeh investigated what encourages smokers aged 16 to 24 to light up. You would think, intuitively, that young people would smoke more when they are offered a cigarette. But, you'd be wrong. They actually smoke more when in company of a smoking peer, even when no one offers them a cigarette.

Gossip Should Be Guilt-Free: It Can Be Healthy and Boost Positive Hormones

Let's hear it for a good 'chinwag' and a bit of 'tittle-tattle'! That's what the Brits call 'gossip.' 

New research finds that gossip actually has some surprising health benefits.

More than senseless bad-mouthing, gossip can provide social cohesion and enhance feelings of well-being, reports the The Daily Telegraph (UK).

"Gossip isn't scandal and it's not merely malicious," said Pulitzer Prize Poet Phyllis McGinley. "It's chatter about the human race by lovers of the same."

Similarly, broadcast journalist Barbara Walters offered: "Show me someone who never gossips and I'll show you someone who isn't interested in people."

NTSB Calls for National Ban on Cell Phones and Text Massaging While Driving

Today, the National Transportation Safety Board recommended a full ban on the use of cellphones and text messaging devices while driving because it's simply too dangerous. Hallelujah! It's about time!

In the last 10 years, the NTSB has sought to limit the use of portable electronic devices while driving, including bans for beginning drivers, commercial truckers and school bus drivers.

SAFETY-CRITICAL EVENTS

In a study of commercial drivers, the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute found a "safety-critical event" is 163 times more likely if a driver is texting, e-mailing or accessing the Internet, reports CNN.

But, the newest recommendation would ban non-emergency phone calls and texting by drivers of every vehicle on the nation's roads and highways -- disallowing both hands-free as well as hand-held devices.

Follow-Up: Another Face Burned in Surgical Fire

          Tommy Beams, Washington State,latest burn victim of surgical fire 

 

It was just a few days after a similar horrible surgical fire in Florida, that a man undergoing routine surgery in a Grays Harbor Community Hospital, Washington state, had a fire erupt on his face  -- while he was unconscious and under anesthesia. Tommy Beams (pictured above)was burned on his face and head. 

Beam was undergoing a one-hour procedure to remove a bump on his head when he said his oxygen mask caught fire. He was rushed to Harborview Medical Center after the accident last Thursday.

"The physical pain is tremendous," Beam told the Baltimore Sun. "My lips, my face ... on fire."

Woman's Face Catches On Fire: Surgical Fires Are Under-Reported

                Photo courtesy of the ECRI Institute.

SURGICAL FIRES happen too often -- 550 to 650 fires every year, estimates the ECRI Institute, a nonprofit health services research agency. Actually, fires in hospital surgical suites occur much more frequently in reality.

Incidents of surgical fires are "significantly under-reported," according to The Joint Commission, which accredits and certifies more than 19,000 health care organizations and programs in the U.S.

HEAT, FUEL & OXYGEN

In the fire triangle -- heat, fuel and oxygen -- all three elements often come together in the surgery room, yielding disturbing consequences. "... surgical fires are certainly one of the most frightening and devastating experiences for everyone involved," says The Joint Commission. 

More than half of surgical fires happen inside a patient's airway or on the patient's upper body; around 10 percent of surgical fires actually happen within the body cavity; and a quarter of surgical fires happen on other parts of the body, reports MSNBC.

 

FAA Chief Babbitt Resigns: Good Riddance

  

      Randy Babbitt                                          Michael Huerta

   The Guy Who's Out                                The Guy Who's Now In

 

The Ethic Soup post yesterday was about FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt, 65, being put on a leave of absence by Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, following charges against Babbitt for driving while intoxicated -- on the wrong side of the road -- at night.

He was arrested and released, pending a February court appearance. Luckily, Randy Babbitt was stopped before he could kill someone.

Today's follow-up post is that Babbitt is out and Deputy Administrator Michael Huerta is in as FAA acting administrator.

 

Pox Parties and Chickenpox Lollipops: Dangerous Substitutes for Vaccinations

"Chickenpox" Copyright by EthicSoup.com

 

SOME PARENTS act as if they've never heard the old admonition "Don't take candy from a stranger." They're giving their kids pre-licked lollipops, infected with chickenpox and mailed to them by strangers they met on the Internet. Yikes!

Before there was a chickenpox vaccine, prior to 1995, parents sent their kids to 'pox parties,'  where moms would arrange play dates with infected children. Hopefully, the kids would catch varicella, the herpes virus that causes chicken pox, and develop immunity.

WANNA CHICKENPOX LOLLIPOP?

Now some parents are going to social media sites, like Facebook, and using the Internet to expose their kids to the disease. How? They pay other parents for lollipops infected with the chickenpox virus. For example, infected lollipops were recently advertised at $50, overnight delivery from Nashville, reports the New York Times.

Wow! At $50 a pop, I can see a kid sick with chicken pox, her hands in mittens so she won't scratch and leave terrible scars. She's in bed, next to a big box from which her Mom retrieves sucker-after-sucker, saying "Now lick this one, Honey."

 

Elderly in Emergency Room Get Less Pain Relief

 

The elderly who go to a hospital emergency room in pain are less likely to get medication for it than younger people in similar distress, reported in the Annals of Emergency Medicine.

An analysis of a seven-year national study of E.R. patient data concluded that of patients over 75 years old, who were in pain, only 49 percent were given pain medication -- compared to more than 65 percent of those under 75. The study involved information on more than 88,000 E.R. visits. The analysis did not include elderly people who were cognitively impaired or unable to report pain.

WHERE'S THE PAIN RELIEF?

There were no clear findings for the patient-age differences of the elderly receiving pain medication; however, researchers think one possible reason may be that emergency room personnel are concerned about adverse effects of pain medications for the elderly. Another explanation could be that E.R. personnel pay more attention to diagnosis in older patients and less attention to pain relief.

Hippocratic Oath: Old Classic Version vs New Modern Version

HIPPOCRATIC OATH

Classical Version

I swear by Apollo Physician and Asclepius and Hygieia and Panaceia and all the gods and goddesses, making them my witnesses, that I will fulfill according to my ability and judgment this oath and this covenant:

To hold him who has taught me this art as equal to my parents and to live my life in partnership with him, and if he is in need of money to give him a share of mine, and to regard his offspring as equal to my brothers in male lineage and to teach them this art -- if they desire to learn it -- without fee and covenant; to give a share of precepts and oral instruction and all the other learning to my sons and to the sons of him who has instructed me and to pupils who have signed the covenant and have taken an oath according to the medical law, but no one else.

I will apply dietetic measures for the benefit of the sick according to my ability and judgment; I will keep them from harm and injustice.

I will neither give a deadly drug to anybody who asked for it, nor will I make a suggestion to this effect. Similarly I will not give to a woman an abortive remedy. In purity and holiness I will guard my life and my art.

I will not use the knife,not even on sufferers from stone, but will withdraw in favor of such men as are engaged in this work.

Whatever houses I may visit, I will come for the benefit of the sick, remaining free of all intentional injustice, of all mischief and in particular of sexual relations with both female and male persons, be they free or slaves.

What I may see or hear in the course of the treatment or even outside of the treatment in regard to the life of men, which on no account one must spread abroad, I will keep to myself, holding such things shameful to be spoken about.

If I fulfill this oath and do not violate it, may it be granted to me to enjoy life and art, being honored with fame among all men for all time to come; if I transgress it and swear falsely, may the opposite of all this be my lot.

-- Translation from the Greek by Ludwig Edelstein. From "The Hippocratic Oath: Text, Translation, and Interpretation," by Ludwig Edelstein. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1943.

 

HIPPOCRATIC OATH 

Modern Version

I swear to fulfill, to the best of my ability and judgment, this covenant:

I will respect the hard-won scientific gains of those physicians in whose steps I walk, and gladly share such knowledge as is mine with those who are to follow.

I will apply, for the benefit of the sick, all measures (that) are required, avoiding those twin traps of overtreatment and therapeutic nihilism.

I will remember that there is art to medicine as well as science, and that warmth, sympathy, and understanding may outweigh the surgeon's knife or the chemist's drug.

I will not be ashamed to say "I know not," nor will I fail to call in my colleagues when the skills of another are needed for a patient's recovery.

I will respect the privacy of my patients, for their problems are not disclosed to me that the world may know. Most especially must I tread with care in matters of life and death. If it is given me to save a life, all thanks. But it may also be within my power to take a life; this awesome responsibility must be faced with great humbleness and awareness of my own frailty. Above all, I must not play at God.

I will remember that I do not treat a fever chart, a cancerous growth, but a sick human being, whose illness my affect the person's family and economic stability. My responsibility includes these related problems, if I am to care adequately for the sick.

I will prevent  disease whenever I can, for prevention is preferable to cure.

I will remember that I remain a member of society, with special obligations to all my fellow human beings, those wound of mind and body as well as the infirm.

If I do not violate this oath, may I enjoy life and art, respected while I live and remembered with affection thereafter. May I always act so as to preserve the finest traditions of my calling and may I long experience the joy of healing those who seek my help.

 -- Written by Louis Lasagna, Academic Dean of the School of Medicine at Tufts University, in 1964, and used today in many medical schools.