After nearly a decade of setbacks and false starts, stem-cell science finally seems to be hitting its stride. Just a year after Japanese scientists first reported that they had generated stem cells by reprogramming adult skin cells — without using embryos — American researchers have managed to use that groundbreaking technique to achieve another scientific milestone. They created the first nerve cells from reprogrammed stem cells — an important demonstration of the potential power of stem-cell-based treatments to cure disease. Read more…
According to ALICE PARK
NEW YORK) — A Filipino teenager who came to New York so doctors could perform surgery to untwist her severely clubbed feet took her first unaided steps Wednesday in pink-and-white sneakers — the first shoes she’s ever worn.
“I’m very happy,” Jingle Luis said with a smile. “It was exciting.”
The 15-year-old girl arrived at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx in May with her mother for surgery and follow-up treatment.
She had never been able to walk on her own because she was born with feet so clubbed they twisted backward and upside down, forcing her to hobble on the tops of her feet with the help of crutches. Read more…
According to VERENA DOBNIK
San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) May 15, 2008 — ELDR magazine and ELDR.com today released the results of a national survey of adults on the “right to die” issue or what some call “physician-assisted suicide.” The survey showed that over 80 percent believe the choice to end one’s life is a personal decision, with two-thirds of adults saying they want physician-assisted “death with dignity” legal, as in Oregon.
The ELDR Magazine “Right To Die” National Survey, conducted by Knowledge Networks and statistically projectable to the U.S. adult population, also revealed that only half of adults over 60 have a living will or advance health care directive. These legal documents specify what a person’s wishes are if, for example, they are in a persistent vegetative state. Such a document could have prevented the prolonged and agonizing situation the family of Florida woman Terri Schiavo endured.
 A painful or prolonged death is something everyone worries about  |
The survey is in conjunction with ELDR’s Summer issue cover article, “Perfect Ending,” which tells the story and reflections of a physician who had clandestinely given patients, who were terminally ill and in great physical pain, the means to end their lives. The physician profiled is not identified.
“A painful or prolonged death is something everyone worries about,” said Dave Bunnell, editor-in-chief of ELDR. “Yet too few of us plan ahead to be prepared for this possibility. Our survey is telling people if they act now, they can be in charge. You don’t have to leave this entirely to fate.”
The ELDR survey comes as Washington state proponents gather signatures for a voter initiative which, if successful, would make that state the second after Oregon to legalize physician-assisted “death with dignity.” 225,000 valid voter signatures need to be presented to Washington state officials by July 3 for the I-1000 initiative to appear on the November 2008 ballot.
Other results from the ELDR Magazine “Right To Die” National Survey include:
Complete survey results can be found at http://www.eldr.com.
The human body never ceases to amaze me! This is impossible:
Doctors say they have never seen anything like it: A window washer who fell 47 stories from the roof of a Manhattan skyscraper is now awake, talking to his family and expected to walk again.
Alcides Moreno, 37, plummeted almost 500 feet in a December 7 scaffolding collapse that killed his brother.
Somehow, Moreno lived, and doctors at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center announced Thursday that his recovery has been astonishing.
He has movement in all his limbs. He is breathing on his own. And on Christmas Day, he opened his mouth and spoke for the first time since the accident.
His wife, Rosario Moreno, cried as she thanked the doctors and nurses who kept him alive.
“Thank God for the miracle that we had,” she said. “He keeps telling me that it just wasn’t his time.”
Dr. Herbert Pardes, the hospital’s president, described Moreno’s condition when he arrived for treatment as “a complete disaster.”
Both legs and his right arm and wrist were broken in several places. He had severe injuries to his chest, his abdomen and his spinal column. His brain was bleeding. Everything was bleeding, it seemed.
In those first critical hours, doctors pumped 24 units of donated blood into his body — about twice his entire blood volume.
Read more.
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