The Medical page

10/06/2018

10/06/2018

Which medicine would you wish to be converted to this formulation

03/03/2018

KENYAN DOCTORS PERFORM NEUROSURGERY ON WRONG PATIENT

Staff from nurses to the CEO have been suspended at a Nairobi hospital after the wrong patient underwent brain surgery.
One patient needed suAFry for a blood clot on the brain, the other only non-invasive treatment for swelling.
But a horrifying mix-up of identification tags saw the wrong man operated on, reports say.
The doctors did not realise their mistake until "hours into the surgery", the Daily Nation reported.
They then realised "there was no blood clot".
The patient who was operated on is recovering, the hospital says, and an investigation is under way. Regulators have demanded a report and plan to hold a hearing.
Social media users have expressed shock that such an incident could have been allowed to happen.
It comes only six weeks after the health minister ordered an investigation into claims new mothers were sexually assaulted at the same hospital.
Doctors 'overwhelmed'
After the incident which took place last weekend came to light, Kenyatta National Hospital's CEO Lily Koros said the hospital "deeply regrets this event and has done all it can to ensure the safety and well-being of the patient in question".
"We are happy to inform the public that the patient is in recovery and progressing well," Ms Koros added.
She said four staff - the neurosurgeon, ward nurse, theatre receiving nurse and anaesthetist - had been suspended.
"The management has suspended the admission rights of a neurosurgery registrar and issued him with a show-cause letter for apparently operating on the wrong patient," Ms Koros said. A show-cause letter requires a staff member to account for his or her actions.
But the doctor's colleagues have protested against the suspension, reports The Star, arguing the person who put on the identification tag is the one that should be punished.
And hours later Kenyan Health Minister Sicily Kariuki said Ms Koros herself and and a clinical affairs officer were being sent home on compulsory leave

03/01/2018

What's the name of this 'mermaid'- like congenital abnormality?

26/11/2017

A female nurse was charged with a number of offenses after posing as a male doctor so she could receive explicit photos from people. Adele Rennie, 27, a former nurse at the Crosshouse Hospital in Scotland, was charged with 18 crimes including stalking, causing fear and alarm, sexual offenses, data protection breaches and attempting to pervert justice, Yahoo reported.

Rennie perpetuated the ruse over a series of four years, the Sunday Times reported. She reportedly used different names and voice changing phone applications in order to disguise herself as a man on social media websites. She also allegedly pretended she had relatives suffering from illnesses in order to elicit sympathy after being charged.

Rennie friend requested a woman on Facebook in 2012 and introduced herself as Dr. David Crolla, Prosecutor Scott Toal told Kilmarnock Sheriff Court, according to the Scottish Daily Record. She sent another message to the same woman two years later, this time, posing as a Dr. David Graham. Rennie called the woman, who said she had a “strange voice,” according to Toal. At that point, the woman became suspicious of the situation.

Rennie reportedly found another 10 victims on Facebook beginning in 2013, posing again as Dr. David Graham, engaging in sexual conversations. She sent one woman a love letter at her home, although the woman said she did not remember giving out her address, according to Yahoo. Rennie apparently persuaded one victim to send “Dr. Graham” explicit photos. Rennie also messaged a 24-year-old woman who she had did not know well but had met previously the night before in 2014, posing as Graham and “relentlessly pestering” the woman to exchange sexual messages, the Daily Record reported.

“He would tell her what to do and sexual conduct took place over the phone,” Toal said, adding that she would warn, “Just remember, I’ve got your photos.”

Toal said the woman felt “degraded and betrayed” and suffered from “depression and anxiety.”

20/11/2017

Vadoma: The Ostrich People of Zimbabwe Who Have Just Two Toes

The Vadoma people, also known as the Bantwana tribe, which means children/descendants, are a tribe living in the north of Zimbabwe, primarily in the Urungwe and Sipolilo districts on the Zambezi river valley.

There are many in their community, who can't wear shoes due to the shape of their feet. They only have two big toes on each foot.
They don't have middle toes and the two outer ones are turned in. They still can walk but with some difficulty according to the shape, running is also difficult to them. It is said this condition helps them while climbing trees, though. The elders of the Vadoma people claim that their remote ancestors were bird like beings who came from the stars and mixed their DNA with early earth women to produce offspring. The elders state that their ancient ancestors came from the star systems of Sirius and first established colonies on a planet within our solar system that they refer to as Liitolafisi.

A substantial minority of vaDoma has a condition known as ectrodactyly in which the middle three toes are absent and the two outer ones are turned in, resulting in the tribe being known as the "two-toed" or "ostrich-footed" tribe. This is an autosomal dominant condition resulting from a single mutation on chromosome number 7. It is reported that those with the condition are not handicapped and well-integrated into the tribe. While possibly an aid in tree climbing, the condition prevails because of a small genetic pool among the vaDoma and is propagated by the tribal law that forbids members to marry outside the group.

Due to the vaDoma tribe's isolation, they have developed and maintained ectrodactyly, and their comparatively small gene pool has resulted in the condition being much more frequent than elsewhere. The Eastern Shona Kalanga of the Kalahari Desert also have a number of members with ectrodactyly and may be related.

20/11/2017

A Mangbetu woman

The Mangbetu people are from Central Africa - Congo. They believe that an elongated skull with a flattened forehead pleases the gods.
By the early 18th century the Mangbetu had consisted of a number of small clans who were from southward migrations.
In the late 18th century a group of Mangbetu-speaking elites, mainly from the Mabiti clan, assumed control over other Mangbetu clans and many neighboring Bantu-speaking tribes. It is likely that their knowledge of iron and copper forgery, by which they made weapons and fine ornaments, gave them a military and economic advantage over their neighbors
The Mangbetu stood out to European explorers because of their elongated heads. Traditionally, babies' heads were wrapped tightly with cloth in order to give them this distinctive appearance. The practice began dying out in the 1950s with the arrival of more Europeans and westernization. Because of this distinctive look, it is easy to recognize Mangbetu figures in African art.
Many recent studies feature the Mangbetu as a historically cannibalistic people.

19/11/2017

29/10/2017

2 days ago

Indian surgeons separate twins joined at the head

Surgeons in the Indian capital, Delhi, have separated twin boys who were conjoined at the tops of their heads.

Two-year-old Jaga and Kalia underwent 16 hours of surgery, and are now in the intensive care unit, doctors said.

A team of 30 doctors carried out the surgery - the first of its kind in India - at a state-run hospital.

The boys were born with shared blood vessels and brain tissues, a very rare condition that occurs once in about three million births.

The director of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Randeep Guleria, told the Press Trust of India that the "next 18 days would be extremely critical to ascertain the success of the surgery".

The twins, hailing from a village in eastern Orissa state, were joined at the head - a condition known as craniopagus.

Even before the operation they had defeated the odds; craniopagus occurs in one in three million births, and 50% of those affected die within 24 hours, doctors say.

"Both the children have other health issues as well. While Jaga has heart issues, Kalia has kidney problems," neurosurgeon A K Mahapatra said.

"Though initially Jaga was healthier, now his condition has deteriorated. Kalia is better," he added.

Doctors said the most challenging job after the separation was to "provide a skin cover on both sides of the brain for the children as the surgery had left large holes on their heads".
“The skin was generated from the expansion of two balloons which were placed inside their heads during the first surgery in August,”

"If the twins make it, the next step will be reconstructing their skulls," plastic surgeon Maneesh Singhal said.

The first surgery was performed on 28 August when the doctors created a bypass to separate the shared veins that return blood to the heart from the brain.

Plastic surgeons are on their job after they were separated surgically.