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VICTORVILLE — Sheriff's deputies arrested a physician after he lost patience with a patient's husband, punched him and threw a chair at him, sheriff's officials announced Wednesday. The victim received first aid from the injuries at the physicians office, officials said. Sukalpa John Dutta, 36, was booked into jail on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon, according to San Bernardino County sheriff's officials from the Victorville station. San Bernardino County sheriff's deputies came to the 12600 block of Hesperia Road at 4:37 p.m. after receiving a report of the attack. Deputies said the victim was with his wife whose...

CYPRESS -- Things are getting ugly at Southern California gas pumps, and we're not just talking about the record prices. Some drivers are turning to violence. A doctor from La Palma was arrested Monday night after police say he grabbed a tire iron and threatened a driver who cut him off at a Costco gasoline station in Orange County. According to witnesses, Dr. Antonio Reyes, 58, was among a crowd of motorists waiting in line at the pumps at the Costco on Katella Ave. around 5:40 p.m. when another vehicle cut in front of him. Apparently angry about being cut...

Bo (woof) In Commentary: So I had to go the vet the other day for an embarrassing situation. Here’s exactly what happened… “So what’s the problem, Bo?” the vet asked. “I’ve been farting a lot. I mean I fart all the time,” I tell her. She just nods, encouraging me to talk some more. So I continue, “Luckily, my farts don’t stink and you can’t hear them. It’s just that I can’t stop it. Look, we’ve been talking here for about 10 minutes and I’ve farted five times. You didn’t hear them and you didn’t smell them, did you?” She...

We just got back from the graduation ceremony for the 2008 class from USU (The Uniform Services University {for health sciences}). My kid is now a M.D. The same kid that lost her lunchboxes, forgot books needed for homework, and kept a half full Thermos of rotten milk over Easter vacation. She’s now ready to heal. She has changed immensely, it’s interesting to me when she looks at me with her ‘Doctor Eyes’ when she says “howz it going dad?” Their graduation ceremony was held at the “Daughters of the American Revolution” hall in Washington D.C.. The Marine Corps band...

Doctor Who? Are Patients Making Clinical Decisions? ScienceDaily (Feb. 12, 2008) — Doctors are adjusting their bedside manner as better informed patients make ever-increasing demands and expect to be listened to, and fully involved, in clinical decisions that directly affect their care. In a study just published in Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research, Dr. J. Bohannon Mason of the Orthocarolina Hip and Knee Center in Charlotte, NC, USA, looks at the changes in society, the population and technology that are influencing the way patients view their orthopaedic surgeons. As patients gain knowledge, their attitude to medicine changes: They no longer...

AL MOCHID VILLAGE, Iraq — Dr. Fadil Monhoush Deub al-Zawbori knows the horror of terrorism firsthand. Two years ago the Iraqi physician was the victim of an ambush that nearly cost him his life. Bullets hit him in his left upper chest, he said, showing the scars he will carry to the grave. “It was al-Qaida in Iraq. They wanted me dead,” he said. The doctor has never hidden his disgust for the foreign fighters operating in what was called the Triangle of Death, a rural agricultural area south of Baghdad. “They came into the area and frightened the people...

Incredibly it seems the Dr Hasan Faraj who was an author on the below JAMA paper on the death of anthrax victim Kathy Nguyen was arrested http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/287/7/858 see NYT article here: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9500E2DE123CF935A35752C1A9629C8B63 In a letter submitted to a federal judge yesterday, prosecutors outlined what they said were ties linking a Syrian-born American doctor, who has been charged with lying to obtain American citizenship, to terrorism and suspected members of Al Qaeda. Still, no new charges have been brought against the man, Hassan Faraj, of Brooklyn, and his lawyer belittled the letter as a scare tactic and called the allegations flimsy....

Roman ruins cast new light on a trip to doctor By Anthea Gerrie in Rimini Last Updated: 2:11am GMT 09/12/2007 An ancient doctor's surgery unearthed by Italian archaeologists has cast new light on what a trip to the doctor would have been like in Roman times. Far from crude, the medical implements discovered show that doctors, their surgeries and the ailments they treated have changed surprisingly little in 1,800 years. A physician on a house call kneels to tend the hero Aeneas in this fresco from Pompeii Sore joints were common, patients were often told to change their diets, and...

A doctor convicted of conspiring to treat injured al-Qaida fighters was sentenced Wednesday to 25 years in prison, with the judge reasoning that a sentence to deter others was needed because terrorists cannot carry out their deadly aims without help. U.S. District Judge Loretta A. Preska noted Dr. Rafiq Sabir, 53, showed no remorse after his May conviction for conspiring to provide material support to terrorists by agreeing to treat injured al-Qaida members so they could return to Iraq to battle Americans. The judge said there was "no reason to believe that this defendant has abandoned any criminal intentions." She...

The doctor at the center of a controversial procedure which stunted the growth of a severely disabled girl has committed suicide. Dr. Daniel F. Gunther died from toxic asphyxia from inhaling car exhaust, said Greg Hewett of the King County Medical Examiner's Office. His time of death was listed as 9:30 p.m. on Sept. 30. The 49-year-old was a pediatric endocrinologist at Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center in Seattle and an associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Washington. In 2004, Gunther and his colleague Dr. Douglas S. Diekema performed a hysterectomy, removed the breast tissue and started...

POLICE were called in to probe an al-Qaeda outburst by a doctor during a Muslim prayer meeting at an NHS hospital. Psychiatrist Eltigani Adam Hammad, 60, crowed about British and US deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan. But he is still in his £70,000-a-year job with Rotherham Doncaster and South Humber Mental Health NHS Trust. Details of his tirade emerged after the arrests of two Muslim doctors over alleged plots to blow up Glasgow Airport and a nightclub in London’s Haymarket. Iraqi doctor Bilal Abdullah Jordanian and hospital specialist Mohammed Jamil Asha have been charged with conspiring to cause explosions. Dr...

Gregory C. Kapordelis, authorities contend, is the personification of the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde character. In public, Kapordelis was a respected anesthesiologist from Gainesville, a commerce club member and a volunteer at youth summer camps. In private, the U.S. Attorney's Office said, he was a "monster" who drugged, molested and photographed young boys left in his care and downloaded onto his home computers more than 10,000 sexually explicit images of children. The 46-year-old doctor was sentenced Tuesday to 35 years in federal prison for producing, receiving and possessing child pornography. U.S. Attorney David Nahmias said he was "heartened" by...

New Jersey Supreme Court: Doctors Not Required to say Abortion Kills a Child By Hilary White TRENTON, New Jersey, September 13, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Doctors in New Jersey are not required to inform women seeking abortion, that it will "kill not just a potential life, but an actual existing human being", the state's highest court ruled unanimously yesterday. The case was important to the ongoing attempts to install legal protections to the unborn in the US. For decades the arguments of the abortion lobby has been that a child in the womb is not fully a human being, but only...

BRISBANE — An Australian court on Tuesday overturned a government decision to cancel the visa of an Indian doctor who was charged over failed car bombings in Britain, Australian media reported. In a setback for the government, the Federal Court in Brisbane restored Mohamed Haneef's visa, opening the way for him to return to Australia. Haneef's lawyer Peter Russo said the court ruling had restored his client's life and career, and urged Immigation Minister Kevin Andrews not to appeal the decision. "I would hope the minister will accept the court's decision with good grace and clear the way for Dr...

The blue-masked man bends forward in his rolling chair, back stiff, eyes pressed to microscope. On his surgical table lies a woman wrapped in blue like a package, except for naked right eye, lid peeled back, pupil widely dilated, bathed in light. He is busy with two slender instruments. One obliterates a lens, opaque as butter. The other suctions out milky debris. He slips a tube into the same incision and deposits a folded thing that spreads like the wing of a moth. The folded thing becomes a clear lens. It all takes five minutes. The woman sees again. The...

NEW ORLEANS, July 25, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A New Orleans grand jury decided Tuesday not to indict Dr. Anna Pou, a doctor who was accused of murdering four patients during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Pou had been charged by Louisiana's attorney general on 10 counts, including second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit second-degree murder. Earlier this year two nurses who had admitted to administering lethal doses of medication to patients at the same medical center were offered immunity in return for their testimony before the grand jury. Pou and the others have consistently claimed that while they did administer...

Couple Receives over $21 Million Dollars for "Wrongful Birth" of Handicapped Son Florida Right to Life says, "now we're holding doctors responsible to deliver a perfect baby" By Elizabeth O'Brien TAMPA, Florida, July 24, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A judge has awarded over $21 million dollars to a couple for the "wrongful birth" of their second handicapped son. The couple would have aborted the child if they had known about his disability, the Tampa Bay Tribune reports. Daniel and Amara Estrada have two sons who are both physically handicapped with the same genetic disorder, Smith-Lemli-Opitz, which does not allow them to...

Greetings All! An 84 year old woman asked me to review a video for a medication her Doctor wants to prescribe. Without naming brands or medical conditions, the treatment involves a daily self administered injection from a spring loaded syringe that contains something like a month's worth of doses which must be metered out through what seems to me to be a overly complicated manipulation of the syringe through a sequence of 12-14 steps every day. To me this almost screams lawsuit to ask an elderly patient to learn and repeat this complicated sequence for a medication that must...

AUSTIN -- An influx of doctors lured to Texas by new limits on malpractice lawsuits has overwhelmed the state board that screens candidates for medical licenses, creating a backlog that forces many applicants to wait months before they can start seeing patients. Officials said many of the relocating physicians are filling shortages in areas such as Beaumont, where trauma patients previously had to be flown other cities because there weren't enough surgeons to treat them.

THE arrest of seven doctors in the attempted British terror bombings has shocked many people. Sadly, it shouldn't. All seven are Muslims working at government-financed hospitals, their salaries paid by the British taxpayer. Dr. Muhammad Hanif practiced at Halton Hospital in Runcorn, Cheshire; Dr. Muhammad Asha, at the North Staffordshire NHS Trust's University Hospital. So can doctors be terrorists? Can people who are financially well-off be terrorists? Absolutely. It is ideology, after all, that turns people into terrorists - not suffering. Indeed, the No. 2 leader of al Qaeda is Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri - who was previously a stalwart of...

WASHINGTON -- On July 4, President George W. Bush told the troops and families of the 167th Airlift Wing in Martinsburg, W.V. that, "Our first Independence Day celebration took place in the midst of a war -- a bloody and difficult struggle that would not end for six more years before America finally secured her freedom." He went on to urge "more patience, more courage, more sacrifice," in order to achieve victory in Iraq. If we were to quit Iraq before the job is done, the president explained, "the terrorists would follow us here," and he reminded his critics, "These...

Indian Doctor Arrested in U.K. Terror Plot Manhunt Authorities Arrested Muhammad Haneef in Australia July 3, 2007 — The investigation into the failed British terror plot is widening. The latest arrest came Monday in Australia, where authorities captured 27-year-old Muhammad Haneef as he was trying to board a flight at Brisbane Airport. Haneef is of Indian descent and is on staff at an Australian hospital. He had previously worked in Liverpool, England. He's been taken into custody and questioning is underway. The police are being assisted in their investigation by the landlord at an apartment where Haneef lived, who called...

London, England (LifeNews.com) -- Doctors in England have voted to make abortions there easier to get by making it so women don't need to get the signatures of two physicians before an abortion can be done. The move comes just after the government's health department released new figures showing abortions at a record high.Doctors attending the British Medical Association conference voted by a 67 to 33 percent margin to change the requirement from two physicians to one.It will make it easier for women to say their pregnancy is jeopardizing their medical or physical health and obtain an abortion, although research...

Orlando, FL (LifeNews.com) -- A national group for Christian doctors and dentists will hold its annual meeting in Orlando this week and there they will discuss a number of key pro-life issues. The Christian Medical & Dental Associations feature 16,000 members from across the country who take solid pro-life positions when it comes to abortion and bioethics topics.Ruth Graham, daughter of Ruth and Billy Graham, British minister Rev. Rico Tice, and top doctors and scholars will address the participants. The conference features workshops on such issues as conscience rights for medical professions to opt out of doing abortions or participating...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A federal jury convicted a Florida-based doctor on Monday of supporting al Qaeda by swearing allegiance to the group and attempting to help treat wounded fighters. Rafiq Sabir, 52, was found guilty of conspiracy to provide material support to al Qaeda and providing or attempting to provide material support or resources and faces a maximum of 30 years in prison when he is sentenced September 12. Sabir read the Koran before the jury came back to announce its verdict, and he showed no emotion as the verdict was read. "We are deeply disappointed in the verdict....

NEW YORK --A Florida doctor was convicted Monday of providing material support to terrorists by agreeing to treat injured al-Qaida fighters so they could return to Iraq to battle Americans. Dr. Rafiq Abdus Sabir, 52, was convicted in federal court in Manhattan after a three-week trial that featured testimony by him and Ali Soufan, an FBI agent who posed as an al-Qaida recruiter in a sting operation that led to four arrests. When the verdict was read, Sabir looked straight ahead. Later, as he was escorted from the courtroom, he waved to supporters, who said, "Stay strong." His lawyer, Ed...

ALBANY, Ore.- These guys weren't exactly Snap, Crackle and Pop. What began as a faint popping in a 9-year-old boy's ear—"like Rice Krispies"—ended up as an earache, and the doctor's diagnosis was that a pair of spiders made a home in the ear. "They were walking on my eardrums," Jesse Courtney said. One of the spiders was still alive after the doctor flushed the fourth-grader's left ear canal. His mother, Diane Courtney, said her son insisted he kept hearing a faint popping in his ear—"like Rice Krispies." Dr. David Irvine said it looked like the boy had something in his...

?How are you, Grant?? a nurse asks him. ?Nervous?? ?No.? They have known each other for nine years, this boy and this doctor. It began when the boy, Grant Vacca, was born with a rare syndrome that disfigured his face. Through the years, plastic surgeon Virender Singhal has performed three surgeries to correct the condition. Now on this damp Monday morning, Singhal, 51, prepares to perform a fourth operation. He will remove tumors in Grant?s eye sockets to bring his eyes closer together. Build a bridge for his nose. Smooth and lower his forehead. He anticipates one more operation when...

PERIGUEUX, France - A French court convicted a doctor Thursday in the poisoning death of a terminally ill cancer patient, in a trial that has raised the issue of euthanasia in France's presidential race. The court in southwestern Perigueux gave Dr. Laurence Tramois a one-year suspended prison sentence in the Aug. 25, 2003 death of Paulette Druais in the nearby town of Saint-Astier. Euthanasia is illegal in France. But as the trial opened earlier in the week, the Socialist Party said its presidential candidate, Segolene Royal, will push for a law to allow euthanasia under certain conditions if she is...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States is heading toward a major shortage of cancer doctors by 2020 as the population ages and the medical profession struggles to replace retiring oncologists, researchers said on Tuesday. The study predicted a shortfall of 2,550 to 4,080 oncologists by 2020. The overall U.S. population and, most significantly, the proportion of older people are growing, along with the number of people who have survived a bout with cancer, the researchers noted. The number of oncologists is growing at a slower rate. There were 10,400 in 2005, and the study projected a total of about 12,500...

Dr. Alexander Dlugi had sued student Lauren Ellis for loss of income and pain and suffering that was the result of a bike/skate collision between the two in 2003 when Ellis was only 11 years old. After closing arguments were heard, the Morris County civil jury deliberated for only 15 minutes today and ruled in favor of the teenager. The jury agreed that Ellis was not responsible or at fault for the accident that happened on Sugar Maple Row that October day. The physician -- who earned $800,000 in 2004 and got $750,000 for half the sale of his former...

CONROE — A cardiologist has been temporarily stripped of his medical license after allegedly prescribing drugs — mostly painkillers and tranquilizers — for nonmedical reasons, resulting in the death of a patient, according to state records released Tuesday. In its ruling, the Texas Medical Board characterized Dr. Steven Farber as “a continuing threat to the public welfare.” Farber's attorney, Louis Leichter, of Austin, said his client will likely request to meet with another panel to work out an agreement that would allow him to return to practice under certain conditions. Farber, who practices in Conroe, is well-known in the community...

WASHINGTON, Jan 24 (Reuters) - The U.S. military's chief medical officer for Iraq was among a group of 12 high-ranking soldiers killed on Saturday in a helicopter crash outside Baghdad, the Pentagon said on Wednesday. Col. Brian Allgood, 46, was an orthopedic surgeon serving as command surgeon in Iraq. He and 11 other officers, mostly combat support personnel, were on what defense officials said was likely an "orientation flight" ahead of the arrival of other soldiers. Defense officials, however, declined discuss the group's specific mission at the time of the crash. Army officials also declined to say why a dozen...

Police are searching for a Dublin doctor who they say sexually battered two men at his home and took hundreds of photographs of 19 patients who were unconscious and undressed at his medical clinic. Dr. Tony G. Shiu, who ran a private practice in Dublin, is being sought on a $1 million warrant. He disappeared after the warrant was issued early last month, and police believe he has left the Bay Area. The doctor allegedly drugged two men at his Dublin residence in Augustand then raped one of them, Dublin police Sgt. Herb Walters said. A search of his home...

CAMP TAJI – From battle wounds to bruises, military doctors are out in the local neighborhoods making a difference—one Iraqi at a time. As the Iraqi police provided security, Soldiers from the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, along with an Iraqi doctor and an Iraqi nurse, conducted a medical operation in Mushada community north of Baghdad. During the operation, medical staff saw more than 300 residents for a variety of ailments, and gave locals free pharmaceuticals to help curb whatever ailments the patients were experiencing. “This is the first MedOp I’ve been on since I’ve been stationed at...

SAN JOSE One of two anesthesiologists who bowed out of participating in the February lethal injection of a condemned inmate, prompting a stay of execution, testified Thursday that he didn't want to be "painted as an executioner." Dr. Robert Singler of Queen of the Valley Hospital in Napa volunteered to monitor the execution of Michael Morales, but later declined after learning he may have to participate rather than solely monitor the prisoner's consciousness. Singler testified during the federal court hearing, looking at whether California's lethal injection method is unconstitutionally cruel, that he had agreed only to stand by the inmate...

September 13, 2006 Memorial of Saint John Chrysostom, bishop and doctor of the Church Psalm: Wednesday 38 Reading 11 Cor 7:25-31 Brothers and sisters:In regard to virgins, I have no commandment from the Lord,but I give my opinion as one who by the Lord’s mercy is trustworthy.So this is what I think best because of the present distress:that it is a good thing for a person to remain as he is.Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek a separation.Are you free of a wife? Then do not look for a wife.If you marry, however, you do not sin,nor...

Freeper Maria Bush's husband is in the hospital. He requires tranfusions.

INDIANAPOLIS -- An Indianapolis oral surgeon died and three other people were hospitalized with injuries after a small plane that the surgeon was piloting crashed into a retention pond on the city's west side Monday morning, officials said. Dr. Robert Edesess was piloting the plane when it crashed into a pond at a housing subdivision near 21st Street and Raceway Road at about 10:40 a.m., officials said. The plane had just taken off from the Eagle Creek Airport en route to Hilton Head Island, S.C., said Gene Konzen, chief of the Wayne Township Fire Department. A bystander jumped into the...

August 28, 2006 Memorial of Saint Augustine, bishop and doctor of the Church Psalm: Monday 36 Reading 12 Thes 1:1-5, 11-12 Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy to the Church of the Thessaloniansin God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:grace to you and peace from God our Fatherand the Lord Jesus Christ. We ought to thank God always for you, brothers and sisters,as is fitting, because your faith flourishes ever more,and the love of every one of you for one another grows ever greater.Accordingly, we ourselves boast of you in the churches of Godregarding your endurance and faith in all your...

July 15, 2006 Memorial of Saint Bonaventure, bishop and doctor of the Church Psalm: Saturday 29 Reading 1Is 6:1-8 In the year King Uzziah died,I saw the Lord seated on a high and lofty throne,with the train of his garment filling the temple.Seraphim were stationed above; each of them had six wings:with two they veiled their faces,with two they veiled their feet,and with two they hovered aloft. They cried one to the other,“Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts!All the earth is filled with his glory!”At the sound of that cry, the frame of the door shookand the house...

HOUSTON - Andrea Yates believed that cartoon characters told her she was a bad mother who fed her children too much candy, a jail psychiatrist testified Thursday. Dr. Melissa R. Ferguson, who talked to Yates the day after her arrest in the bathtub drownings of her five children, said the defendant suffered from a major depressive disorder and was psychotic, picking at her lip until it bled. Ferguson was the first defense witness in the second murder trial for Yates, who has pleaded innocent by reason of insanity. She is being retried because her 2002 conviction was overturned last year...

Young German doctors leaving the country By KIRSTEN GRIESHABER, Associated Press Writer Fri Jun 23, 11:57 AM ET Anesthesiologist Christian Favoccia had no trouble deciding to ditch his job at the university hospital in Duesseldorf for a new one at a clinic in Amsterdam. By leaving home, the 36-year-old specialist will make almost three times as much money, work shorter hours and have better chances at promotion. "At this point I honestly can't tell you if I will ever come back to Germany," Favoccia said. "I am skeptical that they'll be able to offer me the same kind of incentives...

SOMERVILLE, Mass. -- A Somerville physician is sending letters to his patients letting them know he's living as a transsexual. Doctor Roy Berkowitz-Shelton says he's taking a three-week vacation and will return as Doctor Deborah Bershel. The 52-year-old family physician has worked in Davis Square for 18 years and hopes to continue serving patients as a woman. The executive director of the state board of registration in medicine says the change won't affect the doctor's standing.

A Carmichael plastic surgeon was being held on sex and weapons charges Wednesday after police found an armor-penetrating rocket launcher, machine guns and dozens of other weapons in his sprawling ranch home. Dr. Scott Takasugi, known by neighbors for his lavish Halloween parties, dapper clothes and luxury car collection, was being investigated for sexual exploitation of patients when the cache was found. Click here for more... Federal and military investigators worked until dawn Wednesday assessing and hauling out weapons. Among them were a live a shoulder-fired battlefield weapon called a "LAW Rocket," along with machine guns, guns equipped with laser...

A very sick 78-year-old doctor is dying in a Michigan prison, an anachronism left over from the 20th century. Should we let him die in prison, or do we have the decency to say, "Enough is enough. Release him and let him die at home"? The doctor is Jack Kevorkian, who was sentenced in 1999 to 10 to 25 years in Michigan's Lakeland Correctional Facility for Men. He traded his freedom for openly, shamelessly touting what he called our "right to die with dignity." He'd spent the 10 prior years brashly, illegally helping 130 terminally ill people end excruciatingly painful...

May 2, 2006 Memorial of Saint Athanasius, bishop and doctor of the Church Psalm: Tuesday 19 Reading 1Acts 7:51—8:1a Stephen said to the people, the elders, and the scribes:“You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears,you always oppose the Holy Spirit;you are just like your ancestors.Which of the prophets did your ancestors not persecute?They put to death those who foretold the coming of the righteous one,whose betrayers and murderers you have now become.You received the law as transmitted by angels,but you did not observe it.” When they heard this, they were infuriated,and they ground their teeth at him.But Stephen, filled...

April 29, 2006 Memorial of Saint Catherine of Siena, virgin and doctor of the Church Psalm: Saturday 18 Reading 1Acts 6:1-7 As the number of disciples continued to grow,the Hellenists complained against the Hebrewsbecause their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution.So the Twelve called together the community of the disciples and said,“It is not right for us to neglect the word of God to serve at table.Brothers, select from among you seven reputable men,filled with the Spirit and wisdom,whom we shall appoint to this task,whereas we shall devote ourselves to prayerand to the ministry of the word.”The proposal...

Tongiht's Sci-Fi Listing: 9/8 Dr Who Father's Day: While visiting her past, Rose prevents her father's death... thereby unleashing a horror upon Earth.

First, lets describe the health care problems we have in Pennsylvania. Perhaps the most alarming fact is that Pennsylvania is losing 1,500 doctors each year due to the skyrocketing cost of malpractice insurance premiums. One local family doctor, who had never been sued, related how his premium went from $75,000 per year to $150,000 per year in one jump. His premium would be $12,000 if his practice were in Virginia. The next issue is the closure of hospitals. In the 166th District, our only hospital - Mercy Haverford - closed its doors in 2002, and has not reopened.